After S.K. was told that her husband, who was a member of KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) was killed, she still decided to live with his family.
Together with her young sons, she went to Germany, where her brother-in-law lived. She returned to Kosovo after two months and continued to live with her husband’s family. At the beginning, she was very welcome.
However, after two years she says that her problems started.
“…after a while the conflict started, allegedly since I don’t have a husband they can’t take care of me, and they can’t take care of my children. You don’t have a husband and nobody can work for you, my father-in-law used to say,” said S.K.
After this, she has moved several times and tried to get her inheritance, without any success.
“For 12 years I have lived without any inheritance or anything else since my husband’s property wasn’t considered mine.They didn’t give me my part,” says the martyr’s wife.
Her situation has now changed. For 8 years, together with her children, she has been living in an apartment she got from the municipality as social welfare for martyr’s families. In the meantime, her son got his part of the inheritance after his grandfather’s death, when he turned 18.
“Today all of my husband’s property belongs to my sons,” said S.K.
Shkumbin Asllani is a legal counselor for the project “Shtëpia ime, e drejta ime” (My house, my right) which is implemented by Kosova Women’s Network. He says that cases of women’s inheritance are dealt with differently nowadays.
“We are talking about the right of inheritance obtained by marriage – or the joint property gained by work during their marriage. In these cases, the property gained during marriage belongs to the wife and children of the deceased. Whereas, if the husband gained his property before he was married, half of the property belongs to the spouse and half to the parents of the deceased. After half the property is passed to the wife it can then be passed to her children. The other half that was passed to the parents of the deceased can also be passed to the children if, for example, they put it on their will,” he says.
Asllani believes that it is very important for the wellbeing of the wife and children of the deceased that she gets the property.
“While in the legal aspect it is an undeniable right,” he says.
Lawyer Fehmije Gashi-Bytyqi says that the law on inheritance in Kosovo shows in detail who has the right to inherit the property.
The law on inheritance in Kosovo states that if an adult descendant dies before his own parents, his property goes to his own children. According to Gashi-Bytyqi, the law states that the property of the martyr’s father will be inherited by the children of the martyr, and the martyr’s wife should ask for her children’s inheritance if they do not receive it.
According to Gashi-Bytyqi, it is the women who suffer in divorce cases, as widows of KLA martyrs, or as widows whose husbands have died for different reasons.
“According to The Family Law Of Kosovo, women inherit joint property, the property that was obtained by marriage,” she says.
The lawyer says that often, when a woman loses her husband, she is left like without any support from his family.
“This happens because the property was not legally passed to her husband. It still belongs to her husband’s father, grandfather or great-grandfather. Then, they encounter other problems, since most women don’t know the law. If, for example, her father-in-law gives his property to his son as a gift, then the wife has no right to that property,” says Gashi-Bytyqi.
When it comes to martyr’s widows, she says that there were cases where they were indirectly pressured because they were afraid of what would happen to them.
“There are cases where maybe they forced her to leave the house, especially in cases when the woman is unemployed and unprotected. If the property belonged to her father-in-law, the father of the martyr, then the martyr’s children can have the property if their grandfather decides to give it to them as a gift. But, if he doesn’t want to and gives it to someone else, nobody can intervene there. Women need to understand that they cannot inherit from their father-in-law,” she says.
According to the Kosovo Agency of Statistics, only 3.8% of women, who form 51% of the total population of Kosovo, have gained the right to inherit, and only 16% of the total number of properties is registered in women’s names.
Gentiana Maxharraj
