Victory for women's rights in Botswana

The fight for women's rights in Botswana took a major step forward this week when the Court of Appeal upheld the right of four sisters to inherit their family homestead, rejecting the argument that under Ngwaketse customary law only sons were allowed to inherit it. This was the court battle between Ramantele v Mmusi and Others.

In a unanimous decision written by Justice Lesetedi, the Court of Appeal held that customary law is inherently flexible and in this case the four sisters, who used their own money to renovate the homestead were entitled to inherit it. Justice Lesetedi noted that societal realities have changed over the last thirty years, stating that the "Constitutional values of equality before the law, and the increased leveling of the power structures with more and more women heading households and participating with men as equals in the public sphere and increasingly in the private sphere, demonstrate that there is no rational and justifiable basis for sticking to the narrow norms of days gone by when such norms go against current value systems."

Original article: http://allafrica.com/stories/201309040359.html