Nearly every day a woman comes to the court complaining that her money was taken by her husband, brother or father. These women often claim the husbands and brothers take their money to make them partners in a commercial project only to discover after some time that there is no such project. Another woman will have no paper to prove that she loaned her husband or brother money.
Some of our women are ignorant about their rights while others believe the money is a means of bondage and love, particularly with husbands. A third group of women will complain that their brothers have usurped their inheritance on the justification that their fathers’ wealth cannot be bequeathed to strangers (including their sisters’ husbands and siblings).
This is yet another problem that has nothing to do with Islam, but is rather tied to our social thinking and tradition that men are entitled to full control of the wealth of women who are related to them by marriage or blood.
I sympathize with the women whose inheritance is embezzled by their brothers. It is more of a predicament for them because they’re more willing to lend money to family members. Does the father not write his will according to Shariah before his death, deciding what goes to whom?
Depriving women of their inheritance rights is not tied to specific areas or the level of education; it is common conduct among those who do not fear God to exploit the ignorance of women, their shyness and their keenness to preserve family ties.
I know a woman who lives on a small social security stipend while her brother is immensely wealthy from the legacy of their father. He doesn’t give what’s due his sister in accordance to Shariah because he fears her husband will take control of the funds.
I hereby request our Islamic scholars to raise awareness among such men and remind them that a woman’s right to her father’s inheritance is God-given.
We should also remember it is important to write wills so that the rights of everyone are preserved, especially considering the habit of men to conceal from their wives and sisters what their fathers have left to them. This makes it easy for the son to seize his sister’s money simply because she does not know how much money her father has left for her.
