Financial rights of wives

What is the issue?

Financial rights within marriage and at its dissolution are central to women’s economic security, yet they are often overlooked in both law and policy. Hurra focuses on three main aspects:

• Spousal maintenance – the obligation of a husband to provide financial support to his wife and children during marriage and sometimes after divorce.
• Shared matrimonial assets – how property and wealth acquired during marriage are divided between spouses when the marriage ends.
• Recognition of unpaid care work – whether the law acknowledges that unpaid domestic work and caregiving contribute to the accumulation of wealth and should therefore be reflected in financial settlements.

In Arab countries, women usually receive limited financial support after divorce, inadequate alimony payments, and have difficulty claiming their financial rights. Financial arrangements after divorce differ between religious communities, resulting in discriminatory practices against women. For example, in Lebanon, for example, women suffer from significant discrimination due to the personal status system, which is subject to different sectarian laws, resulting in differences in rights and freedoms based on religious affiliation. This creates a significant disparity in treatment and rights among women in Lebanese society. For example, in the Sunni community, men can divorce their wives more easily than women. In the Shiite community, marriage laws require the consent of a guardian to marry, a condition that is not imposed on men. 

Spousal maintenance in practice

Weak justice systems, long delays in court, and limited enforcement mechanisms mean that even when women have a legal right to maintenance, they may not be able to realise it. The result is that:

• Women may be pressured to stay in harmful or abusive relationships for fear of losing financial support.
• After separation or divorce, women and their children can fall into extreme poverty, especially if the woman has been out of the paid labour market for many years.
• The burden of providing for children often falls on mothers alone, without adequate support from former spouses or the state.

This is not only a personal tragedy for the women affected; it is also a structural driver of gendered poverty.

Shared matrimonial assets and unpaid care work

Until recently, very few civil society organisations in the region focused on the question of how marital assets should be shared at divorce. The dominant assumption was that property belongs to the person in whose name it is registered, usually the husband, regardless of the contributions made by the wife through unpaid care and domestic work.

Some North African countries – including Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria – have taken steps to recognise shared assets in law. However, there is often a significant gap between what is written in legislation and what happens in practice. Women may not be aware of their rights, judges may be reluctant to apply new provisions, and social norms may continue to treat the husband as the “real” owner of property.

From a feminist perspective, unpaid care work is central. Wives who are not in paid employment are often described as “not contributing” financially, but in reality they are enabling the household to function and allowing others to participate in the paid labour market. Islamic concepts relating to effort, toil, and contribution to family life can be used to support legal recognition of this work.

International and regional human rights law

International human rights law, including CEDAW General Recommendations, calls for equality in the ownership, acquisition, management, administration, enjoyment, and disposition of property in marriage and at its dissolution. This includes recognising non‑financial contributions to the family economy.

Regionally, there are opportunities to draw on instruments such as the Maputo Protocol and to connect with broader work on women’s economic rights. Hurra’s work in this area aims to bridge global standards with local legal and religious frameworks in ways that are credible and locally grounded.

What Hurra members are doing to reform the financial rights of wives, during and after marriage

The Hurra Coalition is working to ensure that wives, both within and after marriage, have equitable access to wealth and are not at risk of poverty or destitution. Our collective efforts include: 

• Reform: advocating for the legal recognition of "shared matrimonial assets," leveraging the Islamic principle of Al-Kad wa al-Sa’aya (Effort and Toil) to ensure women’s unpaid care work is valued as a financial contribution. 
• Resilience: supporting women and girls with financial literacy training and legal aid to help women secure maintenance, alimony, and property rights. 
• Representation: bringing the economic realities of rural and low-income women to the attention of policymakers, demonstrating how equal property rights drive national economic prosperity. 

The Hurra Coalition is working to secure women's financial agency, because "equality inside the home" must the right to the wealth women help build throughout their lives.

[ Add any links to specific resources from the members ]