An amendment penalising anyone preventing a woman from receiving her inheritance could be challenged by tradition, writes Reem Leila While inheritance and property must have a named owner, tradition, especially in Upper Egypt, assumes it would be managed by the bloodline patriarch and used for the benefit of the entire family. The father or brother is put in charge and is responsible for taking care of family finances, and hence all family property remains in male hands. The belief is that when women inherit, property intended for the support of one family may end up in the hands of another. This custom is thus depriving women from their right to own or manage any financial or land inheritance. But today, this norm is being challenged with demands for greater autonomy for women. The National Council for Women (NCW) is preparing an amendment to the current inheritance Law 77/1943, by adding a penalty against anyone who deprives or prevents a female from taking her inheritance. The price to pay would be at least one year in prison and a fine not less than LE1,000 and not more than LE10,000. NCW Secretary-General Farkhonda Hassan asserted that while laws are based on Islamic Sharia (jurisprudence), they are considerate of women's rights today. Rural life, however, mirrors traditional values, including the almost universal practice of female genital mutilation, early marriage for females and denying women their inheritance under the pretence of protecting their money from being overtaken by their husbands. "What is worse, is that there are many women who are not aware of their rights, while others do not have the courage to ask for their rights," revealed Hassan. "Accordingly, there was a dire need to forcibly change these concepts by the law." The amendments by the NCW's legislative committee will be finalised in the coming few months, and will be presented to the People's Assembly in its upcoming session in November. "We have to rethink the inheritance law because more than 30 per cent of the families in Egypt are supported by the mother," argued Hassan. "If the woman who is the provider for the family, why is she blocked from her right to inherit?" She revealed that an oral agreement between the NCW and Ministry of Awqaf (Religious Endowments) to increase people's awareness on women's inheritance through several campaigns was unsuccessful. "Social class, religious background, political views, rural/urban location and family are the decisive factors in determining women's fate in Egypt," stated Hassan. While there are no official figures showing the percentage of women being deprived or prevented from taking their inheritance, it is prevalent in Upper Egypt and many other rural regions. Fawzeya Abdel-Sattar, professor of law at Cairo University, believes women are short-changed, literally, because of their ignorance of their legal rights and fanaticism. "In many parts of the country, people abide by tribal rules, custom and tradition, rather than the law," stated Abdel-Sattar. This, despite the fact that inheritance in Egypt is organised according to Islamic Sharia, which dictates that women inherit half as much as men. Islamic philosophy professor Zeinab Radwan, however, told Al-Ahram Weekly that the truth is often very different. Islamic beliefs regarding inheritance, as stipulated in the Quran, prohibit anyone from depriving a woman of accessing her inheritance, Radwan asserted. While some use the inheritance system as evidence that Islam discriminates against women, careful examination reveals that Islam asserts the value of equality but its interpretation has been erroneously biased, she added. "While women inherit half the share of men in some cases, in others they inherit an equal share, and sometimes even double the share of men or more," according to this scholar. "Indeed, there are instances when women are entitled to inherit while men are not." Such variety arises from the distinction which Islam makes between several categories of heirs. Jurists of the Hanafi School divide heirs into seven categories, of which the first three are the principal classes. First degree (or Class I) heirs, who are mostly women, inherit first and receive a precise fraction of the estate. The remainder, usually the bulk of the inheritance, reverts to the male relatives. Once these shares are subtracted, the estate passes to the Class II agnatic heirs, or male relations on the male line. What's left is distributed among the uterine heirs, which include every relative who has not received a share yet. Occasionally, explained Radwan, the inheritance rights of the first degree heirs use up the entire estate and nothing is left for the others. Of the 12 first degree heirs described in the Quran, eight of them are female and only four are male. They are the wife, mother, daughter, grandmother, son's daughter, full sister, paternal half-sister and maternal half-sister. The males are the husband, father, grandfather and maternal half-brother. This shows that Islam not only ordains inheritance for women, but that the number of entitled Class I female relatives is twice as many as the males in that category. Islam also extended protection to kin through the maternal line, by making the maternal half- brother a Class I heir, added Radwan. Additionally, siblings from the same mother inherit equal shares regardless of gender. There are only four cases in which women inherit half the share of men, namely when the deceased is survived by a son and a daughter. The general rule that dictates the distribution of an estate is the heir's relation to the deceased: the closer the relation, the larger the heir's share of the estate. For example, a daughter inherits more than a paternal uncle; she receives half the inheritance if she is the only daughter, but if there are more than one daughter, their share in the estate is two thirds. A wife inherits one eighth, while a mother inherits one sixth. The rest of the estate, no matter how small, passes to the paternal uncle or uncles. There are, however, exceptions to this rule of proximity. A maternal grandmother inherits the same share as the father of the deceased, although she is not as closely related, while a maternal half-sister inherits a share equal to that of a full brother. Both exceptions, noted Radwan, are in favour of women. "Islam gave women the right to inherit, so how can man deny them their rights?" she insisted.
