An Anthropological Perspective of Female share in Inheritance: An Appraisal of Gender Gap between Islamic Law and Practice

Abstract

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In many developing countries, the people cannot enjoy their basic human rights. Majority of women are refused their rights to admittance, own, or inherit land and property. As a result, they cannot afford to buy land. This deprivation makes them dependent on good marital and family relations. The right to inheritance is a legal and very legitimate right of every person, which has been given by Islam to women in very explicit words but unfortunately the custom of Pakistan is different regarding giving female legal right of inheritance. The chief objective of this research is to find out the causes of depriving women of their right to inheritance. For the accomplishment of the objectives of research, quantitative research method has been adopted. A survey was conducted in four public sector universities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The questionnaire was used as a research tool. Including highly educated faculty and students were selected for the collection of Data. These data were later analyzed to draw the results of the research. The research covers two main aspects. Firstly, the awareness level of the educated class about their rights and prevailing laws; and secondly, the major societal causes of depriving women of their inheritance right. Findings of the survey indicates that women are deprived of their religious right of inheritance even in the highly educated sector due to financial, social and cultural issues. Inheritance law is one of the key leavers for the sustainable development of the society which provides social justice and wellbeing for the family. Therefore, the inheritance law needs be implemented through public awareness regarding the Islamic Shania and state laws.
Keywords: Inheritance, Islamic Law, Gender, Culture, Property rights, Sustainable development