Giving women less inheritance than men normal, Sümeyye Erdoğan says in Islamic lecture

BRUSSELS – Anadolu Agency

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Women receiving a lower share of inheritance than men is normal, considering men’s responsibilities according to Islam, Sümeyye Erdoğan, the daughter of the Turkish president and the deputy head of the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM), has stated.

Giving a lecture in Brussels on “the perception of Muslim women around the world and the fight for the equality,” Erdoğan said the topic of inheritance distribution in Islam was among the most discussed in terms of equality.

“They ask why daughters are given lower shares from a will while sons receive more. But when we look closely, we see that men are assigned the responsibility for bringing the bread home, while women are not. So naturally giving higher inheritance shares to men is normal, fair and righteous,” Erdoğan said.

“For instance, a married couple can both work. But the man should give some of his income to his wife, while the woman decides herself how to spend her own money,” she added.

In the same speech, Erdoğan also said the history of Western countries was “worse when it came to the suppression of women.”

“We don’t have any reason to be diffident. When you examine the history of the world for practices that dominated women, you mostly see Western countries. You don’t see Islamic countries,” she said.

“Don’t lose your self-confidence by seeing the implementations today in some Islamic countries that result in the victimization of women,” she added.

Erdoğan also supported the idea of “gender justice,” which she said emphasized notions such as “balance and fairness.” This, she said, contrasted to “gender equality” which comes from Western culture and envisions a “prototype world of women and men.”

Erdoğan criticized feminism for identifying Islam as the reason why women are kept at home, saying that in fact Islam did not oblige women to ask for permission to work.

“The only social role clearly defined by religion is men’s responsibility to bring the bread home and provide for his wife and children. There is no rule in Islamic law about working women. Women are free and have the right to choose. They don’t need permission from their fathers or husbands,” she said.