Women, Property and Islam: Palestinian Experiences, 1920 1990

288 Pages·1996·14.854 MB·English

by  Annelies Moors

According to Islamic law, women are entitled to inherit property, to
receive a dower at marriage, and to manage their own income. Through
an anthropological study of Palestinian women in the Jabal Nablus
region of the West Bank, Annelies Moors demonstrates that this is not
always the case in practice. In fact, their options vary greatly depending
on whether they gain access to property through inheritance, through
the dower or through paid labour, and, indeed, on their background and
position in society. The narratives of wealthy and poor urban women,
and of women in the villages and in the refugee camps, indicate under
what circumstances they claim property rights, when they are prevented
from doing so, and in which contexts they prefer to give up property in
order to gain other advantages. While this is essentially an ethnographic
work, the author's use of court records has enabled her to address major
historical changes in women's ability to negotiate their rights to
property, focusing on the relation between local traditions, international
politics and transnational labour migration.

Cambridge Middle East Studies
Women, property and Islam
Cambridge Middle East Studies 3
Editorial board
Charles Tripp (general editor)
Shaul Bakhash, Michael C. Hudson, Deniz Kandiyoti, Rashid Khalidi,
Noah Lucas, Basim Musallam, Roger Owen, Shimon Shamir,
Malcolm Yapp
Cambridge Middle East Studies has been established to publish
books on the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Middle East and North
Africa. The aim of the series is to provide new and original interpre-
tations of aspects of Middle Eastern societies and their histories. To
achieve disciplinary diversity, books will be solicited from authors
writing in a wide range of fields including history, sociology, anthropo-
logy, political science and political economy. The emphasis will be on
producing books offering an original approach along theoretical and
empirical lines. The series is intended for students and academics, but
the more accessible and wide-ranging studies will also appeal to the
interested general reader.
1 Parvin Paidar, Women and the political process in twentieth-century
Iran
2 Israel Gershoni and James P. Janowski, Redefining the Egyptian
nation, 1930-1945
Women, property and Islam
Palestinian experiences, 1920-1990
Annelies Moors
University of Amsterdam and University of Leiden
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© Cambridge University Press 1995
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First published 1995
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isbn 978-0-521-47497-9 Hardback
isbn 978-0-521-48355-1 Paperback
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This book is dedicated to the memory of my parents