.png)
By Heather Rainey
As the number of widows and wives of the missing continues to grow, the international
community remains silent on this ever-pressing issue. The neglect from national
governments and other global institutions, including the United Nations (UN), serves to
increase the poverty, displacement and vulnerability that widows and their children face
daily.
Areas such as Yemen that are fighting severe political instability are also dealing with
underlying social issues including unemployment, corruption and extreme food shortages.
According to UN statistics, 2020 has marked the fourth consecutive year of the world’s
worst humanitarian crisis. It is universally accepted that poverty significantly affects women
more than men, as it exacerbates their already disadvantaged position in society. However,
the status of widowhood adds extra layers of discrimination – in areas like Yemen, and
many other middle eastern countries, a widow has no claim on her husband’s property;
thus, widows are left with no property or assets. The normative social ideal of paternalism
means that women are expected to have a male relative, or husband to provide for her;
hence the high levels of illiteracy in widows. This leaves these women with no back-up plan
for when her husband passes away, often forcing them into informal labour subjecting them
and their children to further discrimination and exposure to violence.
Furthermore, widows in South Asia are often subject to horrific patriarchal rituals, including
being forced to drink the bathwater of their husband’s dead bodies and have unprotected
sex to ‘cleanse themselves of the sin of causing their husbands death’. According to the UN
India is home to around 42 million widows, many of whom are children. The intersection
with child brides again further complicates the issue. Many widows are forced to sell off
their children as brides, again contributing to the cycle of violence for women. These
inhumane rituals strip widows of any agency or dignity and contribute heavily to the
operation of patriarchal norms.
The plight of widows is something that urgently needs addressing but the lack of official
government statistics on the matter adds to the difficulty of grasping a true understanding
of just how immense the scale of this issue is. One of the NGO’s taking on the task of
supporting widows regardless of age, religion, ethnicity, caste, class or nationality is Widows
for Peace through Democracy (WPD) which aims to allow widows to enjoy their human
rights to the full. WPD has ECOSOC consultative status at the UN, meaning that they can
participate fully in the UN system, including attending sessions, submitting official reports
on widow’s concerns and hosting UN side events. If you are interested in learning more
about their work, signing up to their newsletter or donating, please follow the link below.
https://www.widowsforpeace.org/