A Comparative Analysis of Women’s Inheritance Rights: Legal Frameworks and Social Realities

Abstract

This paper reviews the legal systems of Islamic and non-Islamic countries with a historical and theological foundation and contemporary issues with a specific focus on the framework regarding the successful innovations of women in the 7th centur. The  gender (injustice) at that era and ever since, was constructed greatly at the Sharia standards by incorporating the Qur’anic reforms, and advancing gender justice by attributing women with a guaranteed fixed share of Inheritance. It is the first time in history that a legal instrument attached value to a woman. Regardless of the achievements in the area of Inheritance, the reality in most countries is that cultural limitations and modest contemporary interpretations of Islamic law still prevail and restrict the legal access to property, a reflection of a deeper social gender bias. Islamic law, for the first time in history, and outside the cultural context of despair, apportioned value to women. In modern times, the Islamic apolitical legal systems in Sharia-based countries have an entirely negative, even reactionary, perspective about the role and contribution of women. Unlike many other legal systems that rest upon the structure of the society, the Islamic apolitical legal systems pay even less attention to the social and cultural barriers that limit the social mobility of women, notwithstanding the so-called gender neutral succession laws that equally apply to men and women. This is an important starting point of the paper. The issues of legal barriers that women specifically face, such as patriarchal customs, the impact of legal loopholes, weak legal structures, and politically motivated legal systems that preserve women at the periphery of the positive financing principles, are the primary focus of the paper. The Sharia framework of the Ijtihad, as well as the Human Rights laws of the International Community, such as CEDAW, along with SDG 5, stand as examples of critical support for the concept of women apportioning value. The findings call for an inclusive multi-folded approach that balances religion and modern justice principles for value. Women’s active participation in the lineage possesses the right of Inheritance and constitutional economic decision-making from the perspective of positive financing, which is multi-fold and deeply appreciated.