Abstract
Inheritance denial on gender basis is a crime in Pakistan. The present study explores different illegal methods, practices and procedures that were adopted to deny family females in getting their legal share in family inheritance. The data for the study were collected from the respondents belonging to rural and urban areas of District Peshawar. The results reveal female inheritance denial through various measures that included illegal as well was a common practice in the study area. Customary laws generally applied in inheritance matters which many times override even the statutory laws and rights given to females by the constitution in Pakistan. Though the use of illegal methods such as omitting females name from heir’s list, marking females thump on inheritance documents, getting power of attorney from the family females and making bogus inheritance documents was not practiced by the respondents at large but were still practiced by many people in the study area in one way or other. They along with patriarchy based norms, practices, inheritance getting procedures and dysfunctional role of legal institutions made very difficult for females to get their legal inheritance rights. The study recommended dealing the practices through strict law enforcement measures, discouraging the parallel courts/bodies, customary laws and making inheritance legal procedure simple.