"Iraqi jealousy" abuses women's rights
Shafaq News / Iraq's muscarinic society imposes its authority with power on women, and sometimes, some abuse a human right coveting a handful of dinars under the pretext of "men's power".
Many are the stories of women being oppressed and their rights denied, and the Iraqi society is not different. Still, the irony is totally contrary to the prevailing perception of "Iraqi jealousy".
Hajar Abdul Amir, a married woman and a mother from Babel, was once a woman in a family consisting of a father, mother, four brothers, and a sister. After she was married, she and her construction worker husband suffered from poverty and need that left her hoping to inherit a share of her father's house that might help her provide a decent living for her children.
"My husband has no career, he is a construction worker, and in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic, curfews, and dwindling jobs, I thought of asking my brothers to help me by giving me my right to inherit my father, and that's where the shock was," Abdul Amir told Shafaq News agency.
"My brothers robbed me of my share and deprived me even of this hope. They said that I have no share and if I happen to demand it, I would have to go to court, and then I will not be allowed to visit the house to see my mother," she added, "I had no choice but to remain silent. I was between a rock and a hard place, to sue my brothers and be denied seeing my mother again or bear poverty and need. The silence was my choice because I did not want to be the woman who sues her brothers."
Shahad and her sister from Najaf governorate have a much bigger heritage share than Hajar, but they also suffer from the same tragic reality.
"My father left us a house, an apartment complex, and many lands, but he registered them in my mother's name. He also had other properties in his name. After he passed, my older sister informed my brothers to give us our legitimate and legal right to inheritance, but the surprise was very big," Shahad told Shafaq News agency.
"Our older brother told us that my mother had given up all the inheritance to him and we have no rights to it and showed us official documents proving that. He asked us to give up our rights in our father's property to him," she continued.
"our prudeness and shyness have forced us to waive our rights to our brothers. Our society has no mercy on a woman who demands her right to file a lawsuit against her brother. Pillaging women's rights may be accepted by some, but legally claiming their rights is a disgrace that she, her family, and her children pursue even after death," Shahad added.
Lawyer Ali Jassim said, "There are two cases of women's inheritance, the first when she has male brothers, she takes half of the male quota, which is agreed upon by all Islamic sects and Iraqi Personal Status Law no. 188 of 1959, according to the Islamic inheritance system."
He explained that this is based on the Qur'anic text "to the male, a portion equal to that of two females; if only daughters, two or more, their share is two-thirds of the inheritance; if only one, her share is a half".
"The second case, if the heiress is more than one, it is different for Islamic sects to inherit all the estate or some of it, but the Iraqi legislator decided that the order to make the estate distributed equally between them per the text of the article (91) of the Personal Status Act(2)," Jassim said.
Amer al-Bayati, a sheikh from the Islamic Fatwa House, believes - according to Sunni jurisprudence- that the text of the Qur'anic verse "to the male, a portion equal to that of two females", is a divine order, i.e., that it imposed the duty to apply it as it is without distortion and diligence.
He further explained, "But if waiving the right to inheritance is due to shyness, it is not permissible in law, and what is taken from the sister's share is forbidden money unless she gives up her right willingly to one of her brothers or all."
Sheikh Mahdi Razzaq, of the Twelver belief, explained that the Qur'an referred to the issue as a matter of the fact that the living costs for the whole family are on men, while women spend willingly on the family, not by force or coercion, and only to help and aid."
He stressed, "If a woman inherits from her parents, none of her brothers should dominate her in social custom and force her to give up her share, it is forbidden, and women must take their full share. Anyone who has taken the right of a woman forcibly is held accountable before God and law."
