No real justification

Equal inheritance rights for men and women was the issue discussed recently during a round-table debate held by the Jordanian National Commission for Women, with participants nearly equally split on whether to accord women this right.

As is, the Personal Status Law, which is based on the Islamic Sharia, accords men double the inheritance given to women. The rationale is the proposition that men are traditionally the breadwinners in a family and remain financially responsible for the nucleus family members.

While this may have been defensible in the past, it is increasingly losing validity due to the fact that more and more women are becoming significant contributors to their household expenses and the upkeep of their children.

According to the Department of Statistics, the rate of women-led households has increased by 3 per cent since 1978, from 8.8 per cent to 11.8 per cent.

In a largely patriarchal society, this shows a rather important increase in the contribution of women to the cost of their families; it is due to their joining the ranks of labour force and, in no small measure, to education, which enables women to assume a variety of professional positions.

The basis for according men double the inheritance rights of women is steadily eroding, the figures show, making it no longer valid.

Worse, at times, women waive even the little they inherit in favour of male members of their immediate family, often due to societal or family pressures.

Considered useless or helpless, these women are not given the chance to prove that they can administer their inheritance, maybe even transform it into a lucrative business and thus no longer be a “burden” on the male family members. And that is an insult.

The end result is a gross violation of the principle of gender equality that has been codified in international human rights conventions.

Taking into consideration all factors, even trying to accommodate tradition, the subject of equal inheritance rights needs to be discussed by a large sector of society in order to arrive at a more equitable treatment of women under the existing legislation.