Women, Property And Islam: Palestinian Experiences, 1920-1990

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, and 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.

According to Islamic law, women are entitled to inherit property, receive a dower at marriage, and to manage their own income. In practice, however, this is not always the case. In an anthropological study of Palestinian women from different stratas of society, Annelies Moors examines under what circumstances they claim property rights and when they are prevented from doing so. The combination of oral history and written legal sources presents an informed and sophisticated challenge to the conclusions of existing literature on the region.