Islamic law aids tsunami widows

When the tsunami came to sweep away her seaside home, her three children, and her husband, Yuniarti thought that she had lost everything she could possibly lose.

She was wrong. After the disaster, the parents of her late husband took away her car, her motorcycle, and other belongings, telling Yuniarti that they had more right to inherit their son's property than she did as a wife.

They were wrong. According to Islamic law, a widow has greater right to inherit her husband's property. Now, Yuniarti is asserting those rights under Islamic sharia law, a 1,300-year-old legal system that has some surprisingly modern notions of women's empowerment.

"The only way I have is to go to sharia court," says Yuniarti, who claims her husband's family has begun to threaten her after she asked repeatedly for her property back. "I know that I will win the case in Islamic court. My husband's parents are religious people, I hope they will hear the decision of the sharia court and accept it."

In other parts of the Islamic world, from Nigeria to Pakistan and Afghanistan, sharia is regarded as creating as many problems for women as it solves. Sharia has been used to codify harsh sentences such as stoning to death for adultery. But in Indonesia, sharia is seen as a welcome advocate of women's rights in a country where government courts are seen as ineffective and open to corruption.

Inheritance wasn't an issue that many women gave much thought before the devastating Dec. 26 tsunami. But after the disaster, which killed at least 200,000 here and left 600,000 more homeless, many Acehnese families have begun squabbling over what's left - houses, cars, land. Many grieving widows are scrambling to hold onto what little they have.

"After the tsunami, it's difficult for women to get the rights to their land, their property, their money," says Hajjah Adiwarni Husin, provincial head of the Islamic Women's Association in Banda Aceh. "They have the right under sharia, and they have the right under national law, but people don't know the law, and they are selfish. Some educated women may know their rights, but they don't have the courage to speak up."

By nature, Acehnese women are no shrinking violets. Some of the strongest rulers and military commanders of medieval Aceh have been women, and a statue at the governor's mansion in Banda portrays Acehnese women killing Dutch colonial soldiers with bayonets.

Yet in daily practice, most Acehnese women let men run business affairs, tasking themselves to run the home. Most couples own property jointly, but land documents include only the signatures of husbands; few wives bother to speak up at public meetings, and few get signing authority on checking accounts, a fact that has made dividing property after the tsunami even more difficult.

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