Women, Property and Islam

Book excerpt: According to Islamic law, women are entitled to inherit property, receive a dower at marriage, and to manage their own income. In practice, however, this is not always the case. In an anthropological study of Palestinian women from different stratas of society, Annelies Moors examines under what circumstances they claim property rights and when they are prevented from doing so. The combination of oral history and written legal sources presents an informed and sophisticated challenge to the conclusions of existing literature on the region.