WOMEN AGENCY, RELIGION AND LAW: CHALLENGES OF INHERITANCE RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN
Main Article Content
Abstract
Pakistan being an Islamic country follows Muslim personal laws, which allow women to inherit property, however, the conventional tribal customs in South Asia made women face a lot of difficulties and they normally do not get or are obliged to sacrifice their legal property. This ethnographic study aims to explore people's perceptions and socio-religious practices about women's inheritance rights and the challenges faced by women while inheriting their property. The current study was conducted in Shah Allah Ditta village, E11 Islamabad, Pakistan. Participant observation and in-depth interviews were the main data collection tools. The total number of participants is 18 women from diverse age groups, marital status, and socio-economic backgrounds selected by using a purposive sampling technique. The findings of the current study reveal that Pakistan, as an Islamic republic does not provide full rights to women while inheriting their property rights. In some cases of inheriting property, women have to end their terms with their father's family. Moreover, sometimes women’s inheritance rights are denied and dowry is named as the inheritance wealth, however, some women are forced to do Watta-Satta marriages or within their families to save the property from going outside the family. Some women who are unable to exercise their inheritance rights face violence in their married lives.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
References
Abbasi, O. (2014, Novemver 26). Know your rights: inheritance rights. The Express Tribune. https://tribune.com.pk/story/797069/know-your-rights-inheritance-rights/
Abraham, M. F. (1990). A modern sociological theory: An introduction to Concepts and Theories. Oxford University Press.
Agarwal, B. (2008, February 05). Women, poverty and agricultural growth in India. The Journal of Peasant Studies, 13(4), 168-171.
Ahmad, N. (2010). Land rights for Pakistani (Muslim) women: Law and policy. Policy brief series, 23.
Ahmad, E., Bibi, A., & Mahmood, T. (2012). Attitudes towards women's rights to inheritance in District Lakki Marwat, Pakistan. The Pakistan Development Review, 197-217.
Ahmed, M., Batool, M., & Dziegielewski, S. F. (2016). state of Inheritance-Rights: Women in a Rural District in Pakistan. Journal of Social Service Research, 42(5), 4-7.
Beitz, C. R. (1999). International liberalism and distributive justice: a survey of recent thought. World Politics, 51(2), 269-296.
Dascalopoulos, S. C. (1990). The Notion of Female Property:A comparative study of property relationships in the Dodecanese and the northern Peloponnese. The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 23(30-31).
Engels, F. (1884). The origin of the family, private property and the state (1st ed.). New York, Australia: International Publishers.
Eppich, W. J., Gormley, G. J., & Teunissen, P. W. (2019). In-depth interviews. Healthcare Simulation Research: A Practical Guide, 85-91.
Gedzi, V. S. (2012). Women's Property Relations After Intestate Succession PNDC LAW 111 In Ghana. Journal of Research on Humanity and Social Sciences, 2(9), 214-301.
Ghori, D. S. (2018, December 08). Women inheritance rights: rhetoric or resurgence?Daily Times.https://dailytimes.com.pk/330689/women-inheritance-rights-rhetoric-or-resurgence-i/#:~:text=1).,denying%20women%20their%20due%20right.
Haque, M. F., Solihin, S. M., Ahmad, N., & Jani, M. S. (2020). Women Rights to inheritance in Muslim Family Law: an analytical study. International Journal of Islamic Business & Management, 4(1), 15-26.
Holden, L., & Chaudhary, A. (2013). Daughters’ inheritance, legal pluralism, and governance in Pakistan. The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law, 45(1), 104-123.
Jacoby, H. G., & Mansuri, G. (2010). Watta Satta: Bride Exchange and Women’s Welfare in Rural Pakistan. American Economic Review, 100(4), 1804–1825.
Kawulich, B. B. (2005, May). Participant observation as a data collection method. In Forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: Qualitative social research (Vol. 6, No. 2).
Leach, E. (1982). Social Anthropology (1st ed.). Newyork: Oxford University Press.
Lopez, V., & Whitehead, D. (2013). Sampling data and data collection in qualitative research. Nursing & midwifery research: Methods and appraisal for evidence-based practice, 123, 140.
Muhammad, N. (2011). Inheritance in property: a gender based discriminatory practice in rural areas of Tangi, district Charsadda. Sarhad J. Agric, 27(1), 143-146.
Nussbaum, M. C. (2000). Women and Human Development: The capabilities approach. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
Parveen, S. (2007, September). Gender Awareness of Rural Women in Bangladesh. Journal of International Women's Studies, 9(1), 253-259.
Rehman, S. (2010). Denial of women’s rights of inheritance: Enhancing their vulnerability and domestic & societal violence. Awaz Foundation Pakistan: Centre for Development Services.
Roy, S. (2015). Empowering women? Inheritance rights, female education and dowry payments in India. Journal of Development Economics, 114, 233–251.
Rubab, I., & Usman, A. (2018). Women’s Right of Inheritance: Choices and Challenges in Punjab. Journal of Islamic thought and civilization, 8(2), 100-105.
Scalise, E. (2009). Women’s Inheritance Rights to Land and Property in South Asia: A Study of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Rural Development Institute (RDI).Sheppard, M. (2006). Social Work and Social Exclusion: The Idea of Practice. Ashgate Publishing.
Tahir, M. (2019, May 29). Property Inheritance Rights of Women in Pakistan. Graana Blog. https://www.graana.com/blog/property-rights-of-women-in-pakistan/
Thompson, M. J. (2015). Constructing Marxist ethics: critique, normativity, praxis (Vol. 74). Brill.
Zermina, M. (2018, september 20). Inheritance Rights: high time women claim share in the pie. Pakistan Today. https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/
Zaman, S. (2014). Forced Marriages and Inheritance Deprivation. Aurat Publication and Information Service Foundation, Pakistan, 95.