The Silent Right to Property Heritage

My father, when he has divided his fortune, has left 60 golds of the earth to his sons, and to us three sisters from 20 gold, which is about to give us wealth. It's made a difference because guys have priorities for us Albanians, but under normal circumstances they shouldn't have. Albanians have their own, which boys differ from girls and give priority to”, says February.

She thinks that despite circumstances and respect for Albanian tradition, the new generations, women, should be more persistent in acquiring the wealth belonging to both parents and husbands.

We women in general relax and make cables [we agree] not to lose our brother for wealth, [in certain cases] brother in a way makes a difference if he gets his heart doesn't come to me, and other things”, says February.

On the other hand, Dardan, from Pristina, feels that parents ' wealth should be equally divided among their children, but she feels that if any family member, the sister has weaker economic conditions in her spouse, she should be given more.

I'd prefer, for example, if one of my sisters doesn't have the right conditions, give them to her, not me taking [the piece of wealth]. If I have wealth in my husband, why would I take it when I don't need anything? If the sister needs more, why should I take it unnecessarily”, she said.

The issue of participation in the family heritage on the part of women continues to remain in the taboos within the families themselves, although this issue is formally not taboo within legal and institutional treatment.

In the Kosovo Women's Network and the Kosovar Centre for Gender Studies, women's rights remain one of the main challenges to the development of Kosovo society, separately regarding their right to inherit property and their equal participation in the economy.

Kosovo's laws, according to organisations, guarantee equal rights for men and women, but the influence of culture, tradition, economic conditions and the level of education have influenced against achieving pre-lawed equality.

“The situation in relation to implementing the Law on Heritage is still fraught, and improvements are very few. There are improvements in the aspect of awareness campaigns and raising the level of knowledge of women's right to property, but the number of women who do that is extremely small”, say the Kosovo Women's Network, which contributes to women's rights.

In a response to Radio Free Europe from this Network, the problems are a lot, and they have institutional scope.

The key procedure remains the radically patriarchal mentality, which the woman does not consider worthy of inheritance of property, either on the part of her family or on the part of her husband”.

According to a study by the Women's Network, published in 2018, women are sometimes excluded from the right to inherit property from their family.

It is estimated that about 19% of women give up their property or inheritance rights.

Factors contributing to women's right to property or inheritance include: fear of carrying family property where they were born to their husband's family (12%); and other reasons (18%), such as “I don't want his from my parents”; “I want to create wealth with my husband's family/with my family”; “personal will”; and <x> the ability to create hostility in the family (4)7>

According to the investigation of this organisation, only 15 % is the number of property transactions in the name of women.

Change of Law to Unable to Give Up Heritage

The main concern, according to the Women's Network, is said to be the predominant over acts of giving up on women for inheritance rights, especially in rural areas.

“For this problem, RGK and member organisations have proposed the amendment of the Law on Heritage, completely removing the article allowing the legacy to be abandoned, and establishing a high fee that would cost women who want to give up. This would make women automatically heir and be a temporary affirmative measure until the achievement of gender equality in terms of inheritance”, the Women Group Network says.

Legally, Article 7.2. The Kosovo Constitution clearly prohibits discrimination against women. Furthermore, Article 22 stipulates that the Convention for the elimination of all forms of discrimination against women is specifically involved in Kosovo's laws. However, despite legislative safeguards for women, the cultural tradition of giving priority to male heirs still continues.

Luljeta Demolli of the Kosovar Centre for Gender Studies tells Radio Free Europe that, along with the existence of legal infrastructure, Kosovo in the context of women's heritage rights faces poor enforcement of the heritage law.

The legacy issue and the issue of women as owners in Kosovo is still low, women inherit some 4% of property from their parents, and that figure has not changed for several years. Likewise, women as owners are about 15%. It hasn't changed in years, it's 18 years that the percentage is 13 to 15%. So it's a very low figure compared to men”, Demolli said.

Factors affecting the decline in the number of women to inherit ownership, according to nongovernmental organisations, are continuation of the women's unfavourable position in Kosovo society.

The “Graves which they perform are mostly jobs which have a minimum wage. The professions they engage are professions that are typical stereos that offer their commitment at home. More women are in administration, more women are employed as nurses, whose role as household caretakers is not severed, and as teacher”, Demolli said.

Under the Law for Heritage, the legal heirs under Article 11 are the children of the inheritancers, his adopted ones, and their offspring, their husbands, parents, brothers, and sisters.