women, property rights, and islam

UC RiversideUC Riverside Previously Published Works

TitleWomen Property Rights and Islam

Permalinkhttpsescholarshiporgucitem7hv4b9dm

JournalCOMPARATIVE POLITICS 49(4)

ISSN0010-4159

AuthorsBishin Benjamin GCherif Feryal M

Publication Date2017-07-01

DOI105129001041517821273026 Peer reviewed

eScholarshiporg Powered by the California Digital LibraryUniversity of California

Women Property Rights and Islam

Benjamin G Bishin and Feryal M Cherif

What accounts for the persistence of gender inequality in Muslim majority countries1

While religion and patriarchal culture are often described as the primary barriers toequality womenrsquos rights advocacy and the cultivation of core rights are believed tochallenge discriminatory laws and practices Overlooked however is the fact thatscholars tend to examine aspects of womenrsquos rights (eg political rights) in which twoof the key causal processesmdashreligion and patriarchal culturemdashproduce observationallyequivalent outcomes2

While largely neglected the study of property rights helps overcome this limitationbecause while Islamic law limits womenrsquos right to inherit it prescribes equality inwomenrsquos ability to own manage and dispose of property Muslim women enjoyedproperty rights centuries before women in the West even in countries regarded asparagons of gender equality today Studying property rights therefore provides tractionin examining the extent to which states conform to Islamic tenets when they conflictwith the cues provided by patriarchal actors Consequently examining the degree towhich Muslim states extend equal property rights to women allows us to differentiatebetween religious and cultural accounts of gender inequality

The right to own property is profoundly important Property rights are central towomenrsquos economic advancement as well as their full incorporation in the polityProperty provides a mechanism for women to build wealth leverage and autonomyOwning land for instance can provide a source of income that may help offset barriersto womenrsquos participation in the labor force The resources that property confers alsohelp to improve womenrsquos status in families communities and states3

Typically one of four explanations is offered to explain the status of womenrsquosrights in developing countries Advocacy-based arguments hold that womenrsquos rightsadvance when international organizations and activists work to publicize discriminatorybehavior and promote values and policy that favor gender equality4 The core rightsperspective argues that giving women skills and opportunitiesmdashby increasing femalelabor force participation and education levelsmdashprovides a host of ancillary benefits thatadvance womenrsquos rights5 Cultural accounts explain why womenrsquos rights in Muslimcountries continue to lag by pointing to political bargains that nurture the rise of

501

patriarchal institutions and practices67 Religious arguments in contrast identify theprivileged position accorded religious norms owing to citizensrsquo religiosity or the degreeto which a state affords a public status to religion as a primary impediment toadvancing gender equality8

This article examines whether and under what circumstances women get the rightsthat Islam affords We examine the degree to which explanations of womenrsquos rights indeveloping countries explain womenrsquos ability to own property in Muslim countries Wefind that Muslim countries are more likely to conform to religious dictates when Islamprescribes discriminatory outcomes but that state practices vary widely when Islamcalls for gender equality

How Where and Why Womenrsquos Rights Advance

Two perspectives are typically advanced to explain why womenrsquos rights improve insome places but not others womenrsquos rights advocacy and core rights9 Explanationsemphasizing womenrsquos rights advocacy contend that transnational activism initiates anorms-building process wherein international norms spread across states Advocatesdraw on the power of principled ideas like gender equality and the degree to whichstates value their reputations to press for changes in state behavior Similarly the corerights framework argues that advances in womenrsquos education and their entry into theworkforce spur normative and behavioral shifts that enable the development of strongpolitical interests

Womenrsquos Rights Advocacy While patriarchal culture and religion are presented asthe main barriers to gender equality womenrsquos rights advocacy is seen as the primarystrategy for challenging discriminatory practices Activists promote the diffusion of newnorms by serving as agenda setters publicizing statesrsquo practices and mobilizing andcultivating support around an issue

Womenrsquos rights advocacy brings attention to new issues elevates them to globalforums (eg world conferences or institutions) and facilitates their recognition ininternational law10 Advocates pressure states to conform to international norms bypromoting the validity of new ideas By providing information about issues and framingissues as ldquorightrdquo and ldquowrongrdquo they persuade governments to reform11 Activists exposethe practices of states that refuse to comply and may shame them for failing to conformto international norms Where possible they may offer a combination of incentives andsanctions to encourage change12 Because activistsrsquo strategies overwhelmingly rely onsoft power they are most likely to be effective in states that value their reputations orare more dependent on foreign trade and assistance13

A long history of successful challenges to state discrimination lends support for theadvocacy-based approach Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century womenrsquosmovements advanced married womenrsquos property rights leading to independentwomenrsquos rights to acquire and manage property14 Activists today increasingly employ502

Comparative Politics July 2017

strategic litigation to raise awareness about gender inequities to enhance respect forwomenrsquos property rights In Ephrahim v Pastory (1990) for example the High Courtof Tanzania ruled that Haya customary law which precluded women but not men fromselling clan land violated the Bill of Rights More broadly the UN has designatedunequal access to resources as an area of critical concern and has developed the HuairouCommission to enable women greater opportunities to own land and housing15 Despitethis relatively little is known about the extent to which womenrsquos rights advocacy hasinfluenced the extension of property rights

Core Rights Explanations Core rights explanations contend that increasing femaleeducation and labor force participation elevates womenrsquos status By fostering agencyand the ability to organize politically core rights facilitate the acquisition of other rights(eg those pertaining to citizenship and inheritance)16 Specifically core rightsempower women to contest circumscriptions of other rights by enhancing their statusresources and social capital While socioeconomic explanations primarily focus onindividual empowerment the core rights framework emphasizes that higher educationand labor force participation also enable increased political representation by spurringthe growth of womenrsquos rights constituencies

Cultivating womenrsquos core rights enhances autonomy and endows women withstronger bargaining rights For example Bina Agarwal argues that a womanrsquos landrights depend on literacy rights awareness and access to support systems outside ofpotential claimants (eg family members)17 Investing in female education helpswomen develop skills that facilitate outside employment while labor force participationexposes women to networks and support systems outside of kin18 With more financialindependence and broader social networks women are in a stronger position to defendtheir rights

Core rights also encourage gender consciousness among women Though scholarsdisagree about whether these changes are due to exposure to new ideas a desire to adoptattitudes that reflect onersquos lifestyle or self-interest there is considerable evidence that awomanrsquos educational and employment status increases her support for feminism19

College-educated women for example are more aware of and dissatisfied withinequalities and perceive gender to be driving their disadvantage20 By increasingdemands for gender equality and encouraging group identification core rights fosterwomenrsquos rights constituencies

Investments in core rights reduce coordination problems The workplace is often afocal point for the discussion and organization of (womenrsquos) political interests21

Similarly people who are better educated tend to be more politically engaged as theyare more likely to turn out to vote and participate in civic and political groups22 Finallywomenrsquos educational and professional advances also increase social capital and byextension the resources that activists may use to pressure elites for policy change23

Womenrsquos property rights are typically violated either by states that are reluctant toenforce gender-neutral legislation or family members that usurp womenrsquos rights Theextension of core rights decreases these violations by empowering women to stand up

503


for themselves and by encouraging elites to pursue reform Cultivating independencestrengthens a womanrsquos position in the home making her less reliant on kin Similarly insociety more broadly increased core rights enable group formation politicalorganization and socioeconomic development which create incentives for politicalelites to advocate changes in womenrsquos rights in order to obtain the support of thesenewly empowered women In their examination of womenrsquos property rights in theUnited States between 1850 and 1920 for instance Rick Geddes and Dean Lueck findthat female schooling leads to the extension of independent property rights forwomen24 In the Americas elite and working women tended to opt out of restrictivemarital property regimes when possible and were among the first to demand change25

What Explains Gender Inequality in Muslim Majority Countries

Womenrsquos unequal status in Muslim majority countries is typically seen as a product ofthe prominence of religion or patriarchal structures26 Though some explanations ofwomenrsquos unequal status rely on essentialist claims about Islam or patriarchal culture wefocus on more sophisticated accounts that explain why religious or patriarchal normsvalues and institutions persist While the mechanisms driving inequality may not besolely religious or cultural these terms allow us to discuss two broad sets of accountsthat explain why religious or patriarchal norms values and institutions are privilegedrelative to others

One line of scholarship posits that religion specifically religious norms explainsthe persistence of gender inequality in Muslim countries Prevailing interpretations ofIslam emphasize traditional gender roles and prescribe different treatment for men andwomen27 Islamic law (Sharirsquoa) for example affords women limited rights to initiatedivorce and restricts female inheritance child custody and in some places freedom ofmovement Whether by tenet or practice religious norms are also thought to excludewomen from political office

Some reason that religious norms are a powerful impediment to womenrsquos rightsadvancement because of high levels of religiosity in Muslim countries28 In morereligious societies prevailing interpretations often enjoy wide legitimacy such thatlevels of religiosity coupled with conservative understandings of Islam impedeadvances in womenrsquos rights Research by Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norriscorroborates this perspective by linking Islamic culture to discriminatory attitudesand in turn to gender inequities in education economic activity and politicalparticipation29

Others suggest that high levels of religious institutionalizationmdashthe degree towhich political structures incorporate or are organized around religionmdashin Muslimsocieties best explain gender inequality Mala Htun and Laurel Weldon for examplecontend that the nature of the religion-state relationship rather than norms emanatingfrom specific faiths better accounts for variation in the degree of discrimination infamily law across countries30 Recognizing a state religion establishing religious504


institutions (eg courts or ministries) or teaching religion in schools elevatesthe status of religious symbols elites and authority such that they become centralcomponents of state power identity and legitimacy (eg in Greece Israel orEgypt)31

State establishment of religion is thought to increase resistance to womenrsquos rightsreform especially in areas like family law where religious doctrine dictates which rightswomen enjoy The politicization of religion particularly the recognition of a statereligion creates additional barriers to reform Religious monopolies reduce competitionleaving less space for alternative interpretations to emerge and challenge conservativelaws (eg in Israel where the recognition of Orthodox Judaism has created high barriersto marriage and divorce reform)32 Affording religion a public status politicizesreligious elites by incentivizing them to participate in politics in order to protect theirinfluence and resources33 Some also argue that state recognition confers additionallegitimacy to religious symbols interpretations and actors making religion-based lawsmore difficult to change34 Ultimately because womenrsquos rights reforms contest thestatus of religion in the polity they are seen as undermining the identity of the state andby extension its citizens35 In many Muslim societies family law is framed as theldquokeystone of Islamic identityrdquo36

A second perspective attributes gender inequality in Muslim societies to theascendance intensification or persistence of patriarchal norms and structures We usethe term patriarchy in its classical sense to mean a system of social relations governedby patrilocal-patrilineal institutions and draw on the concept of neopatriarchal states inour discussion of the codification of male rule in state laws37 Though accounts varymany of these explanations contend that state policy on womenrsquos rights is tied to theeconomic and political needs of the state38

Scholars of this tradition contend that the persistence of patriarchal institutions atthe national level is tied to post-colonial state-building projects wherein (new) leadersseek to consolidate power and cultivate legitimacy Following independence weakstates often made alliances with strong clans or tribes privileging these patriarchalkinship networks and their preferences39 By contrast where states were able to developand govern without the assistance of these groups womenrsquos rights policy was oftendelegated to civil authorities that tended to limit the power of kinship networks suchthat patriarchal norms became codified into the laws of some states but not others40

More recently the need to appease Islamists the principal opposition has led manyleaders to trade womenrsquos rights policy for political security41

Whether due to the incorporation of kinship networks Islamists or otherpatriarchal actors there is broad agreement that political elites use the status of womento serve broader interests Women are often portrayed as ldquorepositories of religiousnational and cultural identityrdquo placing womenrsquos rights at the center of debates aboutthe status of religion and national identity42 Accordingly scholars of gender in Muslimsocieties conclude that womenrsquos rights reform has been slowed by the elevation ofpatriarchal norms and the conservative interpretations of Islam that often accompanythem43

505


Though religious and cultural arguments are distinct they often predict identicaloutcomes With respect to family law for instance both predict that womenrsquos rights willbe circumscribed in Muslim societies With respect to property rights however religionand culture predict different outcomes and hence research in this area may help advanceour understanding of how where and why gender equality improves

Womenrsquos Property Rights in Islam

In popular thinking Islam is renowned for its unequal treatment of women Womenrsquoslimited rights to freedom of movement divorce child custody and other areas of familylaw as well as the persistence of low levels of female political representationeducation and labor force participation are widely referenced44 Less appreciatedhowever is that Islamic law extends women greater protections in some areas than doother religious traditions Of particular importance prevailing and historicalinterpretations of Islamic law afford women unfettered property rights45

In contrast to many other areas of Islamic law jurists do not differentiate betweenthe sexes in terms of buying selling investing or lending and make no distinctionsbetween types of property (eg land real estate or money)46 Regardless of maritalstatus Muslim women have enjoyed an autonomous legal identity and separate propertyrights since the seventh century Citing portions of the Quran which read ldquoif youperceive in them right judgment deliver to them their propertyrdquo prevailing legalinterpretations hold that men and women are endowed with equal rights to acquiremanage and dispose of property47

That religious doctrine confers Muslim women strong property rights speaks littleto whether they are able to exercise these rights Though religious elites are emphaticabout womenrsquos rights to property respect for these rights is mixed48 Archival researchfrom the Ottoman Empire reveals a large number of property disputes in which mentried to disinherit women49 Men might disinherit their daughters by for exampleproviding their sons with gifts prior to their death50 Women are less likely to inheritfamily land and over time have become less likely to control their dowries due tomisappropriations by male kin51

Complicating matters Islam draws an important distinction between the rights to(separate) property and inheritance Despite unambiguous support for womenrsquos rights toproperty prevailing interpretations of Islamic law stipulate that women inherit half asmuch as men52 These disparities have a profound effect on womenrsquos ability to developcomparable wealth and power to men tempering to some extent the enthusiasm wemight attach to the extension of independent property rights

Despite these limitations there is considerable evidence that many women enjoyedeffective property rights Women were active in buying and selling real estate in theOttoman Empire and in some places were charged with heading trusts53 Courtsroutinely upheld a womanrsquos right to property and inheritance when women challengedmale circumscriptions of their rights54 In places with strong legal systems the number506


of women property owners could be nearly comparable to men55 Islamrsquos respect forwomenrsquos property rights was so widely known in Ottoman times that Christian andJewish women often pursued inheritance rights through Islamic courts as their ownreligious laws granted no comparable rights56

While what is known about the status of womenrsquos property rights is based onhistorical studies from a handful of countries several conclusions are clear FirstMuslim women played an active role in acquiring and managing property though attimes male kin appropriated their property Second courts and by extension the stategenerally upheld womenrsquos property rights Third despite religious dictates Muslimcountries vary in the degree to which they extend women equal property rights

The inconsistent extension of property rights across Muslim countries demandsfurther examination That women enjoyed the rights to acquire and manage propertyspeaks to conformity between religious tenets and behavior but the lack of uniformrespect for these rights also suggests that other factors are almost certainly at play Thisvariation in the extension of property rights across states presents an opportunity toexamine respect for religious norms across issue areas that have favorable (propertyrights) and unfavorable (inheritance rights) outcomes for women permitting additionalinsights into the strength of religious explanations

What Explains Womenrsquos Property Rights in Muslim Majority Countries

Research examining how where and why states extend women equal rights focuses onissues like nationality political and labor rights While these issues are cruciallyimportant for purposes of understanding the factors that drive gender inequality theseissues share a common limitation In many cases the implications that follow fromreligious and cultural accounts produce observationally equivalent outcomes (eg bothpredict discrimination in nationality law low levels of political representation in office)Specifically because religious explanations of property rights predict increasedequality while cultural accounts predict reduced equality the case of property rightspresents a unique opportunity to differentiate between two competing narratives aboutwhy gender inequality persists religion and patriarchal institutions

Expectations and Hypotheses Most of the research on gender inequality in Muslimsocieties focuses on issues on which the salience of religion and the persistence ofpatriarchal institutions produce identical expectations about discrimination On propertyrights however Islamic law assures women equal footing with men Consequently weexpect that if religion strongly shapes behavior in Muslim countries then laws andpractice should conform to Islamic tenets While property rights are uncontestedIslamic law prescribes different rights in inheritance for men and women Consequentlywe expect that Muslim countries should foster equal rights to acquire and manageproperty while also exhibiting a stronger propensity to discriminate against women ininheritance law

507


Religious explanations also hold that where religious norms are strong either dueto citizensrsquo religiosity or the political institutionalization of religion we should observefew distinctions between the de jure and de facto rights that Islam dictates such that inMuslim countries where religion is accorded a more prominent role womenrsquos propertyrights should be more equitable while inheritance rights should be more discriminatory

While patriarchal institutions have not eroded de jure rights in many Muslimsocieties these social norms provide a common explanation of why women may bedenied effective property rights Scholars of gender in Muslim societies suggest thatpatriarchal norms often become privileged as a product of political bargains57

Patriarchal norms are institutionalized when the leaders of weak states coopt extendedkinship networks or Islamists to consolidate power58 Specifically cultural accountssuggest that states that privilege patriarchal norms will exhibit low respect for womenrsquosproperty rights and more discriminatory inheritance laws

While religious and cultural explanations reflect the prevailing understanding ofwomenrsquos status in Muslim countries womenrsquos rights advocacy and core rights accountsare often advanced to explain respect for womenrsquos rights across countries Explana-tions emphasizing womenrsquos rights advocacy suggest that a countryrsquos willingness toinstantiate international norms is a function of their acceptance of global standardsintegration into the global community and the strength of civil society actors Whilethese explanations delineate several paths through which womenrsquos rights organizationsand international institutions influence state policy we focus on the role of activistsConsistent with these explanations we expect that in states with dense networks of(transnational) womenrsquos rights organizations there is likely to be greater pressure onstates to conform to international norms and greater respect for womenrsquos property andinheritance rights

Core rights explanations in contrast describe a process of norms-building andpolitical mobilization that develops by facilitating independence gender consciousnessand political organization Core rights position women to challenge family and state-based violations of their rights such that in states with higher rates of female labor forceparticipation and educational attainment women enjoy more equitable property andinheritance rights

Data and Methods We evaluate whether conformity to religious norms is morelikely when Islam prescribes discrimination rather than equality To test thesehypotheses across Muslim and non-Muslim majority countries we examine data onwomenrsquos property rights from the OECDrsquos Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)which canvasses property laws and practices across developing countries in 2009 Inorder to assess respect for various tenets of Islamic law we examine three aspects ofproperty rights the right to inherit to own (general) property and to own land Becauseprevailing interpretations of Islam treat inheritance differently from other property rightsand historically land rights have been subject to more predation examining these dif-ferent aspects of property rights allows us to investigate the nuances underlying thehypothesized effects of Islam508


We measure de jure and de facto rights using the SIGI data as they gauge womenrsquosactual status For each variable higher scores indicate that a state extends womengreater equality59 Inheritance rights assess the degree to which widows and daughtershave equal rights to men in succession Similarly Land Rights measures womenrsquosaccess to agricultural land whereas general Property Rights evaluates a womanrsquos abilityto acquire manage and dispose of property and evaluates de facto rights to any formsof property except agricultural land

To operationalize religion-based arguments we use two measures Whencomparing Muslim countries to other developing nations we employ a simpledichotomous measure indicating whether 50 percent or more of a countryrsquos populationis Muslim Muslim Majority countries however vary considerably in the degree towhich they incorporate religion-based laws institutionalize religious authority andmore generally privilege religious norms In the sample of Muslim countries wedistinguish between more- and less-religious states by examining whether there is anestablished State Religion Where there is an official religion there is less religiouscompetition alternate interpretations are marginalized and womenrsquos rights reform oftentriggers broader debates about the identity of the state and its citizens60

To account for the influence of patriarchal structures we assess the degree towhich a countryrsquos prevailing social norms and state laws embrace PatrilinealInstitutions61 In deeply patriarchal societies laws usually permit only men to confernationality to children affirming traditional conceptions of the family and patrilinealdescent Higher scores correspond to societies that have more fully embracedpatriarchal institutions

To examine claims about rights advocacy we examine how the number ofWomenrsquos Rights Organizations operating within a country affects the status of womenrsquosproperty rights These accounts suggest that as activism increases states are subjected tomore intense pressure to conform to global standards and thereby extend equal rights towomen

Core rights accounts on the other hand imply that investments in womenrsquoseducation and their participation in the labor market foster improvements in womenrsquosrights by encouraging individual-level empowerment and the development of strongerwomenrsquos rights constituencies These are operationalized using data on the percentageof women in the Labor Force and enrolled in secondary Education

Lastly we account for arguments about economic development Economicdevelopment may influence the quality of womenrsquos property rights in three waysFirst modernization arguments credit economic development with leading to increasesin industrialization urban living and education all of which are correlated with moreegalitarian attitudes that privilege the adoption of more progressive legislation62

Second economic growth produces higher market wages that increase the value of non-household labor and facilitate womenrsquos entrance to the labor force63 Third witheconomic development incomes rise and resources increase With less resource scarcityand more opportunity male kin may have less motivation to usurp womenrsquos property oroppose equality Per capita GDP measures economic development

509


Though economic development is generally thought to improve gender equalityincreasingly it is recognized that some forms of development may inhibit advances inwomenrsquos rights Natural resource abundance particularly oil may limit femaleeconomic activity by shrinking the sectors that typically employ women and reducingthe need for dual incomes because of government subsidies and higher male wages64

Limited female labor force participation in turn leads to lower levels of politicalparticipation and ultimately impedes empowerment such that we expect oil economiesto restrict womenrsquos property rights65 We capture this using a dichotomous variable forcountries with Oil-based economies

Womenrsquos Property Rights in Developing Countries

We begin by examining the question of whether Muslim countries extend equalproperty rights to women We evaluate the influence of Islamic culture on womenrsquosproperty rights controlling for the level of patrilineality core rights womenrsquos rightsadvocacy and economic development As our dependent variables have threecategories we employ ordered logit to estimate these models Recall that Islamictenets prescribe discriminatory treatment in inheritance rights but extend men andwomen equal rights to own and manage their wealth Table 1 depicts the results of theseanalyses

The first row in Table 1 shows that consistent with expectations Muslim countriesappear to restrict a womanrsquos right to inherit The strong relationship between religious

Table 1 Ordered Logit of Property Rights in Developing Countries

Inheritance General Property Land

Muslim Majority -179 043 -010(064) (063) (065)

Patrilineal Institutions -084 -050 -103(031) (029) (033)

Education 004 002 004(001) (001) (001)

Labor Force Participation -005 002 -001(003) (003) (003)

Womenrsquos Rights Orgs -013 025 010(032) (032) (035)

GDP -018 034 033(030) (030) (031)

Oil -132 -141 -131(073) (071) (080)

Observations 108 109 109Standard errors in parentheses significant at 10 significant at 5 significant at 1

510


tenets and practice however appears limited to inheritance rights Though thecoefficient Muslim Majority is positive for general property rights as expected it neverapproaches conventional levels of significance Similarly we detect no evidence thatwomen enjoy equal rights to land in Muslim societies In contrast we observe negativeand significant effects for patrilineal institutions

While these analyses clearly imply that Muslim countries conform to religiousdictates when Islam prescribes discriminatory outcomes and vary considerably more intheir practices when it calls for equal treatment they provide little sense of themagnitude of the effect of Islamic culture In Figure 1 we estimate predictedprobabilities based on the regression analyses displayed in Table 1 to simulate thehypothetical influence of Islam in the average developing country while holding allother factors at their mean

Figure 1 reveals that having an Islamic religious tradition increases the likelihoodof discrimination in inheritance law by over 30 points from 13 percent to 47 percent

Figure 1 The Effect of Islamic Culture on Womenrsquos Property Rights

Note The gray background highlights results that are statistically significant at the 10 level orhigher

511


when compared to other developing states Consistent with the statistical resultshowever the picture of general property and land rights differs Specifically Figure 1suggests that a womanrsquos rights to acquire manage and dispose of property are betterrespected in Muslim societies but while these results are consistent with religiousaccounts they are neither significant nor does the magnitude of the effect comport withwhat we would expect to observe if religion has a significant influence on behaviorThere are also no meaningful differences between Muslim and other developingsocieties in terms of womenrsquos access to land Though Islamic law does not distinguishbetween types of property a comparison of land and general property rights in Figure 1suggests that women are more likely to be denied access to land than other forms ofproperty Our results are consistent with claims that male kin often appropriate womenrsquosland rights or pressure them to forego claims in exchange for familial support (eg incases of divorce)66

Overall these results suggest that patriarchal norms rather than religiosity betterexplain state and individual behavior Consistent with existing scholarship the presenceof patrilineal institutions is consistently associated with lower rates of equality across allissues Women also have more limited property rights in oil economies In contraststates with higher levels of education exhibit greater respect for womenrsquos property rights(though there is no comparable effect of labor force participation)67 Finally theseresults evince no evidence that either a countryrsquos level of development or the number ofwomenrsquos rights groups lead to less discriminatory behavior

Womenrsquos Property Rights in Muslim Majority Countries

Though it is commonly said that Islam grants women property rights respect for theserights varies dramatically across countries This raises the question of the extent towhich religious or cultural explanations best explain womenrsquos status in Muslimcountries Specifically we examine whether patriarchal institutions or religion-basedaccounts better explain variation in property rights Recall that religious accounts implythat in countries where religion is accorded a larger role in the operating of the statereligious tenets are more likely to be respected Cultural accounts by contrast suggestthat the political incorporation of patriarchal actors leads to discriminatory laws andpractices To address this question we employ a more nuanced measure ofreligiositymdashwhether there is an established State Religionmdashto gauge the strength ofreligious norms and symbols in a given country Table 2 presents the analyses ofwomenrsquos property rights in Muslim countries

Two important findings emerge from the results presented in Table 2 First culturalrather than religious explanations better account for the status of womenrsquos propertyrights in Muslim countries We find no evidence that more religious Muslim states areassociated with more equitable land and general property rights or discriminatoryinheritance rights By contrast the institutionalization of patrilineal norms is associatedwith limits on womenrsquos property rights particularly inheritance and land rights68 It is512


noteworthy that discrimination in inheritance law appears to be stronger in morepatriarchal rather than religious contexts even though inequality is prescribed in Islamiclaw While we cannot dismiss the influence of Islam consistent with claims made byscholars of gender in Muslim countries discrimination appears to intensify in morepatriarchal contexts69

The results also suggest that advances in core rights and womenrsquos rights advocacyare closely related to improvements in property rights With respect to core rights theeducation variable is highly significant and correctly signed across all three issues Withrespect to advocacy-based accounts the number of womenrsquos groups is positivelyassociated with improved property rights though we are unable to detect a relationshipwith inheritance rights Lastly after controlling for religion and patriarchal institutionsoil economies are strongly associated with less respect for land rights

While the statistical results convey the estimates of and confidence in therelationships we assess the magnitude of these influences by calculating predictedprobabilities70 Setting all other variables to their means in Figure 2 we estimate theprobability of nondiscrimination for each right across the range of values of each of thestatistically significant variables in Table 2 To ensure that these simulations mostclosely approximate real world conditions the predicted probabilities are estimated onlyfor values of the independent variables actually observed More specifically theseestimates and the 95 percent confidence intervals that surround them show (on the Yaxis) the effect of patrilineal institutions female secondary education and number ofwomenrsquos rights organizations for values ranging from the 10th through 90th percentileof each variablersquos distribution (on the X axis)

The first row of Figure 2 shows that there are moderate differences between respectfor womenrsquos property rights in the least and most patriarchal contexts and small

Table 2 Ordered Logit of Womenrsquos Property Rights in Muslim Majority Countries


Established Religion -028 017 007(139) (103) (129)


Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)


Womenrsquos Rights Orgs 054 135 156(071) (056) (070)

Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513


differences in inheritance and land rights71 By contrast the graphs displayed in thesecond and third rows of Figure 2 show that female education and womenrsquos rightsadvocacy have a very large influence on womenrsquos property rights In each areawomenrsquos education appears to reduce the probability of discrimination by between 30and 75 points In the case of general property rights for example the probability ofnondiscrimination rises from 15 to 66 as female education increases from its minimumto full enrollment in secondary schools This is comparable to seeing women inAfghanistan where education levels and respect for property rights are low becomecomparable to countries like Kuwait Qatar and Libya where education levels are highand property rights are typically respected While education may mitigate discriminationin inheritance rights even in those societies that invest in womenrsquos education theprobability of nondiscrimination does not exceed the 5 threshold or the point at whichstates are just as likely to extend equality as to discriminate

Women living in Muslim countries also appear to enjoy stronger property rights instates with dense networks of womenrsquos rights activists Though the effects aresomewhat weaker and less consistent than for education norms-building by womenrsquos

Figure 2 The Effects of Patrilineal Institutions Core Rights and Womenrsquos RightsAdvocacy on Property Rights


514


rights groups appears to reduce discrimination against property rights As the number ofwomenrsquos rights groups increases from the lowest to highest levels the probability thatwomen enjoy the rights to acquire manage and dispose of property increases from 18to 65 By contrast advocacy appears to have a more modest influence on land rightsThough discrimination may decrease by about 20 points even when states are subject tointense pressure from womenrsquos rights groups the probability of nondiscrimination isonly 22 Finally the nearly flat slope of the estimates for inheritance rights suggeststhat advocacy efforts have little effect on womenrsquos status in this area

These results indicate that the state of womenrsquos education and womenrsquos rightsadvocacy are closely associated with increased gender equality Womenrsquos propertyrights are best respected in societies where women are more aware of their rights arepositioned to challenge misappropriations by kin and are better able to hold politiciansaccountable owing both to the ancillary benefits of advances in core rights and thestrength of womenrsquos rights groups

Our investigation of womenrsquos property rights in Muslim countries evincesimportant results While religious and cultural accounts find some support they areweaker than the conventional wisdom predicts Muslim countries appear to followreligious norms when they dictate inequality but lack a comparable level of commitmentto Islamrsquos calls for gender equality Within Muslim countries however the persistenceof patriarchal institutions rather than religion appears to be a more influential predictorof state behavior Nevertheless core rights and to a lesser degree womenrsquos rightsadvocacy both appear to be more significant determinants of womenrsquos property rightsoverall Finally though religious norms appear relatively weak it is noteworthy that theinfluence of education and feminist activism appears least effectual over inheritancerights an area where Islamic law stipulates unequal treatment

Conclusion

This article began by asking what drives gender inequality in Muslim majority countriesConventional explanations argue that either religion or the persistence of patriarchalstructures best explain gender inequality Disentangling these influences has provendifficult however as they suggest similar inequitable outcomes across the wide range ofrights typically examined By examining womenrsquos property rights we identify an areawhere Islamic law guarantees equality while patriarchal practices prescribe discrimination

Examining a sample of over 100 developing countries we find that some Muslimcountries afford women equal property rights while others do not Conformity betweenreligious dictates and state policy is strongest on issues where Islam prescribesdiscrimination and considerably weaker when it extends equality Moreover we find noevidence that more religious Muslim states are more likely to afford women equalproperty rights Taken together these findings suggest that religious influences appearto be weaker predictors of state behavior than the persistence and intensification ofpatriarchal norms Consistent with what many anthropologists and sociologists have

515


long said about womenrsquos status our results suggest that patriarchal structures are themain barrier to gender equality The relative fragility of religious norms may seem like acause for optimism because religion is often regarded as sacrosanct however theresilience of patriarchal institutions also bespeaks the strength of these forces

These findings have important implications both for how we think about womenrsquosrights in Muslim countries as well as strategies of reform Activists and scholars debatewhether womenrsquos rights are best advanced through traditional feminist activism or Islamicfeminism which while thought to be more firmly rooted in local culture relies on the ideathat religion is a primary determinant of behavior With respect to property rights howeverour results suggest that practices appear to be driven more by non-religious (patriarchal)norms Our results suggest for example that consistent with Islamic tenets close to 90percent of Muslim countries deny women equal inheritance rights but that only 26 percentand 56 percent of them extend land and other property rights respectively Consequentlyour research communicates a very clear message effective property rights are likely toaccompany increases in womenrsquos education and advocacy by womenrsquos right groups whichserve to increase womenrsquos agency rights awareness and political representation

NOTES

The authors are deeply grateful to Clair Apodaca Talin Bagdassarian Gene Park and Najwa Al-Qattan fortheir support and comments We extend special thanks to the participants and sponsoring departments ofVirginia Techrsquos Women and Minority Artists and Scholars Lecture Series the University of California IrvineDepartment of Political Sciencersquos Colloquium Series and the Loyola Marymount University Department ofPolitical Sciencersquos Faculty Colloquium We also thank the anonymous reviewers for their suggestionsDue to space constraints the Appendix is not in the print version of this article It can be viewed in the onlineversion at wwwingentaconnectcomcunycp

1 We use the terms Muslim country and Muslim majority country interchangeably The term does notimply that a state its leader or citizens are religious

2 While some suggest that religion causes inequality others argue that patriarchal actors instantiate moreconservative interpretations of Islam For semantic ease we use the terms patriarchal institutions structuresnorms and actors throughout the article to refer non-religious sources

3 Bina Agarwal A Field of Onersquos Own Gender and Land Rights in South Asia (Cambridge CambridgeUniversity Press 1994) Carmen Diana Deere and Magdalena Leon Land and Property Rights in LatinAmerica (Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh Press 2001)

4 Clair ApodacaldquoThe Whole World Could Be Watching Human Rights and the Mediardquo Journal ofHuman Rights 6 (June 2007) 147ndash64 Heather Smith-Cannoy Insincere Commitments Human RightsTreaties Abusive States and Citizen Activism (Washington DC Georgetown University Press 2012)Margaret E Keck and Kathryn Sikkink Activists Beyond Borders Advocacy Networks in InternationalPolitics (Ithaca Cornell University Press 1998)

5 Feryal M Cherif ldquoCulture Rights and Norms Womanrsquos Rights Reform in Muslim CountriesrdquoJournal of Politics 72 (October 2010) 1144ndash60 Feryal M Cherif Myths about Womenrsquos Rights HowWhere and Why Rights Advance (New York Oxford University Press 2015) Torben Iversen and FrancesRosenbluth Women Work and Politics The Political Economy of Gender Inequality (New Haven YaleUniversity Press 2010) Michael L Ross ldquoOil Islam and Womenrdquo American Political Science Review 102(February 2008) 107ndash23 Virginia Sapiro ldquoResearch Frontier Essay When Are Interests Interesting The Problemof Political Representation of Womenrdquo American Political Science Review 75 (September 1981) 701ndash16

6 We use the term culture to mean the beliefs attitudes or social norms that characterize a group or anorganization Cultural explanations seek to explicate why patriarchal norms become privileged relative to other

516


values Rather than making essentialist assumptions about the patriarchal nature of Muslim countries scholarsof this tradition examine how patriarchal interests gain political influence Because culture is often mediatedthrough institutions they often label their explanations as institutional

7 Mounira Charrad ldquoGender in the Middle East Islam State Agencyrdquo Annual Review of Sociology 37(August 2011) 417ndash37 Deniz Kandiyoti ldquoThe Politics of Gender and Conundrums of Citizenshiprdquo in SuadJoseph and Susan Sylomovics eds Women and Power in the Middle East (Philadelphia University ofPennsylvania Press 2001) 52ndash60 Valentine Moghadam Modernizing Women Gender and Social Change inthe Middle East 2nd ed (Boulder Westview Press 2003)

8 Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris Rising Tide Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around theWorld (New York Cambridge University Press 2003) Fatima Z Rahman ldquoGender Equality in Muslim-Majority States and Sharirsquoa Family Law Is There a Linkrdquo Australian Journal of Political Science 47(September 2012) 347ndash62

9 Agarwal 54ndash59 Cherif 2015 31ndash50 Keck and Sikkink 15ndash55 Smith Cannoy 37ndash3910 Keck and Sikkink 14ndash1611 LaDawn Haglund and Rimjhim Aggarwal ldquoTest of Our Progress The Translation of Economic and

Social Rights Norms into Practicerdquo Journal of Human Rights 10 (December 2011) 1ndash2712 Sonia Cardenas Conflict and Compliance State Responses to International Human Rights Pressure

(Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press 2007) James C Franklin ldquoShame on You The Impact ofHuman Rights Criticism on Political Repression in Latin Americardquo International Studies Quarterly 52 (April2008) 187ndash211

13 Cardenas 66ndash72 Franklin 189ndash9514 Richard H Chused ldquoMarried Womenrsquos Property Law 1800ndash1850rdquo Georgetown Law Journal 71

(June 1983) 1359ndash42515 Mayra Gomez and D Hien Tran ldquoWomenrsquos Land and Property Rights and the Post-2015 Develop-

ment Agendardquo Global Initiative for Economic Social and Cultural Rights and Landesa Center October 201216 Cherif 2015 49ndash58 Iversen and Rosenbluth 17ndash24 Moghadam 33ndash43 117ndash21 Ross 107ndash108

Sapiro 704ndash10717 Agarwal 54ndash5918 Saskia Sassen Globalization and its Discontents Essays on the New Mobility of People and Money

(New York The New Press 1998)19 Lee Ann Banaszak and Jan E Leighly ldquoHow Employment Affects Womenrsquos Gender Attitudes The

Workplace as a Locus of Contextual Effectsrdquo Political Geography Quarterly 10 (April 1991) 174ndash85 LeeAnn Banaszak and Eric Plutzer ldquoThe Social Bases of Feminism in the European Communityrdquo Public OpinionQuarterly 57 (Spring 1993) 29ndash53 Myra Marx Ferree ldquoWorking Class Feminism A Consideration of theConsequences of Employmentrdquo The Sociological Quarterly 21 (Spring 1980) 173ndash84 Ethel Klein GenderPolitics From Consciousness to Mass Politics (Cambridge Harvard University Press 1984)

20 Patricia Gurin ldquoWomenrsquos Gender Consciousnessrdquo Political Opinion Quarterly 49 (1985) 143ndash6321 Dorothy Sue Cobble The Other Womenrsquos Movement Workplace Justice and Social Rights in Modern

America (Princeton Princeton University Press 2004) Diana C Mutz and Jeffery J Mondak ldquoThe Work-place as a Context for Cross-Cutting Political Discourserdquo Journal of Politics 68 (February 2006) 140ndash55

22 Edward L Glaeser Giacomo Ponzetto and Andrei Schleifer ldquoWhy Does Democracy Need Educa-tionrdquo Journal of Economic Growth 12 (June 2007) 77ndash99 Daniel Stevens and Benjamin G BishinldquoGetting Out the Vote Minority Mobilization in a Presidential Electionrdquo Political Behavior 33 (March 2011)113ndash38

23 Nan Lin Social Capital A Theory of Social Structure and Action (Cambridge Cambridge UniversityPress 2001)

24 Rick Geddes and Dean Lueck ldquoThe Gains from Self-Ownership and the Expansion of WomenrsquosRightsrdquo The American Economic Review 92 (September 2002) 1079ndash92

25 Chused 1364ndash67 Deere and Leon 50ndash55 Geddes and Lueck 108526 Mounira Charrad States and Womenrsquos Rights The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia Algeria and

Morocco (Berkeley University of California Press 2001) Daniela Donno and Bruce RussettldquoIslam Au-thoritarianism and Female Empowerment What are the LinkagesrdquoWorld Politics 56 (July 2004) 582ndash607M Steven Fish ldquoIslam and Authoritarianismrdquo World Politics 55 (October 2002) 4ndash37 Suad Joseph ldquoCivilMyths Citizenship and Gender in Lebanonrdquo in Suad Joseph ed Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East(Syracuse Syracuse University Press 2000) 107ndash36 Kandiyoti 52 Moghadam 113ndash17 Inglehart andNorris 50ndash55

517


27 Jane Bayes and Nayereh Tohidi Globalization Gender and Religion The Politics of Womenrsquos Rightsin Catholic and Muslim Contexts (New York Palgrave Macmillan 2001)

28 Amy C Alexander and Christian Welzel ldquoIslam and Patriarchy How Robust Is Muslim Support forPatriarchal Valuesrdquo World Values Research 4 (2011) 40ndash70 Inglehart and Norris 60ndash72

29 Inglehart and Norris 116ndash19 137ndash3830 Mala Htun and Laurel Weldon ldquoReligious Power the State Womenrsquos Rights and Family Lawrdquo

Politics amp Gender 11 (2015) 451ndash7731 Mala N Htun and S Laurel Weldon ldquoState Power Religion and Womenrsquos Rights A Comparative

Analysis of Family Lawrdquo Indiana Journal of Global Legal Studies 18 (Winter 2011) 145ndash65 Rodney Starkand Laurence R Iannaccone ldquoA Supply-Side Reinterpretation of the lsquoSecularizationrsquo of Europerdquo Journal forthe Scientific Study of Religion 33 (September 1994) 230ndash52

32 Laurence R Iannaccone ldquoThe Consequences of Religious Market Structure Adam Smith and theEconomics of Religionrdquo Rationality and Society 3 (1994) 156ndash77 Htun and Weldon 2015 457

33 Ibid 161ndash6234 Stark and Iannaccone 233ndash3435 Htun and Weldon 2015 45736 Charrad 2011 42337 Hisham Sharabi Neopatriarchy A Theory of Distorted Change in Arab Society (New York Oxford

University Press 1988)38 Joseph 107 Moghadam 151ndash5439 Amira El Azhary SonbolWomen of Jordan Islam Labor and the Law (Syracuse Syracuse University

Press 2003) Charrad 2001 17ndash27 Joseph 109ndash1540 Charrad 2001 233ndash4241 Valentine Moghadam explains that significant social changes such as the expansion of female edu-

cation and employment declining fertility rates delayed marriage and the growth of feminist movementsaccompanied increased industrialization Though these factors often weaken patriarchal structures unevendevelopment processes create some constituencies that seek change (eg upper middle class women) whileothers do not (eg the urban poor and rural communities) In response to heated culture wars many statesaccommodated Islamistsrsquo preferences on womenrsquos rights policy See Moghadam 120ndash29 152ndash57

42 Ibid 16543 Charrad 2001 147ndash68 Joseph 128ndash36 Kandiyoti 50ndash5244 Cherif 2010 1152 Fish 30ndash37 Inglehart and Norris 116ndash19 137ndash38 Rahman 349ndash5045 Abdullah An-Narsquoim ldquoHuman Rights in the Muslim World Socio-Political Conditions and Scriptural

Imperativesrdquo Harvard Human Rights Journal 3 (Spring 1990) 13ndash53 Nikki Keddie ldquoThe Past and Presentof Women in the Muslim Worldrdquo Journal of World History 1 (Spring 1990) 77ndash108 Judith E TuckerWomen Family and Gender in Islamic Law (Cambridge Cambridge University Press 2008)

46 Historically male guardians were rarely present in matters of property and marriage did not restrict dejure female property rights See Tucker 135ndash37

47 Qurrsquoan 46 Tucker 135ndash37 Sunni and Shirsquoi law schools differ over inheritance rights In Shirsquoijurisprudence a single surviving daughter may inherit her fatherrsquos entire estate A father may also choose tobequeath more to female kin in the discretionary parts of his estate while Sunni fiqh does not permit similarallowances Lastly Shirsquoi fiqh prohibits widows from inheriting immovable property from their husbands whilemajor Sunni interpretations make no distinction between property types See Juan Ricardo Cole and Nikki RKeddie Shirsquoism and Social Protest (New Haven Yale University Press) 115 Mary F Radford ldquoTheInheritance Rights of Women under Jewish and Islamic Lawrdquo Boston College International and ComparativeLaw Review 23 (Spring 2000) 167ndash69

48 Annelies Moors Women Property and Islam Palestinian Experience 1920ndash1990 (CambridgeCambridge University Press 1995) Tucker 149ndash59

49 Tucker 15050 Leslie P Peirce Morality Tales Law and Gender in the Ottoman Courts of Ainab (Berkeley Uni-

versity of California Press 2003)51 Peirce 227 Tucker 151ndash52 16352 Radford 163ndash7053 Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid Marsot ldquoEntrepreneurial Womenrdquo in Mai Yamani ed Feminism in Islam Legal

and Literary Perspectives (Readings Ithaca 1996) 33ndash48 Maya Shatzmiller ldquoWomen and Property Rightsin Al-Andalus and the Maghrib Social Patterns and Legal Discourserdquo Islamic Law and Society 2 (1995)219ndash57 Sonbol 59ndash60

518


54 Abla Amawi ldquoWomen and Property Rights in Islamrdquo in Suha Sabbagh ed Arab Women BetweenDefiance and Restraint (New York Olive Branch Press 1996) 151ndash58 Ronald C Jennings ldquoWomen inEarly Seventeenth-Century Ottoman Judicial Records The Sharirsquoa Court of Anatolian Kayserirdquo Journal ofEconomic and Social History of the Orient 18 (1975) 53ndash114 Sonbol 73 Tucker 151

55 Guity Nashat and Judith E Tucker Women in the Middle East and North Africa Restoring Women toHistory (Bloomington Indiana University Press 1999) Jennings 98

56 Timur Kuran ldquoWhy the Middle East is Economically Underdeveloped Historical Mechanisms ofInstitutional Stagnationrdquo Journal of Economic Perspectives 18 (Summer 2004) 71ndash90

57 Moors 48ndash76 Peirce 22758 Charrad 2001 147ndash68 Joseph 128ndash36 Kandiyoti 50ndash5259 Specific coding and the courses for all variables are seen in the Appendix60 For clarity we code countries that recognize multiple religions as having no established state religion

Separate analyses treating State Religion as an ordinal measure did not evince different results Nor dorobustness checks using other measures of religiosity (eg the number of religion-based laws in a stategovernment involvement in religion (GIR) a dichotomous version of GIR exhibit substantive differences

61 Precluding naturalization countries award citizenship on the basis of descent (jus sanguinis) or birth inthe territory (jus soli) Even jus soli countries include descent-based principles to confer nationality on thechildren of nationals born abroad Gender-based discrimination in nationality codes often manifests throughlaws defining which parent may transmit nationality to the child

62 Inglehart and Norris 49ndash7263 Iversen and Rosenbluth 17ndash4964 Michael L Ross ldquoOil Islam and Womenrdquo American Political Science Review 102 (February 2008)

107ndash2365 Ibid 107ndash1066 Moors 48ndash7667 Using refined measures of womenrsquos economic activity such as the proportion of women in the non-

agricultural labor market labor force participation is significant and in the expected direction for generalproperty and land rights in the samples of all developing and Muslim majority countries This significantlyincreases the amount of missing data for this variable

68 Our results remain unchanged controlling for Middle Eastern and North African countries except thateducation while still correctly signed loses significance in the general property model

69 Examining property rights in Saudi Arabia reveals how patriarchal norms may weaken religiously-based rights and exacerbate gender inequities Until 2013 many women lacked independent identity cards thatmade conducting business like buying and selling real estate extremely cumbersome Though Saudi law didnot expressly prohibit womenrsquos involvement in property acquisition and management without identificationwomen were required to provide male witnesses to testify to their identity This discouraged women fromaccessing their rights See Jassim Abuzaid ldquoIDs a Must for Saudi Womenrdquo Arab News Mar 26 2013Asmaa Al-Mohamed ldquoSaudi Womenrsquos Rights Stuck at a Red Lightrdquo in Al-Sayed Zaied Ahmed ZeinAbdallah El-Tahawy Asmaa Al-Mohamed and Mohammed Abu Rumman eds Emerging Social and Re-ligious Trends (United States World Security Institute 2008) 5ndash52

70 We do not calculate predicted probabilities for variables that are not statistically significant71 These probabilities represent the effects of patriarchal institutions above and beyond the effects of

religious institutions and oilmdashother traditional patriarchal structuresmdashthat typically occur together

519


APPENDIX

Appendix Variables Coding and Sources

Code Source

Education t-5 Percent of women enrolled insecondary education

World Bank DevelopmentIndicators

Established Religion State has no religion 0 statereligion 1

Religion and State Project Fox(2011)

General Property Rights Women have few or norights50 (some) women have(some) rights51 women haveequal rights52

OECDrsquos Social Institutions andGender Index (2009)

GDP logged t-5 GDP per capita (logged) World Bank DevelopmentIndicators

Inheritance Rights Women have no rights50(some) women have (some)rights51 women have equalrights52


Labor Force Participation t-5 Percentage of women in labormarket


Land Rights Women have few or norights50 (some) women have(some) rights51 women haveequal rights52

OECDrsquos Social Institutions andGender Index Branisa et al(2009)

Muslim Majority If 50 or more of a country isMuslim then 1 others 0


Oil Oil exporters51 Others50 Przeworski et al (2000)Patrilineal Institutions If law makes no distinctions

between men and womenthen 0 If only fathers maytransmit nationality (2) tochildren born abroad (1)

Citizenship Laws of the World(2001)

Womenrsquos Rights Orgslogged t-10

The number of womenrsquos rightsgroups operating within acountry (logged)

Yearbook of InternationalOrganizations Wotipka andRamirez (2008)

For further information on the data coding and sources please contact the authors

1

Women Property Rights and Islam


What accounts for the persistence of gender inequality in Muslim majority countries1

While religion and patriarchal culture are often described as the primary barriers toequality womenrsquos rights advocacy and the cultivation of core rights are believed tochallenge discriminatory laws and practices Overlooked however is the fact thatscholars tend to examine aspects of womenrsquos rights (eg political rights) in which twoof the key causal processesmdashreligion and patriarchal culturemdashproduce observationallyequivalent outcomes2

While largely neglected the study of property rights helps overcome this limitationbecause while Islamic law limits womenrsquos right to inherit it prescribes equality inwomenrsquos ability to own manage and dispose of property Muslim women enjoyedproperty rights centuries before women in the West even in countries regarded asparagons of gender equality today Studying property rights therefore provides tractionin examining the extent to which states conform to Islamic tenets when they conflictwith the cues provided by patriarchal actors Consequently examining the degree towhich Muslim states extend equal property rights to women allows us to differentiatebetween religious and cultural accounts of gender inequality

The right to own property is profoundly important Property rights are central towomenrsquos economic advancement as well as their full incorporation in the polityProperty provides a mechanism for women to build wealth leverage and autonomyOwning land for instance can provide a source of income that may help offset barriersto womenrsquos participation in the labor force The resources that property confers alsohelp to improve womenrsquos status in families communities and states3

Typically one of four explanations is offered to explain the status of womenrsquosrights in developing countries Advocacy-based arguments hold that womenrsquos rightsadvance when international organizations and activists work to publicize discriminatorybehavior and promote values and policy that favor gender equality4 The core rightsperspective argues that giving women skills and opportunitiesmdashby increasing femalelabor force participation and education levelsmdashprovides a host of ancillary benefits thatadvance womenrsquos rights5 Cultural accounts explain why womenrsquos rights in Muslimcountries continue to lag by pointing to political bargains that nurture the rise of

501

















503















505
















507
















509









Muslim Majority -179 043 -010(064) (063) (065)


Education 004 002 004(001) (001) (001)



GDP -018 034 033(030) (030) (031)

Oil -132 -141 -131(073) (071) (080)


510







511
















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1

















503















505
















507
















509









Muslim Majority -179 043 -010(064) (063) (065)


Education 004 002 004(001) (001) (001)



GDP -018 034 033(030) (030) (031)

Oil -132 -141 -131(073) (071) (080)


510







511
















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1














505
















507
















509









Muslim Majority -179 043 -010(064) (063) (065)


Education 004 002 004(001) (001) (001)



GDP -018 034 033(030) (030) (031)

Oil -132 -141 -131(073) (071) (080)


510







511
















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1















507
















509









Muslim Majority -179 043 -010(064) (063) (065)


Education 004 002 004(001) (001) (001)



GDP -018 034 033(030) (030) (031)

Oil -132 -141 -131(073) (071) (080)


510







511
















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1















509









Muslim Majority -179 043 -010(064) (063) (065)


Education 004 002 004(001) (001) (001)



GDP -018 034 033(030) (030) (031)

Oil -132 -141 -131(073) (071) (080)


510







511
















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1








Muslim Majority -179 043 -010(064) (063) (065)


Education 004 002 004(001) (001) (001)



GDP -018 034 033(030) (030) (031)

Oil -132 -141 -131(073) (071) (080)


510







511
















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1






511
















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1















Education 008 003 009(003) (001) (003)



Oil -152 -082 -228(147) (093) (136)


513






514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1





514





Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1




Conclusion



515




NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1



NOTES








516





















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1




















517




















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1



















518















519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1














519


APPENDIX


Code Source























1

APPENDIX


Code Source























1

women, property rights, and islam

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