Back to the complete issue
Thursday, 27 September 2018

Arab women struggle for inheritance justice continues

Omm Ahmed, an Egyptian woman living in the impoverished south, has given up on an inheritance left to her by her father after a yearslong fight with her uncle to claim it. Egypt recently passed a law that imposes jail terms and fines on people like Omm Ahmed’s uncle — but in a conservative society such as ours, women who take relatives to court could face being disowned by their families, Heba Saleh writes for the Financial Times. A move in Tunisia to split inheritance equally between men and women, which had sparked some hope for gender equality in the MENA region, is moving slowly through the legislative process, and conservative voices are arguing it’s anti-Islamic. According to Islamic law, male children are to receive twice the share of female children when it comes to inheritance — in many cases though, women are left with nothing at all and no one to fight for them.

Enterprise is a daily publication of Enterprise Ventures LLC, an Egyptian limited liability company (commercial register 83594), and a subsidiary of Inktank Communications. Summaries are intended for guidance only and are provided on an as-is basis; kindly refer to the source article in its original language prior to undertaking any action. Neither Enterprise Ventures nor its staff assume any responsibility or liability for the accuracy of the information contained in this publication, whether in the form of summaries or analysis. © 2022 Enterprise Ventures LLC.

Enterprise is available without charge thanks to the generous support of HSBC Egypt (tax ID: 204-901-715), the leading corporate and retail lender in Egypt; EFG Hermes (tax ID: 200-178-385), the leading financial services corporation in frontier emerging markets; SODIC (tax ID: 212-168-002), a leading Egyptian real estate developer; SomaBay (tax ID: 204-903-300), our Red Sea holiday partner; Infinity (tax ID: 474-939-359), the ultimate way to power cities, industries, and homes directly from nature right here in Egypt; CIRA (tax ID: 200-069-608), the leading providers of K-12 and higher level education in Egypt; Orascom Construction (tax ID: 229-988-806), the leading construction and engineering company building infrastructure in Egypt and abroad; Moharram & Partners (tax ID: 616-112-459), the leading public policy and government affairs partner; Palm Hills Developments (tax ID: 432-737-014), a leading developer of commercial and residential properties; Mashreq (tax ID: 204-898-862), the MENA region’s leading homegrown personal and digital bank; Industrial Development Group (IDG) (tax ID:266-965-253), the leading builder of industrial parks in Egypt; Hassan Allam Properties (tax ID:  553-096-567), one of Egypt’s most prominent and leading builders; and Saleh, Barsoum & Abdel Aziz (tax ID: 220-002-827), the leading audit, tax and accounting firm in Egypt.