Zimbabwe divorce law spurs women's fight for property

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When Smangele Tshuma got divorced after five years of marriage, her in-laws forced her out of the home that she had been living in with her husband in southwestern Zimbabwe and took the three donkeys she had bought with money from selling blankets.

In its June decision, Zimbabwe's Supreme Court ruled that a judge can award a woman half of all movable and immovable properties when she divorces, regardless of her monetary contribution toward the purchase of those properties."It is fallacious to suggest that women do not contribute to the acquisition of immovable property," Matshiya said in emailed comments.

Previous divorce laws did not recognise women's non-financial contribution to the household, explained Choice Damiso, a lawyer with the Zimbabwe Women Lawyers Association who represented the plaintiff in the Supreme Court case. "The plaintiff wanted 50% and the defendant wanted 100%. These issues are by no means new to the courts as the rate of divorce continues to soar."

"In previous cases, before this new law, women only got things like chairs, kitchen units and the husband would get real property which mattered most, like cars, livestock and ," he said in a phone interview.

 

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