Women Inherit Less Under Islam. One Country’s Changing the Rules
- Tunisian leader opens Mideast debate on equal inheritance laws
- Some clerics fume; others say there’s room to reinterpret
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Halima Ben Diafi says her brothers spent their summer enjoying Tunisia’s Mediterranean coast while she was stuck in the capital, trying to scrape together enough cash to feed her children.
That’s because the men got all the family money. Their father was fairly prosperous by local standards, and left land and a house worth about $200,000 when he died. But under the country’s inheritance laws, a daughter is only entitled to half of what a son receives. And many women, pressured by their families and communities, end up ceding their share entirely.