A Daughter reflects on Women’s Property Rights in Islam

• Shabina Ali, a peace educator and writer, reflects on the realities behind women’s property rights in Islam.
• Through her study of the holy Quran, she asserts that Islam grants women dignity and inheritance.
• She calls for a return to justice and awareness within families and communities, urging people to recognise daughters as rightful heirs.

I was born into a large family of ten siblings in Calcutta. Our two-bedroom flat overflowed with people, conversations, and the weight of unspoken hierarchies. In a home where sons were celebrated and daughters accommodated, I learned early what it meant to be present yet invisible.

My father was a successful businessman with properties spread across several places in Bihar and Calcutta. He purchased land in his sons’ names and occasionally in my mother’s, but never once in a daughter’s. My mother’s words still echo in my heart, “All these properties belong to my sons. I have got my daughters married, that is their future.”

That one sentence reflected generations of conditioning and an entire social philosophy wrapped in a few words. Daughters, it implied, were destined to leave, while sons inherited the earth beneath their father’s name. Ironically, my mother had been denied her rightful inheritance. She died without ever receiving what was hers.

The Emotional Cost of Erasure

To be born a daughter in such a system is to inherit an apology for existing. The loss is not only financial but deeply spiritual. It teaches a girl that she does not belong in her home and her worth expires at the threshold of marriage. Whenever I overheard discussions about property deeds, deals, and documents, the daughters’ names were never mentioned. It was as if we did not exist in the family’s legacy, as if our presence was temporary and our dreams irrelevant. Yet, when I turned to the Quran, I found a truth that was both comforting and painful. Islam had already given women these rights 1,400 years ago. The denial was not divine, it was human.

“For men is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, and for women is a share of what the parents and close relatives leave, be it little or much, an obligatory share.” (4:7)

This verse stands as one of the earliest recorded declarations of women’s economic independence. Islam recognised women’s right to own, inherit, and manage property centuries before modern legal systems began to do so.

When my mother passed away, the properties in her name were sold. Most of the proceeds went to my brothers. The daughters received token sums. When I protested, reminding my father that the Quran forbids such injustice, he dismissed me coldly, “I will deal with God myself.” Those words stung. He argued that since my mother “had not earned” her property, it was not truly hers. In that moment, I saw how culture can drown conscience, and how patriarchy rewrites faith to serve itself.

Islam’s Clarity on Women’s Rights

The Quran challenged many of the patriarchal norms of pre-Islamic Arabia and recognised women as independent legal entities with moral and economic autonomy.

“Do not wish for that by which God has made some of you exceed others. For men is a share of what they have earned, and for women is a share of what they have earned.” (4:32)

Islamic inheritance law is not arbitrary. It is detailed, contextual, and just. While a son’s share may be twice that of a daughter (4:11), this is balanced by the fact that men are obligated to provide for their wives, mothers, and sisters financially. What is often ignored is that a daughter’s share, though smaller, is still divinely guaranteed.

The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) redefined the place of daughters in society through his own life. He had no surviving sons. His lineage continued through his beloved daughter, Fatima. In a culture that glorified sons, God ensured that the Prophet’s legacy lived through a daughter. It was meant to teach the Muslim community that daughters are not burdens to be married off, but blessings to be cherished and honoured. Yet today, many Muslim families continue to deny daughters their inheritance. They justify their injustice through culture and call it faith. Dowries and wedding gifts are offered in place of legal shares, though Islam makes a clear distinction between the two.

It is painful to see people who recite the Quran daily but ignore its most direct commands when it comes to property. It is a painful contradiction between faith and practice.  The denial of women’s inheritance rights remains one of the most persistent social injustices in Muslim and even other societies. 

My journey, from silence to awareness, has been painful yet freeing. I once resented those who prayed, fasted, and preached piety while ignoring divine justice. But as I studied Islam more deeply, I discovered that the faith itself was not the oppressor, people were. The Quran became my teacher, revealing that dignity is a woman’s birthright, not a favour to be granted by men.

A Daughter’s Prayer

I often think of my mother, who died without receiving what was hers, and of countless women like her. Yet I also think of Fatima, the Prophet’s daughter, who carried her father’s legacy with strength, grace, and faith. Islam raised women from being property to property owners. It gave them legal identity, moral worth, and spiritual equality. To deny that truth is not culture, it is corruption.

My prayer is that Muslim families awaken to seeing daughters not as burdens, but as blessings, not as guests, but as heirs, not as outsiders, but as rightful inheritors of both love and legacy. Until that day, I will continue to write for my mother, for myself, and for every daughter who was told she does not belong.