Mali – Gender Inequality – Family Code – Legal Rights +

DISCRIMINATORY FAMILY CODE: 

A new Mali Family Code was adopted by the National Assembly in August 2009,
including provisions raising the age of marriage for women from 15 to 18, and
equalising inheritance and parental rights.^[12] But
following protests from Islamic groups, President Amadou Toumani Toure refused
to sign the new Code into law (despite supporting it himself).^[13] As
of mid 2010, the proposed legislation was being revised, in a move likely to
weaken many of its provisions and reinforce many of the discriminatory
practices it was designed to eradicate, such as early marriage and the
stipulation that a wife should obey her husband.^[14]

Under current legislation and customary practices, Malian women have a very
low level of protection within the family. Women appear to have little option
but to marry: of adult women aged 20-49 questioned for the 2006
Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), only 2.2% were single.^[15] The
legal minimum age for women to marry is 15 years, but they can be married at a
younger age with a judge’s permission and the consent of their parents.^[16]
 It is a criminal offence to abduct a woman or a girl to force her into
marriage, punishable by up to five years in prison (10 years if the girl is
under 15), but the law is not effectively enforced.^[17] Civil
registrars can be punished for conducting marriages where one or both parties
are underage, or are not entering into the union of their own free will, but
most marriages are conducted under customary law and are not registered.^[18] Demographic
and Health Survey (DHS) data from 2006 indicates that 52.6% of girls aged
between 15 and 19 years were married, divorced or widowed, and according to
survey data from 2001, of girls aged 15-19 who were already married, 19.4% had
been married before they turned 15.^[19] There
have even been some reported cases of girls as young as nine being married.^[20]
 Despite efforts to raise awareness that early marriage entails serious
risks for women’s health, there seems to be no impetus within public opinion,
NGOs or the government to take serious action to combat the practice.^[21]
 In some regions, discriminatory or harmful practices relating to marriage
persist, such as arranging a girl’s marriage when she is born, giving a
daughter in marriage to a witch doctor for religious reasons, or exchanging
women between families or communities in order to strengthen relations between
them.^[22] All of
these underline the low value accorded to women in Malian society, and the
consistent denial of their rights to self determination.

Polygamy is legal according to Mali’s Marriage Code and under the teachings
of Islam, the religion practised by nearly all of the population; men may marry
up to four women. ^[23]  The
husband must obtain the permission of the first wife before he marries again,
although the authors of the 2004 report to the CEDAW committee remarked that
this consent is often obtained through coercion and abuse.^[24] It is
estimated that around 40% of women are in polygamous marriages, including 20%
of married girls aged 15-19.^[25] The
percentage is higher in rural areas (45%) than in urban areas (27%), and woman
who have not received any education are twice as likely to be affected than
women who have received secondary education (42% against 19%).^[26]

In Mali, husbands are considered to be the heads of families: their wives
are legally obliged to obey them, and the existing Civil Code grants them sole
family and parental authority.^[27]  That
said, in polygamous marriages, the husband is only considered to be the head of
the family that he establishes with his first wife; subsequent wives are
considered to be the heads of their respective households.^[28] Overall,
a total of 12.3% of households in Mali are considered to be headed by women.^[29] Husbands
decide where the family will live and their wives are obliged to obey.^[30]
 Legally, either spouse may petition for divorce, but in rural areas women
rarely initiate proceedings because of strong social pressure.^[31]
 Decisions relating to custody of children in the event of divorce are
decided in the best interests of the child.^[32] Under
Malian law, a man can appoint a legal guardian to look after the interests of
his children in the event of his death: in such cases, the mother must consult
the guardian in all legal matters pertaining to her children, and may lose
custody of them if she remarries.^[33] Malian
women do not have the right to pass their nationality on to their children, in
instances where the children’s father is not a Malian citizen.^[34] In
some communities, widows face discrimination that can fuel humiliating and
degrading practices, such as forcibly having their heads shaved.^[35] 

Inheritance is governed by Sharia, customary, and civil law, depending on
the identity of the person concerned.^[36] Under
sharia law, daughters are entitled to receive only half the share received by
sons.^[37]  A
further discrimination is that women can inherit only poor quality land that is
not very fertile.^[38]
 Customary law followed by certain ethnic groups views the wife as part of
the inheritance, and obliges her to marry a brother of her deceased husband,
who then receives all of the estate and assumes custody of the children.^[39]
 In other communities, when a woman dies, her younger sister is expected
to marry the widower.^[40] In
2006, 28.86 percent of widows inherited the majority of assets after the death
of their spouses.^[41]

_{[12] Africa for Women’s Rights (2010); BBC
(2009); Amnesty International (2010) p.220 [13] BBC (2009); Amnesty
International (2010) p.220 [14] IRIN (2010); Africa for Women’s Rights (2010)
[15] Cellule de Planification et de Statistique du Ministère de la Santé et al
(2007) p.85 [16] IRIN (2007); CEDAW (2004) p.62; US Department of State (2010) [17] IRIN (2007) [18] CEDAW (2004) p.63 [19] UNICEF (2005) p.31 [20] US Department
of State (2010) [21] IRIN (2007) [22] CEDAW (2004) pp.14, 63 [23] CEDAW (2004)
p.63 [24] CEDAW (2004) p.63 [25] Cellule de Planification et de Statistique du
Ministère de la Santé et al (2007) p.82 [26] Cellule de Planification et de
Statistique du Ministère de la Santé et al (2007) p.83 [27] CEDAW (2004) p.23;
FAO (n.d.) [28] Cellule de Planification et de Statistique du Ministère de la
Santé et al (2007) p.15 [29] Cellule de Planification et de Statistique du
Ministère de la Santé et al (2007) p.16 [30] CEDAW (2004) p.62 [31] CEDAW
(2004) p.63 [32] CEDAW (2004) p.64 [33] CEDAW (2004) p.64 [34] CEDAW (2004)
p.31 [35] CEDAW (2004) p.14 [36] CEDAW (2004) p.66; FAO (n.d.) [37] CEDAW
(2004) p.66 [38] CEDAW (2004) pp.60, 61 [39] CEDAW (2004) pp.14, 24 [40] CEDAW
(2004) p.23 [41] Chronic Poverty Research Centre (2011) p.20}

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