Introduction

The economic resources to the younger and middle aged people are being provided through
inheritance from their insisters. This often provide a continues way of income and also a security
in old age in the shape of inheritance of home in the developing countries the security to lively
hood at national level do not exist and also having an Imperfect capital market system. Those
children who become orphan, their main source for the investment in their education comes from
the inheritance. As the life cycle theory claims, if the parents are collecting property assets for
their old-age and do not want to leave anything to their children, their children well still receive
some property in inheritance (Ahmad, 2012).

Accxurate and reliable dictionary defined Inheritance as “a perpetual or continuing right which a
man and his heirs have to an estate; an estate which a man has by descent as heir to another, or
he may transmit to another as his heir; an estate derived from ancestor to a heir in course of law

(Accurate and Reliable Dictionary, 2008).

In the developing countries all over the world, gender discrimination occurs in the form of
property distribution and inheritance rights. Women inheritance rights denial in land and
property is claimed by the development practitioners and other social organizations to pointedly
weaken their economic security and also to make them dependent, and also the assurance of
adequate food and life standard (Habitat, 2006). According to the report of World Bank on
Gender Equality and Development, reforming in the policies and the legal framework is needed
to increase the voice of the women in the house hold centers such that women should not be
deprived to access and control the house hold assets, land laws and other family laws on
marriage, divorce, and the distribution of property which is most important (World Bank,
20012).

More than half of the urban population in the undeveloped and developing countries lives in the
slums and sub-standard areas and households, where they do not enjoy their basic human rights
and services, and without adequate housing and land. A high proportion of such settlement is
formed by women headed households, where there is no security to ownership which affects
millions of population. In Africa and South Asia especially, Women is socially and culturally not
allowed to access, use, control and inherit their property. Majority of the women in these areas
cannot afford to buy land. These women can only access land by their male members of the
family like brother etc. their security of contract depend upon the good relation between them.
Millions of women in Asia, Africa, and Latin America depend on land mostly for their
livelihood. Statistically estimated 41% of the household headed by women live below the
poverty line locally defined while one third of the women population is homeless are in sub-
standard houses. When women are excluded from the inheritance, they have been pushed to
cities where join the increasing women headed households in slums. In Kenya, 70% of all the
houses are headed by women, in which 25% women headed families are migrated from the rural
areas due to the denial of their access to their property. Among its basic principles the Charter of
the UN include that they will achieve international cooperation for the promotion and for the
encouragement of respect and value for the human fundamental rights including freedom for all
without any discrimination in race, sex, language and religion. After three years of the adoption
of charter, in 1948, the General Assembly adapted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,
which provides a guide line principle for all the constitution of all the member countries of UN.

This Universal Declaration stops all form of discrimination grounded on sex and insure right to
life, freedom and security of individual; it identifies that everyone is equal before the law in the
violation of Declaration and everyone is equally protected against any type discrimination.
Human rights are further enforced by other international laws which reinforce personnel rights,
and also do not allow and secure any type of discrimination against specific groups of
community, in particular women. Traditional cultures often reflect these values and principles for
periods and often spanning centuries (Pakistan: CDS, 2010).

The major mean to handover the accumulated material capital of people to their offspring is
inheritance. When the parents transfer their property to their offspring provides the initial assets
for the younger generation to start their independent future and economic output. (Fafchamps
and Quisumbing, 2005) however, when the offspring is excluded from the inheritance assets, it
will make the younger more vulnerable to chronic poverty and also the transfer of poverty from
generation to generation (Bird et al., 2004).

The laws of inheritance and other cultural practices in some states do not allow some individuals,
specifically women and those children whose fathers are died, from their right of inheritance, in
which land, household, and productive resources are included to which they had access at the
time s their husband were alive (Cooper, 2008). This has been linked with the decline of the
economy and poverty traps (Bird et al, 2004; Human Rights Watch, 2003; Strickland, 2004).

Throughout the Globe, the food material and other goods are produced by women while working
in fields, factories households businesses. So the women perform a great role in the sustenance
of families, communities and nations. A large number of women have been brought to the waged
labor by Globalization and Industrialization, one third of the labor forces are women nowadays
in the world. Including all these practices, the UN statistic division estimated that only 1-2% of
all the titled land all over the world is owned by women. The phenomena of the disowner ship of
“immoveable property” i.e., land and household is also showed in the “moveable property” i.e.,
business, furniture household goods, personal materials, and other capitals. This practice pushes
women to a very weak position to secure a place for their living and to sustain means of
livelihoods and also the basics for survival (UN Statistic Division, 2000).

In India, widows who were living with their adult sons and having control over the land of their
husband were considered more respectable than those who had no control over that land and are
dependent over the male members of family (Agarwal, 1994a). While in rural India, the status
and position of an individual is judged by the amount of property in the form of land the person
had. Other assets like animals, and other moveable property is not as much important as as land,
because land in considered as a permanent source of lifetime income. So when a women have
control over her land, it will have a great impact on the buy and sell power of the women, and
will increase her role in the expenses of the household, even aside from consideration of the
society in general and in her family as well. Another impact of the granting rights to women is
that, it will rise the power of women to invest more which will definitely increase their income
and the production of land, which will further have a positive impact on their say in the family
(Roy and Tisdell, 2002).

When we look back to the pre-Islamic and post-Islamic status of women in society and their
social, cultural and political position, we will notice a gradual increase in the value of women.
Islam as a religion provides unique status and easy opportunities to women to claim themselves
as an important part of the society. In the time of ignorance, in Arabia, women were considered
as slaves to their kinsmen or husband. War among the tribes was a continues process in those
times, and in the war women were consistently become captives. And if the capturer treats them
kindly, still they were disgraced, humiliated and were not allowed to go their homeland
(Sulaimani, 1986).

In any society in world, women are not allowed to take active part in social and political issues
which are relating to their wellbeing, and are dependent members of their respective societies.
One of the main cause of such an attitude was that, before Islam, the blood feuds and wars in the
Arab society was common which demand men folk to depend their tribe. So people give more
importance to male members as compared to female (Jawad, 1998).

After the arrival of Islam, Islam expelled out the blame from women that she is eternal seducer
and tempter to men, and men is pure and sinless for her (Soorma, 1929). Islam provide equity in
status to men and women in society. It provide independent personality to women as well, which
cannot be subjugated. The Holy Quran has cleared the dilemma of the origin of the human, and
says that men and women are both complimentary to each other for the survival their race. The
Book calls to both as equal i.e. An naas, Al Insan, Al Bashar and Al Momen (Khan, 2004).

Islam provide public, financial and political rights to women and provide a status and position in
society (Bukhari, 2012). Qiwwama is one of the exceptions of Quraan. Quraan says that
husbands are Quwwama over their wives. A husband is Quwwam, i.e. it is the duty of husband to
provide social, financial and political security to his wife and his family. Husband is quwwam
because he duty is to protect and look after the affairs of his wife (Sulaimani, 1986).

The most important thing about Islamic teachings is, Islam provide the basic rights as well as
formal equal legal rights to women, she is allowed to buy and sell, to earn, to live standard life to
control her own assets and property. Her responsibilities are not dependent to her father, brother,
or her husband (Adeel, 2010). While Omer mentioned that in Islam there is equity in inheritance
rights between men and women (Omar, 2011).

A women have her rights in the property after the death of her male relative (Father, Brother,
Husband). For the maintenance of her children bearing women will live in her husband home
even if divorced (Bukhari and Ramzan 2013).
In Pakistani society, a close examination suggested that in the present times, if we look the
practical implementation of these laws of women rights, these laws of women rights have been
violated on many ways. In Pakistani society people knowingly or unknowingly violate the
Islamic laws and teachings (Khan, 2011).

Pakistan is an Islamic country; and all the laws and rule regulations are emerged from Islamic
teachings, but still there are some traditional cultural practices which are totally against the
Islamic laws and which are in common practice in the society (UN, 2005). In Pakistan the
society is multi cultured, and these cultural practices do not allow women to enjoy their legal
rights religious rights which are given by law and Islam. Pakistan is an Islamic country, but it the
laws for the women rights are derived from the local culture and customs (Ibrahim, 2005).

In Pakistan the local justice systems like Jirga and Panchayat are existed, which totally not
interested in women, and due to which both the religious and legal system cannot seep into the
society social structure. Women are afraid, and this fear prohibits them to claim their right. This
system unlawfully put punishment on those people who violate the declared cultural or tribal
rules and proclaim their right (Bari and Khattak, 2001). The malevolence of such narrow minded
culture overshadows Islam which is the religion of peace and equality. While these local cultural
practices in some areas are found legal by the laws of the state like in FATA and PATA but are
practiced illegally all over the country. In these communities the formal judiciary has no
authority over these local systems. The judiciary cannot challenge the decision of a Jirga or
Punchayat, and so the fundamental rights are violated which are protected by the law of the
country. These local structures are working against women and the decisions they are taking are
always biased and are prejudice against women according to stereotypic status of women in their
culture and religion (Ibrahim, 2005).

Shahla (1989) has referred to the issues like inheritance, divorce and spouses’ rights, and
obligations in the permanent marriages of Iran. There is a fair of inheritance of the property of
the first mirage; the widows have less chance to marry again (Carol, 1990).

While in the Car Pathos and Sopoto in Greak society have local practices of the inheritance
rights of women over property which is in contrast to the existing customary laws. The state laws
provided the right to women that she must have shares in land but people do not practice it, and
somewhere this right in land is replaced with dowry (Dascalpoilos, 1990).
While the data collected from the two areas ( Peshawar and Malakand) of Khaibar Pakhtoon
Khwa, says that females are denied from their right of inheritance due to the following causes,
i.e. cultural restriction, illiteracy of women, the Division of land and dowry as a replacement of
their share in paternal land (Wisal and Inam, 2006, and Aisha, 2008).

Objectives

1. To know the socio-economic conditions of the respondents

2. To explore the role of cultural values in denial of women inheritance rights
3. To probe the cultural hindrances women face in availing inheritance rights
4. To measure the association between cultural constraints and women inheritance practices
5. To suggest policy recommendations in the light of the study
 Literature
This work contains several strands of other literature: which lies on security of rights of
property, on decision making within the house hold, and the transformation of social
norms from generation to generation. The loss in productivity is specifically linked with
the insecurity of tenure for women (Udry 1996 and Goldstien and Udry 2008). Wang
studied that the investment choices changes the range of achievements of people (Wang,
2013)
Nowadays it is almost recognized that a poor description of reality may be a unitary
household model and that, with preference to gender, how the capitals are distributed in
the household will have an effect on the give and take system and also on related socio-
economic outcomes. The ability of women to access their capitals and also to control it
has been shone that they largely invest it in children education, health, and a verity
context of nutrition (Duflo, 2003).

In China, the female income is almost based on the agriculture reforms. And based on
these incomes the survival rates for girls has been shown to be increased (Qian, 2008). In
India, the increase in the income of female especially in lower cast also increase the
investment level in the schooling specifically for girls (Luke and Munshi, 2011). Women
having control and access to their immoveable property hove less chances of risk to
divorce and other marital violence than those who have not (Agarwal and Panda 2005).
In Bangladesh the value of dowry and the pre-marriage contract is increases when their
government had banned polygamy and had decreased when they put extra charges of
divorce on the husband (Ambrus et al. 2010). The fertility behavior and son preference in
Indonesia have been affected by the changes in the Islamic family and inheritance law
(Carranza 2012).
Within the context of Developing countries, the traditional inheritance system and family
system shows that how parents were impose social norms on their children which compel
their ability to make bequests (Goetghebuer and Platteau, 2010; Mobarak et al, 2009;
Platteau and Baland, 2001; and La Ferrara, 2007).
A lot of empirical research’s shows specifically at how the parents bequests and
investment in their children’s human capital been impacted by the change in the
inheritance law. The natural experiment of amendment in Hindu succession Act, shows
that the girl’s education attainment is increases when they are granted with the right of
inheritance in property. An alternative mechanism is provided for such a result which
shows that the completion of education and dowries are the means of inter-generational
transfer of wealth (Deininger et al, 2013; Roy, 2011).
La Ferrara and Milazzo shows patrilineal and matrilineal ethnic groups response to the
intestate succession law of Ghana, which says that parents substitute bequests with
education (La Ferrara and Milazzo 2014).
In the sub-Saharan African countries, especially in Kenya, the property rights are
explained by a multifaceted interaction of different spheres: cultural laws, legal laws, and
Islamic laws. The 1969 constitution openly forbids the gender discrimination, in formal
agreement with CEDAW, but also holds the legal pluralism identifying the claim of
cultural practices in some way. In the constitutional review procedure of 2010, the
elimination of section 82(4), was an important amendment, which says that the tribal
custom of any tribe can be applicable in the cases of “adaption, marriage, divorce, burial,
division of property and on the death ceremony and other issues of personal law,” which
create an exclusion with the legislative principles of non-discrimination (Cooper, 2011).
In those matters described under section 82(4), Islamic law has been in forced by the
Kadhi courts. Within the history of post-colonial Kenya, until the present constitutional
review process, there is a tension persisted in the Muslim community, who wants to
expand the role of Kadhi courts, and Christion leaders are claiming that Islam should not
be afforded especial rights (Oded, 2000; Cooper, 2011).
In Zambia it was founded that widow-headed households controlled an average 35
percent less property after the death of their husband (Chapoto et al, 2007). Another
study shows that in Namibia round about 44 percent of widows and orphans lost their
cattle, while 39 percent loss form equipment’s (FAO/IP, 2003).
In 2006-7 Save the Children conducted a study in four provinces of Mozambique, Gaza,
Manica, Zambezia, and Nampula to investigate the nature and scale of property grabbing
in the country. The aim of the study was to highlight the issue and to progress the
understanding that what are main resistance to widows, orphans and other vulnerable
children in accessing and protecting their inheritance rights, and also to investigate the
effects of disinheritance.
The results of the study were published in a report “Denied Our Rights: Children, women
and inheritance in Mozambique”. This report shows that after the death of husband or
father, the widows and orphans are affected by some kind of material loss. Evidences
from widows and orphans reported that how they had been kicked out from their husband
house or how their husband or father relatives had taken away all the material of their
household like cattle or bicycles. Children who had loss both of their parents not only
suffer from the loss of inherited property but were also faced discriminated in the families
where they have to live their life. They were more likely to be drop out of their schools
and were less well-nourished than their peers who still have their parents. Property
grabbing directly affect the life of widows and orphans, which make them to find out
other coping strategies that make them vulnerable to exploitation and abuse. (Save the
Children, 2007)
Although in the name of family traditionally men have hold property, but wives,
daughters and under-age sons have always been allowed to access that property to
guarantee their life security and wellbeing. Women within the society were not allowed
to inherit property themselves, this impose an obligation on the part of male members of
family to take care of them. In the family parents transferred their property to sons, sons
were then supposed to allow their sisters to use that property to secure their livelihood
until they got married. Those widows who were still of child bearing-age were allowed to
remain in the family through the widows inheritance practice.
Those widows who were no more expected to marry again were allowed to use the
property of their late husband for life-time such that could stay in their marital homes.
The relatives of her husband would take care of the widow such that she could be able to
take care of her children. Keeping that reason in mind, African scholars have suggested
that dealing with the issue of inheritance we should give priority to access to use of
property rather than the direct ownership of property (Gordon, 2005).
In Latin America the discrimination in land ownership remains significant between men
and women. This study finds that the inequality is due to the special behavior of menfolk
in the community, the customs of marriage that favors men and the men biased
government schemes of land division. The study also attribute that this discrimination in
land ownership coming up through generation to the existence of similar inheritance
channels in which men transfer it to sons and women transfer it to daughters. This is in
spite of the observation that those women owning their land plays greater role in decision
regarding consumption of the household and form production (Deere and Leon, 2003).
Another form of gender-based transfer of property from generation to generation has also
been found in the Philippines society. Where the educated fathers tend to transfer their
property to sons directly or in the form of consumption in education while mothers
transfer their land directly to daughters. The researcher however find that this type of
discrimination in property transfer has been decreasing in the younger generations
(Estudillo et al, 2001).
Other study conducted on inter-generational transfer of land in West Ghana, find out that
female labour increases due to the increase in the land utilization, and which have also
favorable effects on the ownership and management of land by women (Quisumbing et
al, 2004). In contrast, another study conducted in Lesotho says that even though a lot of
rural developments including women empowerment measures have been taken, but when
it comes the right of inheritance of agricultural land, women remain subjected to
discrimination (Matashane and Marite, 2005).
Another study shows that in some cultures inheritance is substituted by Dowry to women.
This is certainly not a fair practice. Inheritance is given as a right while Dowry as favour.
In China those women who receive Dowry do not enjoy the same rights and privileges as
they enjoy it in inheritance (McCreery, 1976). One study find that a lot of females in rural
West Bengal do not own the agrarian land and the houses where to live as well, while
Inheritance is usually substituted by the Dowry practice (Brown and Chowdhury, 2002).
The ownership of inherited right provide a hedge against tisk to women. The amount of
assets owned by women effects the bargaining power of women in South Asia. This
means that right to inheritance is an effective tool to seek gender equality and justice
(Agarwal, 1994). In another study he finds that women in rural India have less choices of
livelihoods and are more vulnerable socially and economically, this is due to limited
access to ownership and management of their right of inheritance (Agarwal, 1998).
Another study find that women owned less than two percent of all the titled land in the
world, that explains the gender-based inequality practices worldwide which have
significant effects on the economic state of women, this type of discrimination decrease
the women capability to attain the minimum means of survival (Bennett, 1981).
Even if the women owned their property, the male members of the family have the actual
control over their property. Often with the household consent the women can disposed of
their property and all the bargaining of property is done by the male member of the
family. According to Islamic and Statuary laws, a women have the right to access, hold
and dispose their property. This study finds that there is another widespread practice in
the society and that is the women lose their right in favour of their brothers or sons, due
to force or social blackmailing. In the problems of protection and security, the women
generally depend on their parental home and their brothers, (bad marriage, illness,
economic pressure, etc.) and that is why they leave their share in inheritance as an
insurance of future (Kamal, 1999).
In several cases women names are registered in the papers of property transfer of
inheritance, but practically they do not hold it. The phenomenon is that the brother would
get the land, while the sister would get shares in bequests, harvest and gifts. In rural
Punjab, it is so common for a brother and the patwari (land revenue official) to inter into
an understanding that not to include the manes of the sisters in the owners of land in the
pretext that the sisters have disposed their shares. Otherwise, when a women mane is
enlisted in the transfer paper, gift is made to favour their brothers. There is another
practice of haq-bakhshawana (explicit giving up of rights) in which the girls never
married to a boy, they never get married or married to the Holy Quran’ as in Punjab
(Bahawalpure and Multan) and in Sind. The aim is to protect the property going out of
the family.
Similarly the large size of land and property are associated with status and power, for this
purpose the Cousin marriage and the exchange marriage are of common practice, as one
set of brother sister are exchanged with another set to prevent the division of property
into parts. One cause of such discrimination is also old traditions and cultures. Women
are not aware of the information about the legal, economic and political rights. There
have no access to protection and justice and that is why they are vulnerable to violence
and abuse. They are subjected to restricted mobility. The lack of knowledge about their
property and less understanding of the land registration system, the process of transfer
and other legal process of possession of land is a great barrier to the women to get their
rights (Mehdi, 2002).
Tirmazi also considered women’s mobility as a barrier to the access to their right and
freedom as a way to access and manage their property if they owned it. He finds out that
women are assigned to work as service providers, but if they want to own to control their
property, they are not consider enough responsible to take all the important decisions
regarding their property (Tirmazi, 1999).
All the above practices which are practiced in the society are in contrast to the prevailing
state laws and the legal clear Islamic guidelines given that orders a well-defined share to
sons as well as daughters of the deceased person. The Holy Qura’an says “men must have
shares in the inheritance in what their parents and their relatives left after their death,
while women also must have shares in such a left over property by parents and relatives.”
(Quran, 4:7). In Pakistan women are legally allowed to have legal right in family’s
property, still they partially practices their right. Even that Islamic law and Pakistan’s
state law both allow women to own their right of inheritance in movable and immoveable
property, but the cultural practices deny the women right of inheritance, mainly if it is
land then their whole claim is denied. As the cultural laws are more powerful in Pakistan,
due to which the inheritance rules followed in the country are mostly based on customs.
In the rural areas of the country women rarely receive their rights in immovable property.
Even though when women get their right in inheritance, it is then typically controlled by
the male members (Mehdi, 2002).Based on Islamic law, Pakistan’s state law specifies the
shares of a women in inheritance to be one-half of that of a men in the same relation to
each other (e.g., a daughter must have to inherit one share to that of every two shares of a
son) the reason is that the man have a greater responsibility to support the family. Islamic
laws shariah governed the inheritance law as mentioned in the Family Laws Ordinance
1961 (Mumtaz, 2006).
Synthesis of Review
From the above literature it is concluded that women are denied inheritance rights, due to
cultural values. The issue is more sever in nature comparing the developed societies with
developing one. The property division mostly take place between male sons, while the
counterpart gender is neglected in almost all societies in different shapes. The traditional
norms contribute a lot in division of property. Male members are given priority on
educational expenditures as compare to female members. They are considered as out
siders and excluded section of the community. Widows in different parts of the world
society are denied from property after the death of their husbands, even in most of the
Islamic societies. Possession of property obligations assigned to male members only, in
order to take care of them. In some part of society, the transfer of land property was
found differently. For instance, in Latin America and Philippines society, father tend to
transfer their land directly to sons, while mother transfer their wealth directly to
daughters. In China, for example inheritance is substituted to dowry. Even if women own
their property, male member will have control over that property in different aspect.
 III. MATERIALS AND METHODS

This chapter discusses the research methodology which the researcher used for this study.
In this chapter the researcher will discuss elaborately: the universe of the study, sample size, data
collection tools and data analysis methods.
3.1 Universe of the study
The universe of this study will be Tehsil Dargi. This tehsil consist 11 union councils as
all the union councils cannot be covered in this study due to financial and time constraints.
Therefore UC ----- is randomly selected for the current study. This union council consist three
Village Councils VC Mehirdi, VC Sharifabad and VC Wazirabad. There are 15000 individuals
in the respective mentioned areas which will be the population of this study. Since these three
village councils are easily accessible with in the available time and financial resources therefore
all of them are selected for this particular study.

3.2 Sampling method

The potential respondents of the study will be male members of the targeted areas, the
respondents will be selected through simple random sampling, as three village councils are
selected for the study so the researcher will specify sample size to each village council through
proportional allocation method. During the pilot study, the researcher collected data of the
universe under study from the concerned office of the UC. According to Sekaran (2003)
proposed samples selection, the researchers choose 375 samples from the total population. The
proportional allocation formula was utilized for sample selection from each village council of the
study.
The formula is mentioned bellow;
ni= (Ni/N) x n
ni= sample size required from strata
n= total sample size
N= total population
Ni= population of each strata
The formula mentioned above was applied for sample selection from each village councils and is
mentioned in the table below;
Table 1: Target village councils and its total population
S.NO VCs Name Total Population Sample Size
1 VC Meherdi 4637 3754637÷15000= 116
2 VC Sharif Abad 5363 3755363÷15000= 134
3 VC Wazir Abad 5000 3755000÷15000=125
Total 15000 375

3.3 Methods of Data Collection

In this study the researcher will use interview schedule as a tool for data collection. The
researcher will design a comprehensive schedule for the interview in the light of objectives of the
study. In order to get clear information, the purpose of the study will be discussed briefly. The
interview schedule will be tested before going to the field and the researcher will edit it for
correction accordingly.
3.4 Conceptual frame work
Independent Variables Dependent Variable
Patriarchal authority
Women
Traditional practices
Inheritance
Dowry as impediment
Deviance from Islamic laws in life style Practices
3.5 Data Analysis

The researcher will use SPSS for the analysis of data. The data then will be interpreted into
percentage and frequency. Moreover, the effects of independent variables on dependent variable
will be found out through chi-square test statistic.

3.5.1 Uni Variat

This section will highlight the numbers, frequencies, and percentages of the
respondents regarding the specific idea.
3.5.2 Bi Variat
This section will present the data in the cross tabulation form with the help of
statistical implication that is chi-square test. In order to show the association
between dependent and independent variables.

A) Chi-square Test
r c (Oij  eij ) 2
 2  
i 1 j 1 eij

Where =Chi-square for two categorical variable.

Total of ith row

Total of ith Colum

= represent the observation and expected value shown

B) Gamma Test
Gamma will be used to determine the strength and direction of the relationship.
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 INTERVIEW SCHEDULE
Thank you for taking time to complete these short questions. Please answer the following
questions mostly appropriate to your knowledge. We will keep your responses highly
confidential.
A. Profile of the Respondents
1. What is your age
a) _______
2. What is your gender?
a) Male b) Female
3. Your Educational status
a) Educated b) Uneducated
4. Level of your education
a) Primary School b) High school c) College degree d) Graduate
degree e) f) Master degree g) Religious education
5. Which one of these applies to you at present? Marital Status
a) Married b) Single c) Widowed d) Divorced or separated
6. What is your family type?
a) Joint b) Nuclear c) Extended d) other
7. What is your income per month (PRs)

__________________________

8. Is Nature and Extent of Property Ownership same in men and women in society?

a) Yes b) No

9. Do you think, Our Society accepts women’s Rights of Inheritance?

a) Yes b) No

10. Do you think, Our Society Practices Women’s Rights of Inheritance?

a) Yes b) No
11. What should be given as Inheritance?
a) Land b) House Hold c) Cattle d) Jewelry e) Cash
A. Patriarchal authority
S.no Attributes Agree Disagree Don’t know
1. Patriarchal authority discourages women
rights of inheritance to be practiced

2. Women inheritance rights are felt

shameful in patriarchal authorities to be
practiced

3. In patriarchal structured society women

are dealt as entities or commodities

4. In patriarchal structure women are kept

economically depressed

5. In Patriarchal system inheritance of

property to women is considered to be a
property loss for family
6. Women are considered inferior to men in
patriarchal authorities

7. Lack of women’s authority to ask for her

right of property in Court or in Jirga is due
to patriarchal system
8. due to patriarchal structure women’s are
deprived to practice their right of
inheritance
9. in patriarchal structure women are not
allowed to take decisions of their own life

10. Patriarchal authority does not agree for

the division of property outside the
family, while women will marry outside.
B. Traditional practices
S.no Attributes Agree Disagree Don’t know
1. Traditionally Property division take place
only among male heirs of the family
2. Women in practice is considered to be the
property of the family in which she is
going to be marry or married
3. The division of property is only on
informal basis as per prevalent traditions
4. In traditional practices prevalence of
dowry is promoting the denial of women
inheritance rights
5. In local practices female education and
other expenditures on her are replaced
with their rights of inheritance in property
6. Traditional practices are preferred by the
people over Islamic teachings

7. Traditionally women’s are considered as

servants to men’s

8. Due to traditional practices women’s do

not have the freedom of expression

C. Dowry as impediment
S.no Attributes Agree Disagree Don’t know
1. Dowry is imposed on the families of the
women
2. Economic loss due to dowry is recovered
by the women’s families through denial of
their inheritance rights
3. Dowry is considered to be an important
part of culture currently in society

4. Deviance in the behavior regarding

women inheritance rights is planted by
dowry
5. Women status and value is degraded by
the promotion of dowry
 6. Women’s inheritance rights are replaced
by dowry and others costs of marriages

7. Preference are given to those women’s

who have more goods in dowry from
parents side
8. Dowry is considered as a respected
practice of the society, which deny right
of inheritance to be practiced

D. Deviance from Islamic laws in life style

S.no Attributes Agree Disagree Don’t know
1. Due to lack of Islamic knowledge
women’s inheritance rights are not
practiced
2. Lack of Islamic laws awareness women’s
inheritance are not practiced
3. Improper implementation of country laws
women’s inheritance rights are not
practiced
4. Lack of proper utilization of media
sources in spread of Islamic teachings
regarding women rights of inheritance
5. Religious leader should play their role in
practicing women inheritance rights

6. Improper implementation of law of

punishment to those who deprived women
to practice their inheritance right
7. Political struggle can be helpful to women
in getting their inheritance to be practiced

8. It is due to lack political involvement

women are facing issue to practice their
inheritance rights
9. Distribution of property among Muslims
are major problem to women in practicing
their inheritance right
10. Women inheritance rights are denied due
to non-Islamic distribution of property
among heirs.
E. Women Inheritance Rights
S.no Attributes Agree Disagree Don’t know
1. People deny women inheritance rights be
practiced due to ignorance
2. Social Customs / Practices are forcing the
parents to deprive women from her
inheritance rights to be practiced
3. Elder Brothers in most of the families are
not in favor of women inheritance rights
to practice
4. Women inheritance practices are denied
due to lack of Islamic knowledge
5. Anticipated Dependency on Parents after
Marriage is source of deprivation of
women from their inheritance rights to be
practiced
6. Social practices are responsible for the
women inheritance rights to practiced

7. Culture is the main obstacle to women in

getting their inheritance rights to be
practiced
8. Usually female do not demand their
inheritance to be practice because of their
dependency on parents after marriage
9. Due to Lack of proper implementation of
state laws women face problems to
demand their inheritance rights to be
practiced
10. Due to illiteracy women are unaware of
basic inheritance rights to be practiced

11. Better education will help female in

getting their inheritance rights to be
properly practiced