The Texas Supreme Court has ruled that Hira Azhar can pursue a divorce and division of marital property in Texas, reversing earlier decisions that recognised her husband’s Pakistani divorce. The ruling matters because the justices found that the way she was notified did not meet constitutional standards and that a foreign judgment obtained in those circumstances should not automatically be recognised in Texas.

Azhar and Mohammad Ali Choudhri married in Pakistan in 2008, and she moved to Houston in 2010. While she was in Pakistan renewing her visa in 2013, Choudhri arranged a Sharia divorce without telling her; notice appeared for five days in a small newspaper, and she says she learned of the divorce two years later. Her lawyers said she received $50 despite the couple having accumulated about $100 million in assets. After Texas courts initially dismissed her petition, the Supreme Court sent the case back for further proceedings; it did not decide how the marital property should be divided.