The parties were married on 23 December 2006. For the first 10 months of the marriage they had lived with the defendant's parents, before moving to the plaintiff's parents' home. They also had one child, who was seven years of age at the time of the proceeding.
After moving in with the plaintiff's parents, however, the marriage had begun to deteriorate. This was a result of:
- economic difficulties, leading to frequent quarrelling; and
- the defendant discovering from the plaintiff's mobile phone that she had had an extra-marital affair.
Attempts on the part of the parties' families to make them reconcile had proven unsuccessful, and the parties had lived separately for the four months leading up to the proceeding, during which time their had been no physical intimacy between the parties, and the defendant had provided the plaintiff with no financial support. The plaintiff, believing that the marriage was beyond repair, sought a judicial divorce from the court.
The court acknowledged that the purpose of marriage, as contained in the Qur'an, Surat Al Rum, verse 21, as well as art 1 of Law No. 1 of 1974, and art 3 of the Compilation of Islamic Laws, being a peaceful, hopeful and loving home, was no longer feasible. Therefore, pursuant to the elucidation of art 39(2) of Law No. 1 of 1974, art 19(f) of Government Regulation No. 9 of 1975, and art 116(f) of the Compilation of Islamic Laws, the court acceded to the plaintiff's application for an irrevocable divorce (talak satu ba'in sughro) on the grounds of ongoing conflict.