Questions regarding dowry in quran
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Not having a chance at life or reproduction due to events out of her control is different from knowingly marrying a woman who is infertile, atm your explanation is heavily centered around that being the only reason for ujur so in a case like the above...the ujur would not be applicable.
There is also a difference in couples agreeing to whatever terms on their own and what is said in the quran. Like you say here
I see that there are women quite ready to give up that right on her part. That is their business, but that does not deduct even a little bit of the duty imposed on husbands by God to give those ujur. It is the God given right of women and it is the God imposed duty of men.
How can that duty be imposed on someone who is marrying a woman who cannot reproduce if that's the explanation for ujur? -
There are many mortagages imposed on women irrespective of them being fertile or not, like finding difficulty in employment because of perceived possibility of their being pregnant or becoming pregnant and being tied by children.
On the other hand if it is not that what is the reason? Not household chores, since they are not a prefixed duty of hers. And even if it were we know that where there are plenty of domestic service, wealthy women or wives of wealthy men do not need to do them and they are not exempted of paying ujur on that count. So what would be the reason then if not the liability of the woman on the reproduction aspect. Be she fertile or not, reproduction for her is a liability.
Salaam
And very few people know absolutely that they are not fertile. There is always the possibility or the hope that they might be fertile and in the Qur'an there instances of that.
A married women, from an emloyer point of view is a possible liability, not so a married man. Why would it be?
Salaam
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I agree there are lots of issues in women's lives but tying ujur into the reproductive capacity of woman seems odd and would raise issues imo. I'm sure the rate of infertility is low but even so, cases like women having hysterectomies do exist and are more prevalent these days; the more we know about cervical cancer etc/medical advances...saving a woman but losing the capacity to procreate.
The issues you raise re difficulty in employment etc are things that should be classified under discrimination/bias/prejudice and the appropriate authorities should deal with them, like maternity leave in workplaces and so on and so forth. If we take the quran as universally applicable, then it would be even in a case where the society is ideal for women.
A man would be well within his rights to ask the woman to get medically examined with a certificate of 'yay i can have babies, ujar nao pls'. Besides, some I think it is paid upfront, in which case if she can't have any, a man can take it back? There is additional in 656 it seems like? Like you say, an independently wealthy woman wouldn't need the ujar even if they do get pregnant and have babies and raise them all by themselves, not working even.
I don't know what else it could be, but we get closer to the ballpark with what it couldn't be at times.
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peace