Mrs. Kalthoum is 54 years old from the village of Tora. She is the mother of 6 children, of whom 2 are married. She participated in an awareness raising meeting about inheritance in the town of Ya’bed.
Kalthoum says: "My father died 17 years ago and left us a lot of property, including lands, some of which is suitable for construction, and some agricultural land, but a large part of the land was confiscated for the construction of apartheid wall. We are 2 brothers and 7 sisters, and after my father died, we were shy and did not demand our part of the inheritance from our brothers.
But some while ago, my brothers started selling the land and building large houses for their sons in the best locations in the town, and they gave land to their daughters and their sons in law as presents.
I felt sad regarding situation and that of my children who were living in rented houses in nearb... Read more
Mrs. Kalthoum is 54 years old from the village of Tora. She is the mother of 6 children, of whom 2 are married. She participated in an awareness raising meeting about inheritance in the town of Ya’bed.
Kalthoum says: "My father died 17 years ago and left us a lot of property, including lands, some of which is suitable for construction, and some agricultural land, but a large part of the land was confiscated for the construction of apartheid wall. We are 2 brothers and 7 sisters, and after my father died, we were shy and did not demand our part of the inheritance from our brothers.
But some while ago, my brothers started selling the land and building large houses for their sons in the best locations in the town, and they gave land to their daughters and their sons in law as presents.
I felt sad regarding situation and that of my children who were living in rented houses in nearby Barta'a town, and our economic situation is not that good and we barely make ends meet. I started to feel the injustice and stated to discuss my inheritance with my sisters, who in turn were saying that they don't want to lose our brothers. This was a very difficult situation for me and I didn't know what to do; sometimes I felt I didn't love my brothers and sometimes I felt they underestimated me and my sisters and didn't care about us.
Then, it happened that I received an invitation from Asala Association to attend a meeting on inheritance in the Municipality of Yabed. I began to think about how to put the subject forward and how to discuss it with my brothers. Initially, I spoke with my sisters, and I realized that some of them oppose the idea of demanding our inheritance, although their economic situation is very difficult, especially one of them who lives from assistance of the Ministry of Social Affairs, fearing that her relationship with our brothers would worsen, while the rest of my sisters accepted the idea.
What I benefited from the awareness meeting was to resorted to Islamic law to get my right
I have a friend who works as a lawyer and I asked her to play the role of mediator with the family. At first it was very difficult because my family made me feel that I had made a mistake, and at the same time my husband was pressuring me to get my right. I was living this conflict between my husband and my brothers. But eventually I decided to finalize the registration of the inheritance and after a year of procedures, the inheritance was divided amongst us by mutual consent, but I may need time to repair the relationship with the family, although it is my right.
In celebration of this occasion, Asala Association supported me during the olive harvest by bringing male and female youth volunteers to support me in picking olives on 28.10.2017. I believe that obtaining one's right helps social peace and stability of life and this from my personal experience."
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