and likewise at night she may go to a neighbour’s house to spin, converse, and the like, provided she return and spend the night in her own lodging. She may leave the residence altogether if she fears that it may collapse or be flooded, if she fears for her own safety, or if the neighbours harm her or threaten her with serious harm. Allah knows best.
If she moves to another dwelling with her husband’s permission and the ʿiddah becomes obligatory before she actually reaches it, she completes the waiting period there, according to the explicit textual ruling. If she moved without his permission, she must observe the ʿiddah in the first house; the same applies when permission had been granted but the ʿiddah commenced before she departed.
Should he authorise her to move to another town—whether to settle there, or to travel for ḥajj or trade—and the ʿiddah starts while she is still on the road, she may either return or continue. If she chooses to continue, she may remain only long enough to take care of her business, after which she must go back and complete the remainder of the waiting period in the designated residence.
If she leaves for a place other than the usual house and he divorces her, then says, “I did not permit you to go out,” he is believed under oath. If she claims, “You moved me,” but he replies, “I merely allowed you to leave for a need,” he is believed according to the preferred view.
A Bedouin woman’s tent of hair-cloth is treated like the house of a towns-woman. When the dwelling belongs to the husband and is suitable for her, that very house becomes fixed for her ʿiddah; he may not sell it, except in the case of a woman whose waiting period is reckoned by months, and the same ruling applies to a leased house—though another opinion deems any such sale invalid altogether. If the residence is on loan, she must stay in it; but if the lender reclaims it and will not accept rent, she is moved elsewhere. The same principle applies to rented property whose term has expired: she remains in it while the rent is demanded.
If the marital home was luxurious, he may transfer her to a dwelling appropriate to her status; if it was inferior, she may refuse the move. He has no right to live with her or to enter upon her. If, however, the house already contains a discerning male who is her mahram, or a female who is his mahram, or another wife of his, or a slave-girl, or an unrelated woman, that is permissible. If one of them occupies one room of the house and the other another room, then when the amenities—such as kitchen and lavatory—are shared, the presence of a mahram is required; otherwise, it is not. It is advisable that the door between the two quarters be kept locked and that neither party’s passageway run through the other’s space. A lower and an upper storey are treated like separate house and room alike.