The Inheritance Rights of Women Under Jewish and Islamic Law

Abstract

The inheritance rights of women in the Anglo-American system have evolved from a system whose primary purpose was the support of women to one in which women enjoy the same rights to inherit and own property as their male counterparts. The laws of Judaism and Islam contain elements of these two Anglo-American approaches, with a focus on support under Jewish law and on ownership (although not equal ownershiP) under Islamic law. In this article Professor Radford gives a brief overview of the legal systems of Judaism and Islam and of the place of women in these systems. She then provides a detailed description of the ways in which the laws of Judaism and Islam govern the rights of wives, mothers, daughters, and other female relatives to inherit property.