Examples of differences
Based on the above, the portions of males and females can differ in inheritance laws mainly because of their respective financial responsibilities.
For example, there is a difference in the portions of a husband and a wife, a father and a mother, a brother and a sister, in the event of the death of various relatives. If a son dies for instance; his mother will inherit more than his father in most instances, this is because she lost more financial support than the father because of the death of their son.
If the father dies, for another example, his son inherits more than his sister because the son has to support his sister after the demise of their father, in addition to the son supporting their mother. He also has responsibilities towards his wife and children. But if the daughter did not have a brother, she inherits more because she lacks her brother’s support.
If a husband dies, for another example, and he has a son, his widow inherits one-eighth of the fortune, but if she has no children, her portion is one-fourth which is a big portion because she lacks the support required from her children. And so on.
That is how the Islamic law bases its rules of financial rights for members of the family according to the respective responsibilities of males and females.
How to address injustice against women
I certainly agree that the current situation in some of Muslims societies with regard to the family matters is unfair for women. In most cases, a woman is tasked with the responsibilities of the family more than what the Islamic law tasked her. This is a real problem; a high percentage of Muslim women are the sole provider of their children, and in some cases they even provide for their husbands.
Moreover, currently, many Islamic societies prohibit women their due entitlements with regard to inheritance, because they give the whole property to their brothers, husbands or uncles in the name of ‘preserving’ the family’s wealth, or in the name of avoiding the division of the inherited land, and other non-Islamic reasons.
Some Muslim societies continue to compromise women’s entitlements which were given to them by Allah.
But in order to resolve women injustices in Muslims societies, the solution is not to adopt the western concept of equality, and hence equating the roles and responsibilities of husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, and brother and sisters.
Absolute equality in that sense goes against the Islamic social structure, which is based on specific definitions of both manhood and femininity and related rights and responsibilities.
The real solution, when it comes to governments in Muslim majority countries, is simply to enforce the law that already exists and mandates the rights and responsibilities based on Islamic law of inheritance. The real solution is to enforce the responsibilities of fathers, husbands, brothers and sons; as much as these governments enforce the responsibilities of women as wives, mothers, and custodians.
There are laws that already exist which prohibit the non-Islamic practice of denying a sister, a daughter or a mother her portion mandated by the Islamic law in the name of family or tribe.