Abstract:

Violence against women, despite the measures taken for its prevention in time, is an ongoing important problem encountered in almost every period and in many places. Court records and archive documents point out striking examples with regard to the fact that the Ottoman society experienced this problem as well. In the classical period, a woman exposed to any kind of violence was able to separate from her husband by means of conditional divorce or divorce through payment, and ensure that her husband was punished, by filing a complaint to the kadi. On the other hand, if the husband did not have any will, she could not demand a divorce from the kadi on the grounds of violence. The Ottoman laws started to provide this opportunity for women as of 1916, and considered economic violence at first and then ill-treatment and incompatibility as the reasons that enabled women to get rid of marriage

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