ABSTRACT
This chapter dedicates to the problem of inheritance in Islam from a gendered perspective. It explains how it was possible in the Islamic interpretive tradition to extrapolate general inheritance rules on the basis of a specific rule found in verse 4:11 that negatively affected Muslim women’s social status and financial autonomy. The chapter explains the process through which juristic rulings were privileged over the relevant sections of the Qur’an and linguistic evidence. It outlines egalitarian and contextualised interpretations of the controversial verse 4:11 regarding the asymmetrical gendered inheritance rules. In many cases, women themselves were treated as objects to be inherited or were forced to marry people chosen by the inheritor who would thus be able to take their dowry for himself. The chapter concludes with a succinct discussion regarding the possibility of the abrogation of some specific inheritance laws and the impact of modern legal reforms in Muslim majority countries in relation to women’s economic wellbeing and autonomy.
