Haryana: Meo Muslim Women Have No Inheritance Rights Due To Archaic Customary Law
New Age
Islam News Bureau
10 May 20123
• Haryana: Meo Muslim Women Have No Inheritance Rights
Due To Archaic Customary Law
• As More Women Forgo the Hijab, Iran’s Government
Pushes Back
• Nigeria Woman Identified As Fatima Sues Father for
Attempted Forced Marriage
• Pakistani Actress Madiha Imam Denies Rumours about
Husband's Nationality and Profession
• Jewish Woman Shot Dead Charging Checkpoint Dressed As
Islamic Terrorist
• Egypt: Woman Killed By Husband 48 Hours after Her
Wedding after Saying 'No' To Have Sex with Him
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-inheritance-rights-law-custom/d/129748
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Haryana: Meo Muslim Women Have No Inheritance Rights Due To Archaic Customary Law
Women of
Mewat (Representational image)
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Yunus Alvi/Nuh
(Mewat, Haryana)
Should Muslim
women be entitled to an unequal share in inheritance under the Muslim Personal
law or under the provisions of the Constitution of India that guarantees equal
share?
The debate is
raging across India following a Kerala couple C Shukkur and Dr. Sheena Shukkuur
registering their marriage under the Special Marriage Act, 29 years after being
married so that they can pass on their wealth to their three daughters, is
irrelevant to a region of northern India where an archaic yet customary law
bars Muslim women from inheriting property.
It’s true that
in a region of Mewat comprising four districts – Mewat, Rewari, Faridabad and
Old Gurgaon, the Meo Muslim women have no right over ancestral property, even
if one happens to be the only child of her parents.
This is done
under the customary law called Riwaz-e-kanoon which was coined by the British.
In this region
located close to the National capital and in the vicinity of the modern city of
Gurugram, the inheritance law comes from the Hindu-Rajput past of today’s Meo
Muslims.
Advocates in
the Nuh Court
This law
supersedes the Muslim personal law.
The law was
written by Sir W.H. Rattigan as part of his work of compiling all the customs
prevailing in the agricultural states of Punjab & Haryana.
Para 22 of the
law as enshrined in "A Digest of Customary Law In The Punjab” states:
“Every person having an interest in property whether absolute or as life tenant
(e.g. a widow, a daughter, or a mother) can sell or mortgage such property for
a necessary purpose."
“The rights of
the women in agricultural tribes of meos was put at par with the rights of
karta in a joint Hindu family property and she could alienate the property for
her legal necessity”.
As p[er law,
Karta is a manager who looks after the property who has no inheritance rights.
While this
leaves women of Mewat deprived of their rights and is one of the causes behind
the acute backwardness of the community, the worst-hit are the widows.
Thousands of
women who have lost their husbands are struggling in courts to seek a share in
the property left by the father or husband and prevent it from going into the
hands of his immediate blood relatives (male.).
Women litigants
of Meo community outside court premises
If a man has no
sons and only daughters, the land will automatically go to the blood relation
of his family. After the death of her husband, the woman can live on that land,
but she cannot sell the property.
This law also
comes in the way of government schemes to empower girl children and women.
However, over
the years, awareness about the problems arising out of customary law has been
recognized. A group of intellectuals of Mewat is today demanding the repeal of
the customary law as it discriminates against women.
Even the Ulema,
the Islamic clergy, supports this demand and seeks to repeal the Customary Law
and implement the Muslim Personal Law to give rights to the daughters.
In the Meo
Muslim community, the inheritance law is so skewed in favour of the males that
a woman, who happens to be a single child too doesn’t get to inherit the
property left by his parents.
As per the
Riwaz-e-kanoon, a woman loses her all claim on the properties left behind by
her father after his death.
Even when a
woman approaches courts, the customary law gains precedence over the Muslim
personal law and the succession laws and she loses the battle.
As society is
changing and women are getting empowered, the Meo Muslims are also realizing
the irrelevance of this law and devising ways to circumvent it.
Couples with
one girl child generally adopt their grandson and bequeath all property to him.
Interestingly, while this is a smart way of preventing the property from going
into the hands of relatives, it hardly helps the woman in question. This also
might be putting pressure on women to produce a male heir.
According to
the local lawyers, much litigation has been pending in the courts in Mewat for
decades on women seeking the property right and thereby subsistence.
An estimated 2
croreMeos live across 85 districts across the country. This customary Law
applies only to the above-mentioned four districts. This law was made by the
British government only for the old Gurgaon district.
Today,
Faridabad, Rewari, and Nuh districts have been created out of the original
Gurgaon.
Mohammad Mubarik
Mohammad
Mubarik of Jamalgarh village of Punhana block of the Nuh district has been
fighting a legal battle for more than four decades for his rights.
Mohammad
Mubarik says a relative named Kamalbi of his village became an issueless widow
after the death of her husband Bhabbal in 1965.
“Kamalbi
adopted my father Abdul Hameed as her son in 1983. This triggered a war between
the lady and the family members of her late husband. The aggrieved family
members approached the court to cancel the adoption. “
Abdul Hameed
passed away in 2016 during the pendency of the case and since that time he has
been fighting the case.
Mohammad
Mubarik says that the High Court and the Supreme Court have upheld the validity
of his father’s adoption.
However, the
family has only been able to get the possession of half of their land.
Mohammad
Mubarik says that half of Kamalbi's land is forcibly occupied by other family
members. He has again approached the court of Punhana. It took him and his
father more than 40 years of litigation to get half their land and now he
doesn’t know how long will the rest of the battle take.
Asif Ali of
Chandeni is also fighting a similar battle. He told Awaz-the Voice that he has
been fighting a legal battle against the Customary Law for the last three decades.
He was married
in 1977 to the younger daughter of Zahoor Khan of village Dihana in Nuh Khand.
His father-in-law has three daughters and he passed away before Zahoor married
his daughter.
Asif Ali
Soon, the
claimants of the property started troubling Zahoor Khan’s mother-in-law Asgari
as they wanted her to vacate the land and transfer it in their name.
To avoid losing
her land which was the source of livelihood for the family, Asghari adopted
Zahoor’s son and her grandson in 1992.
The extended
family went to court and challenged Asgari’s right to adopt a male heir.
Asif says that
in 1996, the session court gave a favourable verdict for his family and today
the case is before the High Court.
Asgari passed
away in May 2019 and he took care of her till the last moment.
Asif has
appealed to the state government to repeal the customary inheritance law and
replace it with a new one that gives equal rights to men and women in
inheritance.
Advocate Mahesh
Kumar says, this law was made during the time of the British Government. Today,
there is a need to change it to give women equal rights. “It is better to end
the custom law,” he said.
The Ulema of
Mewat says that the Customary Law is against both the Constitution and Muslim
Personal law.
Due to this
British law, the women of Mewat remain backward. Ulema says that this is a law
that keeps Mewati girls away from their share in their ancestral property. On
the contrary, there is an order in Islam to give girls a share in ancestral
properties.
Due to
Customary Law, thousands of girls of Mewat are deprived of their family
property. Now the time has come to raise the voice for the rights of the Mewati
daughters.
Mufti Zahid
Hussain of Mewat says that Muslim personal law should be implemented in the
Mewat area of Haryana by repealing the Customary Law. He claims that people
want this personal law to be implemented.
The Ulema have
met local politicians and demanded the repeal of the Customary Law (Rivaz e
Kanoon) and implement Muslim Personal Law.
Three MLAs of
Mewat have promised to bring a private bill to the Haryana Legislative Assembly
to attract the attention of the government to this anomaly. Mufti Zahid Hussain
said the Customary Law was against Shariat. He says that Islam advocates giving
daughters a share in their ancestral property while the customary law deprives
Muslim women of it. This should be canceled. He told that in Islam, there is a
provision to give double the share of ancestral land to the son and one times
the share to the daughter.
Nuh MLA Aftab
Ahmed and Punhana MLA Mohammad Ilyas say that the Ulema of Mewat has placed a
demand on the repeal of the Customary Law.
He said he will
consult other MLAs of Mewat and form a common strategy on this demand. A
private bill will be brought against this law in the upcoming assembly session.
Source: awazthevoice.in
https://www.awazthevoice.in/india-news/mewat-women-have-absolutely-no-inheritance-rights-due-to-archaic-customary-law-21320.html
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As More Women
Forgo the Hijab, Iran’s Government Pushes Back
Billboards
across Iran’s capital proclaim that women should wear their mandatory
headscarves to honor their mothers
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May 10, 2023
TEHRAN:
Billboards across Iran’s capital proclaim that women should wear their
mandatory headscarves to honour their mothers. But perhaps for the first time
since the chaotic days following Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, more women —
both young and old — choose not to do so.
Such open
defiance comes after months of protests over the September death of 22-year-old
Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police, for wearing her
hijab too loosely. While the demonstrations appear to have cooled, the choice
by some women not to cover their hair in public poses a new challenge to the
country’s theocracy. The women’s pushback also lays bare schisms in Iran that
had been veiled for decades.
Authorities
have made legal threats and closed down some businesses serving women not
wearing the hijab. Police and volunteers issue verbal warnings in subways,
airports and other public places. Text messages have targeted drivers who had
women without head covering in their vehicles.
However, analysts
in Iran warn that the government could reignite dissent if it pushes too hard.
The protests erupted at a difficult time for the Islamic Republic, currently
struggling with economic woes brought on by its standoff with the West over its
rapidly advancing nuclear program.
Some women said
they’ve had enough — no matter the consequence. They say they are fighting for
more freedom in Iran and a better future for their daughters.
Some suggested
the growing numbers of women joining their ranks might make it harder for the
authorities to push back.
“Do they want
to close down all businesses?” said Shervin, a 23-year-old student whose short,
choppy hair swayed in the wind on a recent day in Tehran. “If I go to a police
station, will they shut it down too?”
Still, they
worry about risk. The women interviewed only provided their first names, for
fear of repercussions.
Vida, 29, said
a decision by her and two of her friends to no longer cover their hair in
public is about more than headscarves.
“This is a
message for the government, leave us alone,” she said.
Iran and
neighbouring Taliban-controlled Afghanistan are the only countries where the
hijab remains mandatory for women. Before protests erupted in September, it was
rare to see women without headscarves, though some occasionally let their hijab
fall to their shoulders. Today, it’s routine in some areas of Tehran to see
women without headscarves.
For observant
Muslim women, the head covering is a sign of piety before God and modesty in
front of men outside their families. In Iran, the hijab — and the
all-encompassing black chador worn by some — has long been a political symbol
as well.
Iran’s ruler
Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1936 banned the hijab as part of his efforts to mirror the
West. The ban ended five years later when his son, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi,
took over. Still, many middle and upper-class Iranian women chose not to wear
the hijab.
By the 1979
Islamic Revolution, some of the women who helped overthrow the shah embraced
the chador, a cloak that covers the body from head to toe, except for the face.
Images of armed women encompassed in black cloth became a familiar sight for
Americans during the US Embassy takeover and hostage crisis later that year.
But other women protested a decision by Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini
ordering the hijab to be worn in public. In 1983, it became the law, enforced
with penalties including fines and two months in prison.
Forty years
later, women in central and northern Tehran can be seen daily without
headscarves. While at first Iran’s government avoided a direct confrontation
over the issue, it has increasingly flexed the powers of the state in recent
weeks in an attempt to curb the practice.
In early April,
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that “removing hijab is
not Islamically or politically permissible.”
Khamenei
claimed women refusing to wear the hijab are being manipulated. “They are
unaware of who is behind this policy of removing and fighting hijab,” Khamenei
said. “The enemy’s spies and the enemy’s spy agencies are pursuing this matter.
If they know about this, they will definitely not take part in this.”
Hard-line media
began publishing details of “immoral” situations in shopping malls, showing
women without the hijab. On April 25, authorities closed the 23-story Opal
shopping mall in northern Tehran for several days after women with their hair
showing were seen spending time together with men in a bowling alley.
“It is a
collective punishment,” said Nodding Kasra, a 32-year-old salesman at a clothing
shop in the mall. “They closed a mall with hundreds of workers over some
customers’ hair?”
Police have
shut down over 2,000 businesses across the country over admitting women not
wearing the hijab, including shops, restaurants and even pharmacies, according
to the reformist newspaper Shargh.
“This is a
lose-lose game for businesses. If they warn (women) about not wearing the hijab
as per the authorities’ orders, people will boycott them,” said Mohsen
Jalalpour, a former deputy head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce. “If they refuse
to comply, the government will close them down.”
BijanAshtari,
who writes on Iranian politics, warned that business owners who had remained
silent during the Mahsa Amini-inspired protests could now rise up.
Meanwhile,
government offices no longer provide services to women not covering their hair,
after some had in recent months. The head of the country’s track and field
federation, HashemSiami, resigned this weekend after some participants in an
all-women half-marathon in the city of Shiraz competed without the hijab.
There are signs
the crackdown could escalate.
Some clerics
have urged deploying soldiers, as well as the all-volunteer Basij force of
Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, to enforce the hijab law. The Guard on
Monday reportedly seized an Iranian fishing boat for carrying women not wearing
the hijab near Hormuz Island, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
Police also say
that surveillance cameras with “artificial intelligence” will find women not
wearing their head covering. A slick video shared by Iranian media suggested
that surveillance footage would be matched against ID photographs, though it’s
unclear if such a system is currently operational .
“The fight over
the hijab will remain center stage unless the government reaches an
understanding with world powers over the nuclear deal and sanctions relief,”
said Tehran-based political analyst Ahmad Zeidabadi.
But diplomacy
has been stalled and anti-government protests could widen, he said. The hijab
“will be the main issue and the fight will not be about scarves only.”
Sorayya, 33,
said she is already fighting for a broader goal by going without the headscarf.
“I don’t want
my daughter to be under the same ideologic pressures that I and my generation
lived through,” she said, while dropping off her 7-year-old daughter at a
primary school in central Tehran. “This is for a better future for my
daughter.”
Source: arabnews.com
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2300771/middle-east
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Nigeria Woman
Identified As FatimaSues Father for Attempted Forced Marriage
09-05-23
A 20-year-old
woman identified as Fatima has taken her father to a Shari’a Court in Kaduna
State in Nigeria because he forced her to marry a stranger.
Fatima had
explained to her father that she was in love with another person, but her
father, Aliyu Muhammad, threatened to take her to the village and marry her
off, according to local media reports.
Fatima's
lawyer, Malam Bulama said that the woman was not suing the father out of
disrespect for him.
The father told
the court that his late parents had chosen the groom for his daughter when they
were alive and he wanted to respect their wishes.
Judge Malam Aiyeku
Abdulrahman ruled that while the father has the right to choose a husband for
his daughter, forced marriage was not encouraged.
“You are her
father, therefore you should allow her to present the person she wants to marry
and if you are pleased with his religion and character, you allow her to get
married,” the court held.
Source: africanews.com
https://www.africanews.com/2023/05/09/nigeria-woman-sues-father-for-attempted-forced-marriage/
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Pakistani
Actress Madiha Imam Denies Rumours about Husband's Nationality and Profession
May 09, 2023
Pakistani
actress Madiha Imam has denied rumours circulating on social media about her
husband Moji Basar's nationality and profession. Imam announced her marriage in
the first week of May, sharing photos of her wedding on social media.
Following the
announcement, rumours circulated about the religion and nationality of her
husband. Some reports claimed that Moji Basar has been a talented Bollywood
producer and filmmaker who had also worked as a writer and production manager.
However, Madiha
denied these rumours. She stated that her husband is neither Nepalese nor
Indian and that she had only known him as a professional acquaintance before
they became friends and eventually got married.
Ms Imam also
expressed her surprise at the rumours and stated that she did not know how they
had spread. She also clarified that her husband is not involved in the Indian
film industry in any capacity.
This statement
from Madiha Imam puts an end to the speculation surrounding her husband's
nationality and profession and highlights the need to avoid spreading
unverified information on social media.
Source: nation.com.pk
https://www.nation.com.pk/09-May-2023/madiha-imam-denies-rumours-about-husband-s-nationality-and-profession
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Jewish Woman
Shot Dead Charging Checkpoint Dressed As Islamic Terrorist
(May 10, 2023 /
JNS)
Israeli
soldiers on Tuesday evening shot and killed Livnat Grin, 20, after she charged
a military checkpoint dressed as a Muslim and armed with a fake pistol.
The incident
took place at the Masadat Yehuda crossing south of Mount Hebron in Judea.
The Jewish
woman approached the checkpoint dressed head-to-toe in black garb, drew the
weapon (an airsoft gun) and started running toward the soldiers while shouting
“Allah Akbar,” (“God is Great” in Arabic).
The Israeli
Defence Forces initially reported the incident as an “attempted attack.”
Before the
incident, Grin posted a picture of herself dressed in black on WhatsApp and
asked a friend: “If someone wants to die, an ordinary Jew, an Israeli, wearing
Arab clothes, running with a fake airsoft gun toward a checkpoint in the
territories, shouts ‘Allah Akbar’ because he wants to be shot because he wants
to die, and then only gets shot in the legs and stays alive, do they put him in
prison for that? And if so, for how long and on what charge?”
The friend
responded: “That someone = you?”
Grin made
national news three years ago after she was evicted from her apartment and
pitched a tent in front of the Ministry of Labor, Social Affairs and Social
Services in Jerusalem. She posted a picture of it on a IDF soldiers’ page on
Facebook with a sign underneath: “A released lone soldier = a lone citizen.” A
“lone soldier” is a person serving in the Israeli military that has no family
in the country.
Grin, who was
24 at the time, sketched in brief a difficult life, saying she had been known
to welfare services in Beersheva from a young age.
Knesset member
Alexander Kushnir of the YisraelBeiteinu Party offered to put her in touch with
a social services nonprofit, but then-Defense Minister Naftali Bennett reached
out to her. She ended up spending several days at his home, Ynet reported.
“He woke me up
and made me an omelette. It was important to him that I wouldn’t be on the
street because those were cold and rainy days. At first I was embarrassed, but
later they made me feel that I had nothing to be ashamed of,” said Grin.
After that she
moved to an apartment of lone soldiers and tried to find a place to live in
Beersheva.
Source: jns.org
https://www.jns.org/jewish-woman-shot-dead-charging-checkpoint-dressed-as-islamic-terrorist/
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Egypt: Woman
Killed By Husband 48 Hours after Her Wedding after Saying 'No' To Have Sex with
Him
May 9, 2023
An Egyptian man
murdered his wife three days after their wedding reportedly because she refused
to have sex with him.
Mohamed M, a
policeman, told the prosecution in Tanta, a city in the Nile Delta, that he was
"fed up and tired and could no longer be patient with her."
There has been
an alarming spate of femicide in Egypt, often after women say no.
Last year,
three women were murdered by men after they turned down their marriage
proposals.
Naira Ashraf
and Salma Bahgat were stabbed to death and Kholoud Al-Sayed Farouk was
strangled to death.
Also last year,
a prominent judge killed his wife, the TV presenter Shaimaa Gamal who spoke out
about domestic violence before being killed.
According to
the Tadwein Centre for Gender Studies, there were 151 cases of femicide and
female suicide last year alone.
In 2020 a group
of men killed 24-year-old Mariam Saleh after sexually harassing her whilst she
was walking home from work.
Mariam was then
killed after one of the men grabbed her handbag, and another accelerated,
dragging her alongside the car where she was pulled under the wheels and then
hit a parked car.
Human rights
groups have accused the government of focusing on the arrest of women and
detaining them on so-called immorality and debauchery charges, rather than
cracking down on curbing violence against women.
Just one month
ago beauty queen Marwa Adel was stabbed 25 times by her neighbour and suffered
significant injuries.
In 2017 Cairo
was named the most dangerous city in the world for women with 99 per cent of
female residents reporting that they had been sexually harassed.
Egypt has had
its own #MeToo movement and dozens of women have come forward to talk about
their experiences of sexual violence and rape, however the femicides continue.
In November
last year the women's rights NGO Equality Now called on MENA governments to
urgently review sex discriminatory laws, highlighting that in Egypt women who
are victims of domestic violence are not protected because domestic abuse and
marital rape are not explicitly criminalised under Egyptian law.
Source: middleeastmonitor.com
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20230509-egypt-woman-killed-by-husband-48-hours-after-her-wedding-after-saying-no/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islam-women-feminism/muslim-inheritance-rights-law-custom/d/129748