ZIHAR

In pre-Islamic times the Arabs practiced a form of divorce which amounted to the husband's reciting the formula, 'You are to me as my mother's back (zahr)', a practice referred to as zihar. Although Islam forbids zihar (cf. Qur'an 33:4, 58:2), if a man should recite this formula to his wife--or an equivalent formula, by substituting a reference to any other female forbidden to him-sexual intercourse with his wife is forbidden to him. Z ihar's conditions are the same as those of divorce; hence in Shi'ism two witnesses must hear the formula recited.