Women's Inheritance and Property Rights

REFEPA’s goal in this project was to give voice to women to assert their rights to property and inheritance in the context of State laws, Muslim laws and customary laws. The project undertook action research in two sites – Hamdallahi and Kollo Zarma – and used the following strategies to achieve the above goal:

The multi-country network on Women's Inheritance and Property Rights (WIPR) organised panels at the World Social Forum (7-9 February 2011, Dakar), which focused on three key topics:

This project, implemented by Mutawinat Benevolent Company(Mutawinat), sought to secure inheritance rights of Muslim women, which are generally denied in customary practice, even though their rights are recognised in Muslim laws. The project addressed the lack of public awareness of such rights and the stigmatisation of women who demand their inheritance. 

Mutawinat adopted a strategy that included the following aspects:

While the first face-to-face WIPR meeting in June 2009 in Dakar, Senegal, had included only working group members, the second face-to-face meeting included working group members and representatives of eight organisations, which had been selected as project partners. In late 2009, in response to a call for proposals, the proposals of these eight organisations had selected through a rigorous review process, out of a total of sixteen proposals received. A second face-to-face workshop was thus organised to build the capacity of these partners to support the implementation of their projects.