Norms and Women’s Economic Rights

In the Arab world, women’s economic right are largely determined by social norms. These norms influence women’s participation in the labor force, their right to an inheritance and their rights to own and manage properties and business. Prevailing norms in the Arab world impose significant barriers to women’s gaining economic rights. Most gender-discriminating norms in the Arab world (and similar Islamic societies) are rooted in the principle of qawama—men’s authority and guardianship of their female relatives (the Qur’an 4:34). These norms include treating women as legal minors, stressing obedience to their legal guardians, confining women to their residence (the private sphere), preventing women from imitating men by participating in certain activities and jobs, treating girls’ virginity and female’s sexual reputation and fidelity as collective assets (property that belongs not only to the girls and women, but to the collective unit), not mixing opposite sexes, and forming men’s roles and responsibilities to support their female relatives and provide for their economics and financial needs (this norm is supported by sacred teaching that gives the male twice the female’s share in inheritance1).