Right to inheritance: Drive launched to raise awareness among women
By Sadia Qasim Shah
PESHAWAR: A non-governmental organisation, working on women issues, has said that a large number of women become victims of violence as they remain financially poor due to their deprivation of the right of inheritance.
The NGO, Aurat Foundation, has launched a campaign at grassroots level to raise awareness among women about their right of inheritance. In this connection it held a meeting here on Wednesday with a focused group of civil society.
The AF senior programme officer, Saima Munir, told the meeting that during the awareness campaign distribution of posters, brochures and direct meeting with the community, both male and female, were being held to answer queries regarding inheritance issues from legal and social perspectives.
“There are posters, which show what kinds of documents are needed to legally claim inheritance,” she said.
The AF has started meetings with locals in 20 union councils. “Local committees have been set up to spread awareness among the womenfolk about their right to inheritance,” Ms Munir said.Sherin Javed, programme officer of violence against women project of AF, said that in most cases women became victims of violence because of property issues. “Whenever she demands her legal right as a mother, widow, wife, sister or daughter she meets violence and is deprived of her right to inheritance,” she added.
AF resident director Shabina Ayaz said that actual reason behind discriminatory customary practices like Watta Satta and ‘marriage with Holy Quran’ were interlinked with depriving women of their right to inheritance. “Women are forced by their own family members to withdraw from their right and if they don’t they are abandoned by their family,” she added.
A woman claiming her right to inheritance is pressurised to leave it on the basis of gender as men are never forced to do so for another man. “This is one reason women are emotionally black-mailed and forced to withdraw from their right in favour of a brother,” she said.
Source: Dawn
Date:9/30/2010
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