KABUL (SW) – The results of a survey conducted by Salam Watandar in 24 provinces with the participation of 370 women show a worrying situation of women’s ownership rights in Afghanistan.
Nearly 90% of women participants in this survey said that they do not own any assets and only 5.1% said that they own property and real estate.
Also, 73% of these women said that they do not have complete authority over their assets. This shows the cultural and social restrictions that deprive women in Afghanistan of the right to own assets.
On the other hand, 64.6 percent of the women participating in this survey said that they are unable to own property due to economic conditions, and another 13.1 percent of them said that they gave away their assets to the male members of their families due to the prevailing custom.
Also, 73.5% of women said that they were not given the right to inheritance, of which 67.9% were deprived of this right because they did not demand this right, and 32.1% were deprived of this right due to deprivation forced by their families.
Likewise, regarding the right to dowry, 56.5% of women wanted to receive their dowry, but 43.5% were not willing to do this. Among them, 73.7% were willing to take their dowry if their husbands approved it, and 26.3% were bound to get it until the end of legal proceedings.
In addition, 56.5% of women who do not want to take their dowry have given their dowry rights away to their husbands in a bid to maintaining their mutual life. The results of this survey show that women in Afghanistan are facing deep economic, cultural and social challenges and they need serious attention from human rights institutions and policy makers to improve the property rights situation in the country.
Meanwhile, experts in social issues consider the right to ownership as one of the urgent needs of every member of the society and say that this right must be given to men and women equally without any discrimination.
Rashid Sediqi, an expert on social issues, told Salam Watandar: “The right to ownership in every society has its own definition, and the ownership to property is a right that belongs to a person, and no one has the right to interfere, and everyone has their right. The right to own assets in countries where the citizens are not educated enough, for example in Afghanistan, women are not given the right to own property.”
Women’s rights activists also say that most women in Afghanistan are deprived of the right to ownership, and if they ask for their rights, they are blamed by their families.
Karima Hakimi, a women’s rights activist, says: “The right to ownership is the right of every human being, but in Afghanistan, no woman gets the right to own property. In general, they do not give their sister or daughter the right of ownership at all. If a sister, daughter or lady wants her right to own property, they will be greatly blamed.”
Despite all this, Abdul Rahim Rashid, the spokesperson of the Supreme Court of the de-facto government, told Salam Watandar that in the year 2023, this court examined 26,449 cases related to the right of inheritance, deed, legal and family cases in the women’s rights section alone.
He adds: “The Islamic Emirate has resolved 26,449 cases in the women’s rights section in the three courts that are handling cases in the year 2023 alone, and in the property section, it includes inheritance and deed cases related to women and legal and family cases.”
However, Abdul Ghaffar Farooqi, the spokesperson of the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (MoPVPV) of the Islamic Emirate, says that 7,645 cases related to women’s right to property and inheritance have been registered in this ministry, of which 7,400 cases are related to women’s right to inheritance. He said that these cases are shared with the relevant institutions for review.
“A total of 7,645 cases have been registered about the ownership right of women and their right to dowry, and about 7,400 cases have been registered in the inheritance right section, which the relevant bodies have been involved in solving,” Farooqi added.
Women in Afghanistan have highlighted the deprivation of their right to own property at a time when according to another report broadcast by Salam Watandar, women’s right to choose has also been denied by the family or society in most cases.
ENDS
