Inheritance rights of women

Women's inheritance rights remain a problem area for the government and, more importantly, for women. Despite favourable laws, religious edicts and positive efforts by recent governments, far too many women are deprived of their rights by greedy male relatives hiding behind 'culture' and 'traditions'.

And while enforcement of laws has led to a decrease in the number of cases of women being denied their inheritance outright, there are still many cases of men using workarounds to deprive their female relatives through practices such as chaddar or parchi, where jirgas conspire to force women to take less valuable assets as their share of inheritance. Further complicating matters is that such cases — where some form of inheritance share was given — require more investigation, placing a strain on the already overstretched officials looking into inheritance complaints.

Indeed, women's inheritance rights is an area where there is near unanimous political will to do the right thing, but logistics and funding priorities often get in the way. As we noted, the law is already there, but legislation means little without enforcement, and enforcement means little without a commitment from all sectors of society to uphold the rights of women.

However, activists and campaigners have been heartened by a recent Federal Shariat Court ruling that includes a strong critique of these traditions, explicitly declaring any effort to deny a woman her inheritance rights to be un-Islamic. At the same time, activists, rights groups and the government must work together to ensure that more women are aware of their inheritance rights and their options for legal recourse if someone is denying or undermining their rights.

Courts must also take stronger action, not only against the men defrauding their female relatives but also against so-called 'elders' and community leaders who so brazenly disrespect women and the rule of law under the guise of abhorrent customs.