Although 86 percent of women farm for a living on land in communal areas run by traditional chiefs, legislation is silent on the issue of land inheritance under these circumstances. According to custom, chiefs allocate land to male heads of households, but women do not automatically inherit this land upon a husband's death. Consequently, they may be evicted from the land when widowed. Although Zimbabwe's constitution prohibits discrimination on grounds of gender, it allows this clause to fall away where it runs contrary to customary law. Thus, if the husband dies, "the widow does not automatically inherit his land, which was not his to give away anyway," Edith Mashawidza, chairperson of the Women and Land in Zimbabwe lobby, told IRIN.