According to Bishin and Cherif, property rights offer unique insight into the factors that account for gender inequality in Muslim-majority countries. Both cultural and religious explanations predict gender-based discrimination for many kinds of rights. In contrast, for Muslim-majority countries, only cultural, patriarchy-based explanations predict gender-based discrimination with respect to property rights generally. In these contexts, religious explanations predict greater equality with respect to property rights, as prescribed by Islamic law. Accounting for factors including religiosity, patriarchy, education, and the density of women’s advocacy groups, the authors conduct an analysis that suggests that patriarchal norms are a better predictor than religion of state behaviour in affording women property rights. Other factors such as women’s education and networks of women’s rights activists are even more predictive. These results suggest that activists’ sensitivity to the religious context is perhaps less important than focusing resources on promoting women’s education and self-advocacy.