Majida unknowingly forfeited her inheritance. Umnia was accused of being secretly married so they could claim her share. Ikhlas was threatened with solitude unless she relinquished her inheritance. This is the story of women who are rightful heirs by law and religion yet deprived by tradition.

Majida still doesn’t know how her two brothers managed to sell their agricultural land without the consent of her and her three sisters, even though they all had a rightful share of the land and inheritance that belonged to their late father. However, she has come to understand since that incident that women’s rights in Iraq are constantly under threat. 

Majida, 54, lives in Samawah, the capital of Al-Muthanna Governorate. When her father passed away, he left behind a large house in the upscale Al-Muallimeen neighbourhood. Her two brothers pressured their mother to sell the house despite strong opposition from Majida and her sisters. Unable to withstand her sons’ persistence, the mother eventually agreed to the sale. 

The brothers purchased a smaller house in another area to appease their mother and sisters and registered it in the mother’s name. However, feeling that what happened to her four daughters was unfair, their mother decided to transfer ownership of the new house to their name. 

Majida later married, had children and lived in a different house with her husband and family. After their mother passed away, her brothers decided to sell agricultural land previously rented to a farmer. Once again, the sisters opposed the sale, as the offered price was far too low compared to the land’s size—around five donums, approximately 5,000 square metres—and its prime location. 

Despite the sisters’ refusal to relinquish their shares, the brothers disregarded their objections and proceeded with the sale. 

The buyer came to Majida’s house holding a waiver document, giving her an ultimatum: sign it and receive 500,000 dinars, currently equivalent to about 335 US Dollars, or lose the land without receiving even that little amount. 

Majida ignored the threat and pursued her and her sisters’ rights. She hired a lawyer to file a lawsuit. However, as soon as the buyer received the court summons, something unexpected happened. 

The following day, Majida woke to a terrifying scene. Masked men had written tribal demands  in red paint on the walls outside her house. 

Fearing for her children’s safety, she stopped letting them play outside. Majida was forced to drop the legal case due to immense family and tribal pressure, as well as her fear that the buyer might be backed by powerful people capable of carrying out his threats without facing any consequences. 

Beating and humiliation 

Umnia, 36, a single woman living in Nasiriyah, the capital of Dhi Qar Governorate, inherited a house and a large commercial shop from her father after his death. She shared the inheritance with her 40-year-old unmarried sister, who lives with her in the same house, and a married sister and two brothers. 

The income from the shop’s rent was supposed to be distributed among them, but Umnia and her sister often received nothing. At best, the amount they received was reduced under the pretext of paying water and electricity bills or shop repairs. 

Meanwhile, their brothers received their whole shares without deductions, which left Umnia and her sister feeling wronged. 

Later, the younger brother decided to sell his share of the shop and successfully did so. This encouraged Umnia to decide to sell her and her sister’s shares as well. She hoped to use the money to start a small business rather than rely on her rental income, which was either withheld or incomplete. 

The tenant offered to buy Umnia and her sister’s shares for a fair price. 

“When my older brother discovered our intention to sell our shares, he became furious. He attacked us with violence, insults, and even death threats,” Umnia told Jummar. 

 Following the incident, Umnia informed the prospective buyer that she was withdrawing from the deal. The buyer immediately backed out to avoid getting involved in any conflicts. 

Umnia said that the entire family sided against her and her sister in their decision. After days of intense disputes and tension, the younger brother suggested buying his sisters’ shares to end the conflict. 

He offered them half of the amount initially proposed by the tenant, leaving them with no choice but to accept. 

They accompanied their brother to a real estate office and signed a waiver before receiving payment. To this day, they have not received a single dinar. 

Whenever Umnia and her sister asked their brother about the money, he tells them to wait until he gets it. Now, they are convinced that he has no intention of paying them. However, they have refrained from filing a complaint against him to avoid escalating the conflict to an uncontrollable and dangerous level. 

Umnia realised that preserving her safety was more important than anything else, especially after her brother said, “Since you’re willing to conduct business dealings with men without our knowledge, it’s not far-fetched to assume you might be secretly married without us knowing”. 

Uncle pressured us 

While Ikhlas, 40, was with her mother in the hospital after she suffered a severe heart attack that required catheterisation, her brother was working to take advantage of their mother’s house in Samawah, which had not yet been officially inherited. 

He hired a lawyer to file an inheritance lawsuit, justifying his actions by claiming he was afraid their mother might die, which would result in Ikhlas and her sister receiving double their share. 

The situation escalated further when he demanded that his three sisters relinquish their inheritance rights in exchange for small amounts. 

Despite being married and living with her husband and children in Najaf, Ikhlas refused to give up her rights. “I had a strong attachment to my family home in Samawah. I wanted it to be a place for us to gather during tough times, and I couldn’t accept losing my inheritance”, she told Jummar. 

However, her brother enlisted their uncle to pressure her. Her uncle threatened to disown her and prevent her from visiting her sick mother or communicating with any family member if she didn’t comply. 

Under intense pressure, Ikhlas’s sisters asked her to accompany them to sign the waiver so that they could maintain communication with her. Additionally, her brother and uncle warned her that they would inform her husband of their plans to disown her, which scared her because she might appear weak in front of her husband and his family. 

After all this pressure and fearing that the ongoing conflict might endanger her mother’s already precarious health, Ikhlas reluctantly agreed to the waiver. 

The sisters were taken to the court to sign the documents, and their mother signed from inside the car as she could not walk or enter the courthouse. She was also in a state of shock but did not argue due to her critical condition. She wanted the house to remain with her daughters and son and not be sold. 

When this happened in 2011, Ikhlas was much younger than she is now. “If I had the awareness I have today, I would not have agreed to the waiver. I have realised that a person’s real security lies in what they own,” she added. 

The 250-square-meter house was sold for 100 million dinars then. However, the sisters received only seven million dinars each. Even this amount was given to them in two million-dollar instalments every two years. 

A small compensation 

When a family pressures a woman to waive her inheritance, this waiver is referred to as a gift in the law. Judicial authorities cannot prevent a woman from waiving her rights. Women often refrain from reporting the pressure to the authorities due to the fear of family retaliation. 

Legal expert Aliya Al-Hosni stated that tribal customs are one of the social reasons leading to women’s deprivation of inheritance, and this issue is becoming more common in rural areas. Sometimes, families force their daughters not to marry or to marry one of their cousins so that no part of the property goes to a relative outside the family or tribe. 

When it comes time to distribution of the estate, the daughter is given a minimal amount of money that bears no comparison to her legal share in exchange for her waiver. Many families divide the inheritance among male children before the father and mother die to ensure that the daughter is deprived of her share. 

Daughters are often made to choose between their brothers and money. If they choose the cash option, this will sever ties with their brothers, leaving women isolated and rejected, which most will try to avoid. 

“According to the law, a woman’s waiver of her share in the property to her brothers is considered a gift, which is an unconditional transfer of her full share to first-degree relatives without compensation,” added Al-Hosni. 

Al-Hosni pointed out that falsification of the legal division of inheritance is common, including the document that includes the names of the heirs and their shares according to the law. Courts frequently witness many lawsuits challenging this division, often initiated by the wives of sons or the children of a second wife. 

There have also been complaints regarding the cases of martyrs, where the martyr’s wife is denied inheritance because she may remarry after her husband’s death. In cases where the marriage was not registered in the courts, it can be impossible to include the martyr’s wife and children in the division unless a lawsuit is filed to register the marriage and prove the children’s lineage. 

One legal process which is available involves removing names from the legal division of inheritance. This discharge is only valid with the consent and signature of the concerned party. 

“However, there are many ways to manipulate it,” Al-Hosni told Jummar. One method of manipulation is when men choose not to recognise the division upon its issuance and follow their own interpretations. Another method involves bribing officials in the civil registry. The court would send a letter to the registry to provide the names of the heirs written in ink, and here, the official plays a role by sending an incomplete list to the court in exchange for a bribe. 

Since most women are unaware of such details, matters proceed without investigation into the manipulation occurring in the list, as no complaints are raised by any party. However, introducing the use of a national ID card has reduced this form of manipulation, as the electronic record now contains information from a main server, making it difficult for an official to manipulate the data. 

For all these reasons, Al-Hosni advises women to consult a lawyer and enhance their legal awareness, not to grant power of attorney to anyone unless they are trustworthy, and not to sign any documents related to settlements or waivers. She also advises them to approach domestic violence departments and file legal claims for protection if they face violence or threats. 

The law is clear 

Lawsuits to annul the legal division of inheritance exist in the courts but are rare, as the division is based on definitive and specific evidence proving the property owner’s death. Additionally, the court requires the applicant for the division to bring a record of the deceased from the civil registry and a copy of the death certificate. 

The court also requires confirmation of the death from the civil registry, the seal of the local mayor and council or district, and witnesses. 

“All these procedures prevent forgery in the division,” lawyer Ali Al-Alawi told Jummar. However, in exceptional cases, such as issuing a legal division for someone only to discover later that there has been another division issued for them or issuing a division for someone who is found to be alive or issuing a division based on forged documents, lawsuits are filed for annulment. 

The most common lawsuit filed is one which corrects the legal division of inheritance if it contains an error that would affect the distribution of the estate. 

If a woman does not voluntarily remove herself from the division, she has a share in the inheritance according to the Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959. 

The first point of Article 89 in the law states that the first category of heirs is “the parents and children, even if they are descendants, and the man has the same share as two women”. 

Al-Alawi considered this point explicit regarding including women in inheritance, noting that their shares are equal to half the shares of men according to Islamic texts. 

He believes that women’s shares of inheritance according to Islamic law were calculated in a completely different time, pointing out that the current law is based on Sharia in this aspect, and that men do not want to change it. At the same time, women are still not serious about confronting such laws. 

Al-Alawi emphasised the necessity of developing laws based on societal developments, including the Personal Status Law derived from Islamic Sharia and Egyptian and French laws, to meet the requirements of the modern age and to equalise rights and duties between men and women. 

Ignorance or fear 

The Personal Status Law does not contain a specific section dedicated to women’s inheritance. It broadly addresses inheritance based on the texts of Sunni and Shia jurisprudence, according to attorney Esraa Salman. 

However, the drafters of this law attempted to extract provisions that favour women from the jurisprudential texts. For instance, the second paragraph of Article 91 relies on Ja’fari jurisprudence, which allocates the entire inheritance to daughters if the deceased has no sons. This means that if a man dies and leaves behind one or more daughters, his estate belongs solely to them, without any claim from relatives such as uncles or maternal uncles. In contrast, Hanafi jurisprudence gives a share to relatives in these cases. 

The law does grant the wife the right to receive a share of the inherited property based on Sunni jurisprudence. However, according to Ja’fari jurisprudence, she is not entitled to inherit anything from the house, land, or any other property owned by her deceased husband. “The proposed amendment to the Personal Status Law includes depriving the wife of inherited property by Ja’fari jurisprudence,” Salman told Jummar. 

Despite this, the law could not bypass the Quranic principle which states that a man will receive the equivalent of two women, given that Iraqi society has a Muslim majority.  

Regarding the widespread deprivation of women from inheritance and their lack of benefit from the current Personal Status Law, Salman noted that many women mistakenly believe that when they are told, “Sayed So-and-so says this, and such-and-such Marji’ states that”, it constitutes the law. As a result, they relinquish their inheritance rights. 

On the other hand, those who understand that the statements of religious leaders or what is conveyed from them do not represent the law often give up their inheritance to avoid conflicts and the risk of violence. 

Salman points out that in some areas, women do not even possess official documents, often held by the head of the household. In such circumstances, it becomes nearly impossible for a woman to go to court and hire a lawyer to claim her rights. 

“The current law is good and comprehensive, but the issue lies in the lack of awareness and the inability of the state to regulate the role and power of tribal authority against the weakness of the law,” she added. 

The attorney emphasised the Iraqi government’s need to fulfil its commitments to the international community to promote gender equality. Article 14 of the constitution states that “Iraqis are equal before the law without discrimination based on gender, race, nationality, origin, colour, religion, sect, belief, opinion, or economic or social status”. 

The wife only 

Ja’fari jurisprudence does not deprive daughters of inherited property. It only deprives the wife. If a man dies and has one or more daughters, they inherit from his properties, but his wife does not. The Ja’fari scholars base this on a narration attributed to their Imam, Ja’far Al-Sadiq, found in the book Al-Kafi, which states that “A woman does not inherit from her husband’s estate of land or property unless bricks, trunks, and wood are built upon it” meaning she does not inherit the land itself but rather the value of what has been built upon it. 

In the best case, women are offered a small amount to relinquish their share of the land, often paid in instalments. Farouq told Jummar that tribal custom contradicts jurisprudential teachings, as Ja’fari jurisprudence only prohibits the wife from inheriting unbuilt land. In contrast, tribal societies even deprive the daughters of the deceased. 

She talked about the lack of discussion by religious leaders from the pulpit about women’s rightful share of inheritance, in contrast to the focus on other issues such as hijab, modesty, and adornment. She suggested this is because most religious leaders come from tribal backgrounds and do not want to clash with them. 

She urged the formation of a powerful women’s movement to confront the tribes and compel jurists and politicians to address women’s rights in inheritance and to prevent attempts to deprive them. She emphasised the necessity of organising awareness campaigns through fieldwork in rural areas and working within religious and tribal circles, as change from within may be more acceptable. 

Farouq pointed out that the government should activate the judiciary, strengthen its role, and encourage media institutions to play their part in increasing awareness of this issue. At the same time, she expressed concerns regarding proposed amendments to the personal status law and their impact on women’s inheritance, as depriving wives of inherited land will also open the door to depriving daughters. 

“It will be said to the daughter that your mother did not receive a share according to religious law, so why do you want a share,” Farouq said. 

The tribe’s position 

According to Ghassab Nouri Azara, a sheikh of a southern Iraqi tribe, generalisations about inheritance practices are inaccurate. Some tribes grant women their full inheritance rights, others give them only a portion, while others deny them any estate share. 

As for inherited lands, nearly all tribes treat them as exclusively belonging to male heirs to prevent any part of the land from falling into the hands of in-laws from other tribes. 

“Land ownership could transfer from the woman to her husband, who belongs to another tribe. This could weaken the social and geographical standing of the woman’s tribe, which is why tribes usually refrain from bequeathing land to their women,” Azara told Jummar. 

In some cases, women deprived of inherited lands are compensated with small sums of money to appease them. 

According to Azara, women who feel wronged often turn to the tribal sheikh, neighbours, or family elders instead of the courts, as they view legal disputes with their fathers or brothers as shameful. 

He also highlighted the influence of foreign fatwas that have recently spread among people, depriving women of inheritance. These fatwas have had a greater impact on tribal members than the tribal sheikh or civil law. 

Rather than resorting to courts to obtain the legal division of inheritance, people now turn to religious scholars for the division or agree on a consensual division, where women waive their rights in exchange for certain financial compensation. 

Losing ends 

Despite her sisters not waiving their shares, Majda still does not know how the land was registered in the buyer’s name. This incident reinforced her belief that women are generally oppressed, especially in tribal societies, making their inheritance shares easy targets for opportunistic men. 

As for Umnia, she interpreted her brother’s words as a veiled threat and feared she might be killed under the pretext of so-called honour killing to get her share of the inheritance. She was also worried about her sister’s life. She remained silent about their rights being taken away. Additionally, their share of the house was not under their control due to a decision made by their brothers. 

Ikhlas later discovered that her uncle’s position against her and her sisters came at a price. Her brother promised to relinquish a piece of agricultural land that belonged to their father. Ikhlas and her sisters knew nothing about that land, as they had been told since childhood that women had no share in it.