Her husband’s death plunged 60-year-old Moroccan widow Meriam into deep crisis. talking with moroccan magazine egalite mag In February, she said that it was not just the grief of her loss that made her feel unsafe.
“I find myself alone facing his family, treated like the enemy, even though I have lived this life with them for 30 years,” she said, asking that her last name not be published for fear of retribution from her late husband’s family.
Maryam’s husband had decided to ensure her future by buying an apartment in her name. But Soon after his death, his relatives claimed in court that the property belonged to them, according to Tasib, one of the Sharia-based inheritance rules. Under Taseeb, in cases where a deceased person leaves daughters but no sons, male relatives inherit the greater share of the property along with the daughters and the widow.
Ultimately, a Moroccan court ruled in Meriam’s favor. Her husband had legally and indisputably transferred the apartment to her during his lifetime, which is permitted under Islamic inheritance law.
Merriam said, “It’s the only thing I have left, and I rent it out for a modest income.” He said all other assets – a car, bank accounts – are tied up in inheritance disputes.
“We regularly see cases where the husband dies and the wife has to move out of the couple’s marital home because the property must be divided among the heirs,” said Dorthe Engelke of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Private Law in Hamburg.
“If widows were allowed to continue living in their marital homes, that would be an incredibly significant change,” he told DW. He further said, “This will greatly contribute to the social stability of the surviving wives.”
‘Many women are deprived of their entire inheritance’
While governments in the Middle East and North Africa have expanded women’s rights in areas such as domestic violence protection, family law, and legal autonomy, inheritance reform remains one of the region’s most sensitive issues, according to rights advocates and legal scholars.
“Typically, sons continue to receive twice the share of inheritance as daughters because – the logic is – unlike daughters, sons are expected to help provide for their families economically,” said Elham Maniya, an assistant professor at the University of Zurich and author of the 2011 book “The Arab State and Women’s Rights: The Trap of Authoritarian Governance.”
“In practice, however, this perception increasingly does not reflect social reality,” he told DW. She added, “Many women are deprived of their entire inheritance, while receiving little or no economic support from male relatives.”
Maneya said another argument against changes to inheritance laws is that if women inherited land on equal terms with men, property could effectively pass out of the family through marriage. “Regardless of its empirical validity, this concern has historically played a significant role in shaping resistance to reform.”
In his view, another deeply rooted reason is that the perceived lack of legitimacy of many Arab regimes has led rulers to rely on alliances with conservative tribal, religious or Islamic actors as part of broader strategies of political survival.
“As a result, progress has been slow, not because reform is impossible, but because it is tied to questions of regime stability, political legitimacy, and state-society relations,” he said. “Family law is not just a legal issue; it is a deeply political issue.”
Amel Hammami, a Warsaw-based Tunisian law expert and Middle East observer, highlighted two different sets of rules in the Quran. “Religious rules govern the relationship between Allah and people and include devotions such as prayer, pilgrimage and fasting,” he said. “These rules are immutable and unchangeable.”
However, another set of rules governs relationships between people, such as inheritance law, family law and punishment, Hammami said. In his view, modifying the inheritance law does not contradict the Quran, but is consistent with Islam’s goals of justice and human liberation.
Progress is slowly being made on women’s rights across the Middle East
Meanwhile, other laws that discriminate against women are increasingly being questioned or already subject to change.
Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Morocco have all implemented reforms expanding women’s legal autonomy, although the scope and impact of those changes varies widely from country to country.
Saudi Arabia, in particular, has sharply cut back its male guardianship system since 2019. In Tunisia, men and women are legally recognized as equal citizens, and both are legally responsible for their families’ expenses.
In Syria, Rafif Jouejati, vice president of the Syrian Liberal Party, intends to push for reform of the inheritance law, he told DW in December.
And in Egypt, reform of the family law framework, including divorce and custody, is currently under discussion.
In Morocco, women’s rights activists are pushing for changes as part of an ongoing reform of the Family Code, a process initiated by King Mohammed VI in his July 2022 Throne Day speech in which he emphasized strengthening women’s rights.
According to Moroccan media reports, a proposal would prevent the marital home from being divided among heirs after the death of a spouse.
hope for the next generation
“There are good reasons to expect continued pressure for change,” Maniya said. “The younger generations are generally more educated, and women’s groups and movements across the region have become increasingly organized and vocal in demanding legal reform and greater equality.”
However, the efforts of women’s rights activists alone are unlikely to lead to legal change, she said.
“The future of reform will depend not only on legal but also on advocacy as well as the ability to build against social support and reshape public understanding of justice, rights and gender relations,” Manya said.
Amel Hammami agrees. “It is no longer a question of why women should have equal inheritance rights,” she said. “The question is: Why shouldn’t women have equal inheritance rights?”