Why women in Bosnia and Herzegovina are still afraid of having property in their name

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, women have equal rights to property, at least on paper. In practice, many renounce it. Not because they must, but because they believe they should.

This is confirmed by the long-term experience of Lana Jajčević, a legal advisor at the United Women’s Foundation from Banja Luka, who has been working with women victims of domestic violence for decades.

More than 10,000 women have passed through the counseling center of this foundation.

“Women seem to be afraid of owning property in their name” says Jajčević.

Although she advises that it would be good for them to accept the property during the divorce and the one they inherit from their parents, because it can be crucial for their protection and security, many women refuse to do so. Therefore, they immediately transfer the property to their children or refuse to register it in their name at all.

Jajčević cites the example of a woman who experienced a severe case of domestic violence but did not change her attitude towards property.

“As soon as there was talk that she would inherit property from her parents, even before she inherited the property, she asked how she would leave it to her children.”

She survived a severe case of domestic violence but still thinks the same.

“Her husband brutally beat her up in public, but when she inherited property from her parents, she immediately passed it on to her children, and she has two children from that marriage,” says Jajčević.

“She acts as if she doesn’t need anything, and she lives as a tenant in Banja Luka.”

According to Jajcevic, women often leave property to their brothers or other family members, even when they are in a worse financial situation.

The prevailing attitude among women, Jajcevic observes, is that “property should not be in their name”.

“The most common question is: what will people say?! These traditional values ​​that are wrongly nurtured still show our women that they should not own property,” she points out.

It is particularly worrying that, as she says, even younger women in urban areas are not immune to these types of behavior. The exception are mostly more educated women.

All goes to the brother, because a daughter belongs to “another household”

In a survey on the topic of family inheritance, from their personal experience, women across Bosnia and Herzegovina confirmed that they gave up property because of tradition and family expectations.

“In our country, men are more respected and they say: you should give everything to your brother, but not to women because they will marry into someone else’s house”, Merka Mustafić from Srebrenica points out the customs.

She points out that now, after dividing the property, she would act differently.

“Now I would take it, even just to have a room of my own, instead of giving everything to my brothers,” says Mustafić. 

Mevlida Jašarević, a forty-seven-year-old woman from the vicinity of Srebrenica, pointed to her specific family situation. She and her sisters renounced their property in favour of a male family member.

“We gave everything to our cousin, because he was the only one who inherited our last name. He was the only one left of the men, the only one with a last name.”

For some, the renunciation did not go without consequences. Amina Buljubašić from Zenica describes the damaged family relationships due to the unresolved inheritance.

“The process was never finished, and my brother and sister blocked me and we don’t talk, and they look away when we meet. It’s horrible,” Amina wrote in the survey.

Sajma Mehmedović’s brother inherited everything after the death of their parents.

“My brother inherited everything after my mother died because we lost our father in ’95, and the four of us, sisters, gave the property to our brother as a gift.”

They, says Sajma, already had stability in their new families:

“Our brother offered it, but we didn’t want it, because, thank God, all of us have families and a home,” wrote Sajma.

In Srebrenica, in eastern Bosnia and Herzegovina, it’s tradition, says Muhiba Hadžibulić.

“It’s our tradition, in order not to ruin the relationship between us”, she points out the reason why property is left to male family members.

For most women, giving up the right of inheritance is primarily a moral obligation towards the family, the desire to preserve good family relations, not to divide the property into several parts, and avoid family pressure.

‘Women who ask for their share are often stigmatised as greedy’

Only 34 percent of women in Bosnia and Herzegovina own immovable property, says the data from the CILAP immovable property records, carried out with the geodetic administrations of the Republic of Srpska and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Mirjana Miškić, a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Banja Luka, states this data in the analysis “Common property and inheritance in Bosnia and Herzegovina”.

The reasons lie in a deep-rooted tradition according to which family property is viewed as “men’s”, answers Miškić when asked why this is so.

Daughters often give up their inheritance in favor of their brothers, she continues, in order to preserve good relations in the primary family.

“There is a belief that by going to another house (marriage), the daughter is taken care of, while the son stays to maintain the family estate and surname and is considered the legitimate successor of the family name,” she explains.

Patriarchal patterns in BiH society operate through stereotypical gender roles and are the result of the historical development of the legal position of women, says Miškić.

“The pattern in which the male descendant inherits everything dates back to customary law and the first living communities, and it has remained until today as an unwritten rule that often overrides modern legal solutions,” says the professor at the Faculty of Law in Banja Luka.

Although renunciation is voluntary, it is very often the result of concealed social pressure, warns Miškić.

“Women who ask for their share are often stigmatized as greedy or face a break in contact with their family. The fear of judgment from the environment and loss of emotional support from the family makes this renunciation only conditionally ‘voluntary'”.

This renunciation also has its economic consequences, because as professor Miškić says, “renunciation directly threatens economic independence”.

“Without assets in their name, women do not have assets that serve (as collateral) to obtain bank loans to start independent entrepreneurship. They depend on the goodwill of their husbands or male relatives. They are left without ‘security in case of divorce or death of their spouse'”.

The choice is often not really free

Professor Miškić explains that customs are still extremely strong in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although the laws on inheritance in both BiH entities are gender neutral and guarantee equal rights to sons and daughters, she says, in practice the institute of renunciation of inheritance is used massively, and the role of the family and the community are always primary sources of pressure.

“The family teaches female children from an early age that property belongs to the brothers. Throughout history, religious laws (such as Sharia law or church rules in the past) have treated male and female heirs differently, which left a deep mark on the collective consciousness of the people of BiH,” Miškić points to the essence of the problem and adds that the local community maintains the norm “through gossip and condemnation of women who take their brother’s share”.

And Amila Zdralović, a professor at the Faculty of Law at the University of Sarajevo, believes that women give up property under the influence of society and patriarchal norms.

“Individuals are taught patriarchal values ​​through entire processes – not through one act, but through entire processes of socialization. And then we actually adopt those values ​​as if they were our own. Even when at first it may seem to us that it is voluntary, in principle it is not,” she points out.

Equal rights on paper, not in life

The question that arises is how to empower a woman to claim her legal right, because laws in Bosnia and Herzegovina treat heirs equally, regardless of gender.

“In principle, the question is how we will dismantle this socio-cultural context”, says Zdralović.

There is no direct connection, she explains, between gender-sensitive language and women in politics, for example, but all this”, Zdralović continues, “contributes to the breakdown and deconstruction of patriarchal sociocultural patterns”.

The law is clear: in Bosnia and Herzegovina, women and men have equal rights to property and inheritance, but there is a deep gap between the law and real life.

In the name of “keeping the peace at home”, women give up their rights and from generation to generation remain without property and their economic security and independence.

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Author: Aida Đugum

This story inspired a cross-border collaboration with the Meduza platform. As part of this collaboration, we will publish stories of women’s experiences with inheritance from Western Balkan countries.

Featured photo: Meduza platform/Damjana Vidicheska