What is the ruling on a wife’s claim that her husband has pronounced zihar against her?

The questioner : The questioner says: My mother is married, and her husband has purified her, but my mother is married. And her husband has deceived her, but he…

The Shaykh : Her husband coerced her.

The questioner : And she is his wife, but he denied that. After she asked him to fast for two months, and this wife fed sixty poor people, but after that…

The Shaykh : After what?

The questioner : After he held firm, some of them said: May Allah destroy you and your father, or your husband if Allah is pleased with you, or your wife if Allah is pleased.

The Shaykh : Yes, a wife’s claim against her husband that he has pronounced zihar against her is not accepted. Because if we accepted her claim, we would accept it without proof. And if we accepted a wife’s claim that her husband has pronounced zihar against her, then every woman who does not want her husband to approach her would claim that he has pronounced zihar against her so that he would refrain from her before the expiation. But if she knows with certainty that he has pronounced zihar against her, she should refrain from him as much as possible until he does what Allah has commanded him to do, which is the expiation.