The Tuareg people of North Africa have evolved unique customs when it comes to women’s rights, among them being an emphasis on the female bloodline for inheritance. Any children from a marriage are considered to be of the mother’s line and will have inheritance privileges based on that connection. The female line is favored due to the belief that a child’s paternity is without doubt when it comes to a mother and is a more reliable method to track bloodlines than through the father. This is in stark contrast to the use of male preference inheritance rights that dominates the surrounding regions and truly sets the Tuareg apart in a unique way.
See Flora Drury, Sex and the Sahara: Striking photographs of the mysterious Islamic tribe…, Daily Mail, June 24, 2015.
Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this article to my attention.
