According to traditional Islamic discourses, a wife is obliged to obey her husband and her failure to do so constitutes nushūz. Nushūz is treated in works of jurisprudence (fiqh) and Qurʾānic exegesis (tafsīr) as a wife's disobedience, rebelliousness, or sexual refusal. Condemning nushūz, Muslim authorities stress wives' duties of obedience (ṭāʿa) and sexual …