forward.93 However, many of the laws and regulations that lie at the heart of the issues discussed in this report have not yet been amended.94 Zimbabwe has a constellation of formal, civil laws that apply to marriages and inheritance. The Married Persons Property Act states that marriages in Zimbabwe are not automatically community property institutions.95 There is therefore no presumption that property in the marriage is jointly owned and inheritable by either spouse. Married people seeking to enter into a community property arrangement must do so before their marriage, filing a written agreement stating their arrangement with a local Deeds Registry office. It is problematic that the Marriage Act and the Customary Marriages Act require the registration of only the marriages solemnized according to their rules.96 No legal framework exists to protect the estimated 70 to 80 percent of unregistered customary unions rural women are living under in Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe’s Customary Marriages Act is part of its civil law, and the act offers many of the same protections to men and women in registered customary marriages.97 It also extends parental rights and inheritance rights to children in unregistered, or “invalid,” customary marriages.98 However, it does not protect the inheritance rights of a spouse in an unregistered customary marriage.99 Further, the Customary Marriages Act specifically provides for consideration for a marriage, which in this context means lobola, and which runs counter to international human rights norms.100 93 “The Inter-Ministerial Task Force on the Alignment of Legislation to the Constitution (IMT) hold its Bi-Monthly Meeting”, CALR: Centre for Applied Legal Research: Making the Law Work For Development, June 20, 2016, http://calr.org/view.php?p=716&c=5, (accessed July 27, 2016). 94 For a table of laws identified for amendment and alignment with the constitution, see Chirawu, Strengthening the legal framework on women, property, and inheritance rights in the context of HIV/AIDS in Zimbabwe. 95 Married Persons Property Act, no. 10 of 1928, cap. 5:12, sec. 2(1). 96 See, Marriage Act, sec. 32; Customary Marriages Act, sec. 8. 97 See, Customary Marriages Act, secs. 3(5) and 7(1)(b). 98 Customary Marriages Act, sec. 3(5). 99 Ibid. 100 A magistrate may “after consultation with the guardian of the woman, fix the marriage consideration,” see, Customary Marriages Act, sec. 5(1)(b). “YOU WILL GET NOTHING” 40