Many Muslim expatriate women living in the Kingdom complain that the laws of inheritance in their home countries do not comply with Shariah laws and this makes them lose rights guaranteed to them in Islam. Rubaina Sayeed, a 32-year-old British national born to Indian parents, told Saudi Gazette, “When my father passed away five years ago, my family refused to give me a penny.” Sayeed is divorced with two children and currently lives in Jeddah. “I was shocked to see a totally different side of my family. My mother told me in our family daughters do not ask for their share.” Sayeed admitted having a hard time financing her children's education and managing her living expenses. “My brothers and mother knew it was hard for me to raise my children and survive on a weak income in Saudi Arabia. Apparently I am the responsibility of my husband and have no right to what my father left me. I do not understand this barbaric and vindictive analogy. But I will also never forgive this injustice.” Many expatriates married and living in the Kingdom suffer from injustice in their respective homelands where women are often discriminated against and their rights neglected. “I think we grow up with this mentality of being the weaker gender. The men are supposed to be the breadwinners and no matter what the woman does it is never enough,” said Arya Hamad, a 45-year-old psychologist living in Jeddah. “This particular male-dominated mentality is very strong and predominant among Indians, Pakistanis, Afghans, Bengalis and other far eastern nationals. They believe the man is the dictator and has the right to all assets and financial control. A lot of my women patients complain they are neglected and abandoned when it comes to their right of inheritance.” Tamara Al-Thani (name changed), a 27-year-old psychologist born to a Saudi father and Jordanian mother, said the worst part about women's rights to inheritance being denied is the effect it has on women and their personalities. “I hate to see women give up their courage but it hurts me more to see mothers and brothers abandon their daughters and sisters. They kill the woman's personality and abandon her financially and psychologically.” “Mentality is everything. I am currently studying and facilitating women's issues in the Kingdom. Most women fight, some struggle and most lose without any success.” Al-Thani admitted having seen cases of young women resorting to wrongful means, substance abuse and begging when denied their inheritance rights. “Most men take advantage of the fact. Husbands mock their wives for being abandoned and men take advantage of women using them emotionally and financially.” Mohammad Hassan, a 24-year-old Palestinian told Saudi Gazette his mother did not get her rights of inheritance and moved to Saudi Arabia with her sons when her brothers abandoned her. “I lost my father six years ago, sadly my mother was never given the property my grandfather left her so she had no financial resources to back her up. My uncles threatened her and asked her to remain in Jeddah.” Hassan said he can never forget his mother's pain and anguish, adding that he can never forgive the injustice done to his mother. “It was unbelievable. I was too young to work or fight for my mom. I feel worse now that I realize so many Palestinian women living outside their home countries face the same dilemma.” Hassan pleaded for a system to be established in the Kingdom at all embassies so that expatriates can fight for their rights to inheritance. “Especially women, who are totally disregarded in this aspect. Every daughter has the right to live in her father's house. Who are others to decide when it is the law of Islam, the law of God?” Marina Sheikh, a Lebanese mother of three living in Riyadh, said many of her expatriate friends living in the Kingdom face problems with the laws of inheritance. Sheikh who lives with her husband and three children said, “I barely make enough to make ends meet. My husband sends most of his income back home to his parents and does not share his income with me which is why I work. I need to support my own children and right now I am saving enough to buy a house for my children. I do not want them to go through what I went through.” Sheikh said after her father's death, she returned to Lebanon to live with her family and wanted to talk to them about her divorce. “My mother flipped and none of my brothers supported me. They told me I would have no part of the house or anything my father left behind, because traditionally women do not ask for their rights to what their father had. They are not used to us asking for our rights.” Sheikh said she told them most women get their rights of inheritance as it is prescribed in Shariah and it was only just they facilitate the law and order of inheritance for her. “I am a mother with responsibility; I did not expect my brothers to be so brutally selfish when it came to money. Who are they to decide my rights?” Sheikh returned to Riyadh and currently lives with her husband and children. She was not given any rights to her father's property. In another case Shaista Nourman, a 34-year-old Pakistani woman married to a Saudi living in Najran, said her brothers did not give her the inheritance allocated to her by Shariah law and instead they split it up among themselves. “I live in Saudi Arabia with my family and cannot fight them in Lahore. They threatened me and said I should not even bother fighting a case, because they could win it saying I have no proof.” __
