Research-Led Advocacy and Strategic Collaborations promoting Equal Rights for Muslim Women

Siraj Sait (LSS)UEL Research Conference

26 June 2013

Research Agenda

• Secular CEDAW/HR Approaches• Abandoning Field to Fundamentalists• Theological – Faith, Agnostic, Secular• UN – Risks/ Developmental Opportunities• UEL-UN research since 2003 (w H Lim)• UEL lead 55 members incl. WB, civil

society, professionals

Continuum of Property Rights

• Women own less than 2% land• Ownership, Access and Control of

Property• Head of Household –Minorities, WHH,

polygamous, displaced • Islamic opportunities, custom

4 key intervention areas

1. Unequal inheritance but equal property rights?

2. Separation of Marital property but increasing joint property regimes?

3. Patrilineal inheritance systems but Muslim matrilineal communities?

4. Daraja (superiority) but economic hierarchy in new urbanising world?

Problem 1: COMPENSATORY SCHEME

• Unequal inheritance share, equal property outcomes?

• Estate Planning – Will (1/3rd), gifts (hiba), dower (mahr), maintenance etc.

• Post- Inheritance Adjustments – • Waiver – due to fear disowned by the

family • Renunciation Tanazul - reform

Compensatory Scheme - Gaps

• Methodology: Life course perspectives – Timelines – Inheritance Systems, not rules

• Parties: pre marriage, marital, post – parents, siblings, spouse, children, relatives, others

• Documents - how to record, quantify, align• Institutions – Judges, Muftis, Mujtahids?• Outcomes – Financial, in kind, religious?

Problem 2: Confronting Islamic Patrilinealism?

Is Islam inevitably patrilineal?

Islamic Usul al fiqh - jurisprudence

(1) Primary heirs – women, and thru women

(2) Agnates – no cognates

(3) Residuals – Cognates included

***Shia-No difference Agnates/ Cognates

Significance of Matrilineal

• descent through the female line, • matrilocal residence (husband resides at

the home of wife after marriage) and • inheritance of property through females,

and inheritance by females.

Household dynamics – allocation of resources; control over property

Muslim Matrilineal Societies

• Minangs Indonesia,Undangs of Malaysia Chams of Vietnam, Cambodia Mappillas of India Moors of Sri LankaTuaregs of Algeria Bobos of Burkina Faso Somaliland

Akan of Ghana Serer of Senegal Digos of Kenya Yaos of Tanzania Chewa in Malawi Wangazidja of ComorosBejas of SudanMakhuwa of Mozambique

Matrilineal Systems

• Matrilineal systems are not “feminist nirvana” or an assurance for gender equality.

• matrilineal, but still patriarchal. • may not necessarily improve women’s

property prospects • But generally better access to land and

property,  

Problem 3: Separation of Marital Property

• Muslim women retain property thru marriage, divorce

• Husband earns, acquires property in his own name,

• No concept of marital property: women gets nothing

Islamic Joint Property

• Independent female property rights• Marriage is not a sacrament• Contract basis, nikanama• Equity of ownership• No jurisprudential obstacles

Joint Marital Property

• Turkey • Kazakhstan• Indonesia • Malaysia • Morocco• Tunisia • Iran• Maldives • Tanzania • South Africa

Problem 4: Daraja/Male Superiority

• Wadud, Barlas…. Conditional, contingent• Not obedience, passivity – but gendered

roles • Economic Management• Reality – Women are heads without Men• Recent reforms – Man is not head of

household• Implications for control, management

Law Requires Obedience to Husbands

Jordan

Lebanon

Mali

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

Sudan

Syria

West bank/ Gaza

Yemen

Women as Head of Household

COUNTRY        

Algeria Yes South AfricaYes Burundi No

Azerbaijan Yes Sri Lanka Yes Cameroon No

Bangladesh Yes Tajikistan Yes Egypt, Arab Rep. No

Burkina FasoYes Tanzania Yes India No

Kazakhstan Yes Turkey Yes Indonesia No

Kenya Yes UzbekistanYes Iran, Islamic Rep. No

Kyrgyz RepublicYes

Saudi Arabia No Jordan No

Malaysia Yes Senegal No Kuwait No

MoroccoYes Syrian Arab Republic No

LebanonNo

Nigeria Yes Tunisia No Mali NoPakistan Yes     Oman No

Gender + HR+ Islamic

• Gender Equality Mechanism 2006• Gender Evaluation Criteria 2009• Gender Implementation Guide 2010• Land, Law & Islam 2006• Accidental Islamic Feminism 2006• Islamic Gender Tools 2008-2012 World Bank• Ongoing UN Research 2013

Strategy

• GLTN positionality – strong network• Al Azhar, Kuwait, Malaysia, Egypt. • Comparative Islamic approaches• Political Support– Cairo 2005, UEL 2007,

Malaysia 2009, Cairo 2013• Membership GLTN Board, UN-Habitat

Reform Panel, UN-Habitat Advisory Board,• Country Programmes