And, they call Syria a secular state...

Well, they said the same thing about Saddam's Iraq - weird definition of secular...

Following the death of her father, Ahlam Salim had a growing sense of nostalgia for her childhood, and she longed for a share of her family’s house in the village where she was raised.

“All my childhood memories are hidden in that place. It’s where I feel truly comfortable,” said Salim, 40, a housewife who now lives with her husband and two children in the city of Homs, not far from her home village,

Although Salim felt she was entitled to inherit at least part of the house, her father’s entire estate was left to her brother.

Under the Syrian constitution, men and women are guaranteed the same inheritance rights. However, inheritance legislation dating from 1953 and derived from Sharia law grants women a lesser share.

According to this legislation, when a parent dies, a son receives twice the legacy given to his sister. A wife will inherit one-quarter of her dead husband’s estate if there are no children, and one-eighth if there are, while a husband will receive either half or a quarter of his late wife’s assets, depending whether there are children.

Inheritance law is dealt with separately from the criminal and civil systems, and is enforced by Sharia courts for the Sunni and Shia Muslims who make up some 75 per cent of Syria’s population, and analogous religious courts for the Christian, Jewish and Druze communities.