Yakin Ertürk, Director, UN Division for the Advancement of Women
...The issues which widows generally face and those encountered by women in developing countries are cause for serious concern. The situation of widows should continue to be featured on the international fora until they become firmly integrated into the policy agenda.
Widows – in Bangladesh
A widow – a woman whose husband is no more. Losing a family member, particularly the life partner, is the worst tragedy that can happen in one’s life. But societal practices and exclusion darken a widow’s life even further. The social practices surrounding widowhood in the Indian Sub-Continent show a cross-cultural uniformity. In every culture or religious group widowhood is inauspicious.
In Bengali society both in Bangladesh and in West Bengal, widows experience tremendous psychological and societal brutality in the name of social rules and norms.
When her husband dies, a woman is stripped of her own place in society: “Keep your eyes downcast. You are a widow, now.” my mother-in-law ordered me. “You have eaten up my son, so you must suffer.” A widow loses almost every right in her husband’s house and there is no-one in her father’s house to take responsibility for her. In this situation she is in a big dilemma.
The main reason behind this is the poor economic condition of the woman who doesn’t get proper education or doesn’t get involved in any income generating activity. Thus the question of economic security marks the nightmare of her widowed life. If a widow has adult sons, she may have some measure of security. But if she is childless or has only daughters, she usually faces multiple problems, including isolation, harassment, denial of land, and even death.
Even today widows are accused of being 'responsible' for their husband's death. They are pressurized to observe restrictive codes of dress and behaviour; excluded from religious and social life; physically and sexually abused. If they own some property, they are often cheated of it. Although the Hindu Succession Act 1969 made women eligible to inherit equally with men, yet 30% of widows reported serious conflicts over inheritance, land, property, and residence in a 1994 study. These conflicts often ended in violence. Brothers-in-laws may harass, persecute, beat, torture, and even arrange the murder of a widow. In the Jharkhand region of Bihar, of the 46 Santhal women persecuted and killed as `witches' in recent years, 42 were widows with land rights.
In India the proportion of widows to the total female population is about 9%, or more than 40 million. Among women above the age of 60, the proportion of widows rises to 64%. In Bangladesh in 1981, nearly 12% of all females aged 10 years and over were widowed, as compared to only 1.2% of men. This is in part due to the age differences between husbands and wives, and the greater incidence of remarriage for widowers. Because of child marriage, and marriages to older man, many widows are still young women.
Under Islamic Law, widows are entitled to inherit at least 1/8th of the dead husband's property and land. In practice, this share is frequently 'managed' and then taken by the brothers-in-law. In a 1995 Bangladeshi survey on property inheritance, only 25% of widows had received their rightful share in the inheritance from a deceased father, and only 32% from their husbands. In Muslim communities, widows were treated as their sons’ dependents. Without an adult male to provide support widows find it hard and sometimes impossible to claim their lawful property rights.
As widows, women suffer some of the most severe subjugation of their whole lives. The abuse of widows has unfortunately received little attention from the women's movement. New attitudes will only come about when widows themselves take collective action. Widows are often more independent and effective than most married women. Freedom from conjugal control and the need to earn a living often impels them to be more assertive than their married sisters. They can be real agents of change.
Thanks to Bindya Chakroborty for sending in the article of which this is shortened version
From WRI Newsletter 6 - Full copies of the Newsletter available from WRI office or download PDF