Reference Guide on Women Land and Property Rights in the Somali Community

Why this guide?

The Guide is intended to increase knowledge of Women’s Land Rights in both the Sharia Law and conventional documents. The IGAD Women’s Land Agenda acknowledges that Sharia law provides a good benchmark for the protection of Muslim Women’s land rights but quite often the women have no knowledge of what protection is offered by it.

This is because the Sharia law is written in a language that is understood mainly by the religious leaders who have attended Qur’an schools and can interpret the relevant Qur’an provisions.

This guide therefore summarizes Women’s Land Rights provisions as stated in Qur’an and other conventional documents. Thus, the aim of this reference guideline is to provide guidance to institutions responsible for community awareness to obtain the right messages to educate women and men in the Somali community on their women’s land Rights and the responsibilities of men and other religious institutions that are mandated to protect and promote Women’s Land Rights.