Created January 2011
Cultural and socioeconomic changes caused by urbanization, movement toward market and industrialized economies, increased poverty and land scarcity have all increased widows’ vulnerability to maltreatment by destabilizing traditional structures that provided some security for widows. Especially within strong patriarchal societies in which a woman derives status via her association with a male relative – be it her husband, father, brother or other relative – a widow is especially vulnerable if she no longer has the protection of this male counterpart. With resources scarce and changing cultural attitudes about familial obligations, male relatives are frequently unable or unwilling to care for widows.
Legal Infrastructure
Many nations have adopted constitutional provisions protecting women, and have signed and/or ratified international treaties such as the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. Similarly, many nations have enacted legislation that ostensibly protects women, including widows, from discriminatory practices. Despite this, these legal protections are not always enforced or held to be applicable to situations in which widows are maltreated.
In 1999, the Zimbabwe Supreme Court ruled in Magaya v. Magaya that customary law required the court to give preference to a male rather than female heir. Though some argued that this violated human rights norms and the Zimbabwe Constitution, the Court found that the matter could not be subject to constitutional scrutiny as a result of a bifurcated legal system that distinguished between customary and civil law. From David M. Bigger and Amélie von Briesen, Conflict in the Zimbabwean Courts: Women’s Rights and Indigenous Self-Determination in Magaya v. Magaya. In contrast to this, in Ephrahim v. Pastory, the United Republic of Tanzania found in 1990 that restrictions on women’s ownership rights were discriminatory, drawing in part on CEDAW and the Tanzanian Bill of Rights. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Even legislation that specifically targets harmful practices can be ineffective. In Ghana, 1989 legislation was adopted to criminalize the custom of forcing a widow to drink water used to bathe her husband’s corpse. Despite this unambiguous statute, the law has never been enforced. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Thus, though adoption of legislation, constitutional provisions, and international treaties that protect the rights of women and widows are important, it is imperative that this legislative action be given force by law enforcement and the judiciary.
HIV/AIDS & Conflict
In conflict situations, widowhood disproportionately affects women. In Angola, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Mozambique and Somalia, it has been estimated that over half of adult women have been widowed as a result of armed conflicts. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
HIV/AIDS increases the incidence of widowhood for both men and women, although as men are more likely to remarry, widows still outnumber widowers. Harmful practices such as widow cleansing through sex with a male relative increase widows’ vulnerability of contracting the virus and passing it on to future children. Further, in parts of Asia and Africa, HIV/AIDS widows are sometimes blamed for their husbands’ deaths, and are harassed, assaulted, and even killed based on accusations of witchcraft. From Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.
Forced and Child Marriage
Girls forced to marry at a young age are particularly vulnerable to becoming widowed at a young age, especially where there is a large age gap between the widow and her husband. If a young girl’s husband dies before she has reached adulthood and can adequately assert her rights, she will be especially susceptible to manipulation and abuse by relatives. Troublingly, if young widows do remarry, it is often to a much older or otherwise less desirable man, as widowed women are thought to be less sought-after. This leaves a remarried child likely to experience widowhood twice while she is still young. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.
Polygamy
Polygamy limits the amount of resources available to any particular co-widow, as she must share with her husband’s other widows. Under Islamic law, it is generally held that the co-widows must share the prescribed one eighth inheritance share, though there is some debate surrounding this. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows. Particularly where men have moved to the city, multiple marriages may have been contracted under both customary and formal legal systems. Thus, a man may have a civil law wife in the city whom he lives with, but also maintain a customary law wife in his village of birth. Such situations can lead to complicated and contentious struggles over the deceased husband’s property, and also force courts to harmonize often conflicting inheritance regimes. From Kenda Mutongi, Worries of the Heart.
Compiled from:
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, United Nations (1979)
Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women (1995)
Magaya v. Magaya, Zimbabwe Supreme Court (1999)
David M. Bigger and Amélie von Briesen, Conflict in the Zimbabwean Courts: Women’s Rights and Indigenous Self-Determination in Magaya v. Magaya, Harvard Human Rights Journal (2000)
Ephrahim v. Pastory, High Court of Tanzania (1990)
Widowhood: Invisible Women, Secluded or Excluded, Women 2000 and Beyond, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2001)
Margaret Owen, A World of Widows (1996)
Kenda Mutongi, Worries of the Heart (2007)