Why women's inheritance reform has stalled across Arab world

The death of her husband pushed 60-year-old Moroccan widow Meryem into a deep crisis.  Speaking with  Moroccan magazine Egalite Mag in February, she said it wasn't just the sadness over her loss that has made her feel vulnerable.

"I find myself alone, facing his family, treated like an enemy even though I built this life with him for 30 years," she said, asking that her last name not be published for fear of retaliation from her late husband's family.

Meryem's husband had made a point of providing for her future by purchasing an apartment in her name. But  shortly after his death, his relatives claimed in court that the property belonged to them, according to one of the Sharia-based inheritance rules, taasib. Under taasib, in cases where a deceased man leaves daughters but no sons, male relatives inherit substantial portions of the estate alongside the daughters and widow.

Eventually, a Moroccan court ruled in Meryem's favor. Her husband had legally and indisputably transferred the apartment to her during his lifetime, which is permitted under Islamic inheritance law.

"It's the only thing I have left, and I rent it out for a modest income," said Meryem, adding that all other assets — a car, bank accounts — remain tied up in inheritance disputes.

Over the years, Moroccan women have pushed for legal changes as part of the ongoing family code reform launched by King Mohammed VI [FILE: March 2015] Image: Fadel Senna/AFP

"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 Dörthe Engelcke of the Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Private Law in Hamburg.

"If widows were allowed to continue living in their marital homes, it would be an incredibly significant change," she told DW, adding that "it would contribute greatly to the social stability of the surviving wives."

'Many women are denied their full inheritance'

While governments across 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.

"In general, sons continue to receive twice the inheritance share of daughters because — so the reasoning goes — unlike daughters, sons are expected to provide financially for their families," said Elham Manea, an adjunct 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 assumption increasingly does not reflect social reality ," she told DW, adding that "many women are denied their full inheritance while also receiving little or no economic support from male relatives."

A further argument against changes to inheritance laws is that if women inherited land on equal terms with men, assets may effectively pass outside the family through marriage, said Manea. "Regardless of its empirical validity, this concern has historically played an important role in shaping resistance to reform."

In her 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 Islamist actors as part of broader strategies of political survival.

"As a result, progress has been gradual, not because reform is impossible, but because it is intertwined with questions of regime stability, political legitimacy and state-society relations," she said. "Family law is not merely a legal issue; it is deeply political."

Women's activists are now better organized, but observers warn this won't be enough to push for change Image: Dobiey/Caro/picture alliance

Amel Hammami, a Warsaw-based Tunisian law expert and Mideast observer, highlighted the two different sets of rules in the Quran. "Religious rules govern the relationship between Allah and people, and they cover devotions such as prayer, pilgrimage and fasting," she said. "These rules are irrevocable and immutable."

However, the second set of rules governs relations between people, such as inheritance law, family law and penalties, Hammami said. In her view, modifying inheritance law does not contradict the Quran, rather, it is consistent with Islam's aims of justice and human emancipation.

Progress on women's rights slow across Middle East

Meanwhile, other laws that discriminate against women are increasingly being called into question or have already been  subject to change .

Tunisia , the United Arab Emirates , Jordan , Bahrain , Saudi Arabia and Morocco have all enacted reforms expanding  women's legal autonomy , though the scope and impact of those changes vary widely from country to country.

Saudi Arabia, in particular, has sharply curtailed its male guardianship system since 2019. In Tunisia, men and women are legally recognized as  equa…