The Inheritence Rules in Islam and the Independant Woman

*I am cleaning up my drafts section, and came across this old post, not sure why I never posted it… so here goes… keep in mind I am not a scholar of Islam, I just believe in its rationality.

On the face of it, it isn’t fair. The sister gets a fraction of whatever inheritance her brother gets. If a couple have no children, or only have girls, then the inheritance from the death of the man is not split equally among the Mum and daughters. In this case the Mans siblings are entitled to a cut. The reasoning is well known, Men are deemed financially responsible for the women in their family (daughters, wives, mothers, sisters and nieces).

Being the curious (read: argumentative) youngster that I was, I challenged the Islamic teachers, and any random Muslim I came across on why this was so. The answer, to say the least was unsatisfactory, to say the most made me not want to be a Muslim. Their answer was “well a woman would just waste her money on makeup and stuff while a man would put it to good use to serve his family”….. I shall leave the shock and rants to you. Lets just say I felt that the worth of the woman was not exactly ‘appreciated’ by these people.

Fast forward a couple of decades, and I’m still a Muslim. All grown up now, I have experienced life in many forms, and even though not a wife or a mother myself, I have witnessed my friends make this transformation, and have seen the (major) changes they make for the sake of their children (they change and sacrifice for their husbands too– rather unequally I may add– lets leave that for another post). I don’t think they would have been able to do this, with so little regret or stress, had they had to carry the financial responsibility of the family, or any part of it.

So lets revisit that old question, why are men entitled to more inheritance than women under the rules of Islam? Let us attempt to rationalize it shall we:

• In Islam women are not expected to carry the financial burden for anyone, not even themselves. The idea being that should she wish to have biological or foster children then she should feel free to dedicate as much of her time as she wishes to them. Without the added worry of money, or feelings of guilt about not contributing financially to the family. (Note to women who feel like this after having given birth: Honey its not your problem, enjoy motherhood).
• Had women been assigned an equal percentage of the inheritance, I expect that the men would have resented having to be financially responsible for the women as well.
• Again, had the women been assigned an equal percentage of the inheritance, women would not feel it to be their due to be financially looked after, and therefore would be less inclined to demand this right from their un-conscientious male relatives and protectors. Thus negating the aim outlined in the 1st bullet point.

Now we come to the case of the independent women, of which we are seeing many of these days, what if a woman decides that she does not want to rely on anyone but herself? Since she has absconded her right to financial support from her male relatives, doesn’t she then deserve equal inheritance?

Why a woman would choose to do this are many fold. She could simply crave the freedom, she may not feel a respected part of the community and sets out to prove herself, she may want to cut off ties with said male relatives, or keep them as far from her as possible. It may be that said male relatives set conditions on their financial support (note: this is wrong, and she could challenge it but we don’t always want the headache). However, at the end of the day it is her decision. I would imagine that in the case of the male relatives shirking their duties, a court may order them to hand over a lump sum to her, or whatever. But if she refused it on grounds of her wanting to be independent, and does not need anyones help, then no, I don’t think she should get the full inheritance. Simply put, because this would (ok MAY) make other women feel inadequate for not seeking total Independence themselves, and it MAY lead to the phenomena I first read about in the book Affluenza, where new mums were feeling pressurised by the expectations of society to return to work, when they secretly really wanted to enjoy motherhood for a while.

I think that this system offers women the choice of work and financial Independence, with the added boost of the safety net should they change their minds, or change their circumstances, or lose their job or whatever. Why would you say no to that?

Here in the UK, the concept of society looking after mothers, and offering women special treatment when it comes to housing and welfare exists. As a working Mum, you get a years’ maternity leave on half pay, as a single unworking mother you would be given priority for council houses, and as a homeless woman, you would be offered priority at shelters. I argue that the concept of looking after women is simply more institutionalised in the UK than it is with the Islamic way (which leaves it up to the family in the first instance and extended society in the second).