CAMP holds conference on Women’s Right to Inheritance in NMDs

News Desk

A day-long provincial conference was held on promoting women’s property and inheritance rights in the Newly Merged Districts (NMDs) in Peshawar on Thursday.

The conference was organized by the Community Appraisal and Motivation Program (CAMP) in coordination with the KP Ombudsperson for Protection against Harassment of Women at Workplace Secretariat.

Ombudsperson Rukhshanda Naz opened the conference by lauding the efforts of the provincial government and civil society for collaborating on this important issue. She spoke about the need for the language of laws to be gender-sensitive.

Naz said, “We needed to make the conversation more vocal about ownership rather than just inheritance. Women’s unpaid work must be recognized and they must be made a part of ownership.”

The Ombudsperson also reminded the participants that the KP Enforcement of Women’s Property Rights Act was not only about inheritance but about the property of all types.

This Act aimed at providing protection to women of their rights of ownership and possession of properties owned by them, ensuring that such rights are not violated by any means of harassment, coercion, force or fraud and for the matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

Naz acknowledged CAMP’s efforts for raising awareness about this law and spoke about how cases have started trickling in from NMDs due to such a campaign.

Council of Islamic Ideology Senior Research Officer Mufti Ghulam explained the punishments that are attached to not giving the rightful share in inheritance.

University of Peshawar Assistant Professor Dr Noreen Naseer said women are considered property and highlighted traditions such as badala and swara which exchange women like they are property.

These traditions need to be challenged and that will not happen until women own property or receive their rightful inheritance.

If we start challenging these structures and values, and start educating girls, a lot of our issues can be resolved. The 51 per cent of the population are women, which is a strong force, she added.

Member KPCSW Dr Sameena Afridi stressed the need for advocacy and awareness on this important issue. She spoke about the customary law which prevailed when Pakistan came into being, and because of that women’s right to property was generally not given.

Although the situation in the rest of the country changed gradually, unfortunately for women from NMDs, it has taken much longer. Two main hurdles that we see are traditions – such as not considering the woman an individual, and stopping considering her a commodity, or if shajra’s are taken out, women’s names will not appear.

The other issue is that while some districts had land records, most districts did not. The protection of institutions and state machinery needs to be extended so that people in NMDs, and especially women, can claim their rights to property and inheritance.

These two issues will need to be dealt with in parallel for a change to be made. At the end, she stressed the need for digitalization to avoid delays and tampering of land records.