Li Chengying, a farmer, and her three brothers all live in the same village in Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, where they were born and grew up.

She found she was no longer a "village citizen" but a "guest" after she married a man from outside their village.

Even though she still makes the village her home, she is not called to vote in village affairs and never gets any financial benefits from the village.

Li is not alone; 33 other women tolerated their "guest" status as tradition dictated.

That all changed three years ago when the village committee signed a deal to sell its last chunk of 40 hectares of land for housing development. The agreement included 22 million yuan ($2.8 million) in compensation and discounts for purchasing the apartments by those who had lived on the land.

It is such a handsome sum for the village with barely more than 300 residents that Li and 33 other women believed they were entitled to a share and should no longer give up their rights.

The Constitution and the law are on their side.

Even with only a year's schooling, Li can cite the Constitution, which stipulates that "all citizens of the People's Republic of China are equal before the law. Every citizen enjoys the rights and at the same time must perform the duties prescribed by the Constitution and the law."

The Marriage Law says that man and woman are equal in marriage. The Law on the Protection of Rights and Interests of Women specifies that women in marriage or divorce should enjoy the same rights to property as men.

The Law of Villagers' Self-Governance stipulates that it be effective within the framework of the Constitution.

However, three years have passed and the women are still fighting their legal battle, although the village committee clearly defied the cardinal laws of the country with its decision.

The women's difficulty in fighting for the same rights as their brothers and other village men has demonstrated how feeble the local governments and even the local courts are in overcoming entrenched prejudice and discrimination against women.

The women started to make calls to many local government departments to seek administrative assistance three years ago but have gone through twists and turns, winning sympathy but seeing little concrete action.

Local officials even indicated that they feared a domino effect if Li and her 33 pals were awarded their share of compensation, since there are 10,000 women in the district living as "female guests" according to media reports.

The administrators recommended they go to court as their last resort.

However, a deputy chief judge of the local district court, which refused to take the complaints of the women "guests" a month ago, said it would take time for them to study the case.

It is shocking that the judge, a woman herself, indicated that the rule of law would not be "the best way to solve the problem".

She preferred "promotion, education and guidance to win other villagers' understanding", despite the fact that besides the Constitution and the related laws, the provincial high people's court also handed down its judicial interpretation early last year that courts should support the rights of female villagers to the same economic benefits garnered by the village collectively as enjoyed by male members.

The local courts are legally- bound to perform their duties, as other judges have already done in their own province as well as elsewhere, helping more than 100 rural women gain the money and land they are entitled to.

(China Daily 01/18/2007 page10)