Widows
and AIDS:
Presentation by Bridget Sleap, Panos Institute
Discrimination
against widows and HIV/AIDS are interrelated in two ways: HIV/AIDS
significantly adds to the burden of the already inferior status
of widows. At the same time, this economic, social and political
inferiority makes widows (and women in general) more vulnerable
to HIV infection. It is a vicious circle of discrimination and poverty.
Information
addressing the situation of widows in general often focuses on the
older woman, whilst in fact AIDS has created a generation of young
widows. These young widows, frequently with young children, face
the burden of discrimination on two counts - the loss of their husband
and the disease. One
of the major problems facing widows is the fact that they are so
often seen as little more than victims. Widows, whether or not they
have HIV, may have much to offer society, including skills that
may not have been utilised during marriage. An
increasing number of organisations that are working with widows,
for example introducing income generating schemes, or encouraging
widows to keep family history books for their children, but many
widows may be unable to access these support groups. This
year's world AIDS campaign focuses on men and AIDS. NGOs, policy
makers and international agencies are finally beginning to address
the role that men play in driving the epidemic. Since changing sexual
behaviour is at the heart of reducing the spread of HIV, and since
in the majority of countries men have control over this behaviour,
this approach could be seen as a pragmatic realisation of the limits
on women's ability to change existing power relations. However,
present interventions that focus on men are not really confronting
the causes of male social, political and economic power and the
consequent vulnerability of women and widows that is at the heart
of the spread of HIV. Pragmatic short term programmes must be matched
by long term social change if both the spread of HIV is to be reduced
and the rights of women and widows respected. There
is a need to ensure that interventions that target widows do not
merely add to their existing roles as carers, mothers and providers
but see them as women in their own right. There are fears that highlighting
a group within the epidemic increases the stigma and discrimination
that they suffer. However, if policymakers, NGOs and the media continue
to fail to address the causes behind the particular vulnerability
of widows, they continue to discriminate against them and fail to
recognise the changes that HIV/AIDS is dictating.
Widows and War: Presentation
by Behjat from the Revolutionary Afghan Women's Association (RAWA)
If women in other countries may fight for the equality of men and
women, in Afghanistan women first of all have to fight to be recognized
as human being. For the fundamentalists who now rule our country,
the first and foremost victims are women. In a country where women
officially have been expelled from their jobs, if they had any,
and where women must be accompanied by a close male relative when
they go out side, the most oppressed and bleak element are those
who have lost their male bread winners: the widows.
The
pain of an Afghan widow is not that she has lost her husband; widowhood
of a woman in Afghanistan means her material and spiritual ruin.
A widow has no right to decide about her fate or even to make decisions
regarding her own children. She has no right to start a fresh life,
no right to oppose a forced engagement to another man (usually her
brother-in-law who may have his own children and who may be considerably
different in age to the widow). In a land where your sex indicates
your value in society, to be a woman means you are nothing and have
nothing without the other sex. This situation makes life for Afghan
women quite different from the conditions of women in other countries.
Today, Afghanistan is home to over 700,000 widows; children and
women beg for food and shelter and 10 million deadly land mines
sleep in the soil. Taliban
has imposed terrible misogynistic principles. With the force of
whip and lash wielded by the students of Amr-u-Bil-Maroof (a religious
department for the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice),
women are once again the targets of merciless pain and unending
suffering. Whether as a widow and thereby bereft of possessions,
or as the victim of rape and unchaste acts, or the object of insults,
our women daily experience cruel oppression. ·
Women have been dismissed from all of government offices; they can
do limited work in health department.
· Women have been totally deprived of education and all girls'
schools have been closed.
· Women are forced to wear a veil when they go outside.
· They have to wear shoes and clothes according to the wish
of Taliban.
· Women have no right to leave their homes unless accompanied
by a man.
· Women are not allowed to shop freely at stores run by male
shopkeepers.
· Women have no right to use public toilets and all female
toilets have been closed.
· Women have no right to get medical check ups from male
doctors.
· Women cannot get a taxi if they are alone. These
limitations are heavier than chains around the neck of every woman,
but for the widows, who are living in loneliness without a companion
who should be the head of their families, they are especially heavy.
Most
of the widows in Afghanistan live in a state of dire poverty and
hopelessness; the only way to support their children or themselves
is through begging and prostitution. Today the right to work has
been snatched from them and they have been forced into this plight.
Widows
and Law in Africa: Presentation by Monica Mhoja, Tanzania
In Tanzania, most widows suffer under a discriminatory customary
inheritance law.
In fact, in matters of inheritance, three systems operate hand in
hand: Statutory law, religious laws and customary law. Native Tanzanian
affairs are presumed to be regulated by customary law except where
there is an express indication that any other law ought to apply.
Under Islamic law, a widow gets a quarter of the estate if she has
no children, or one-eighth if she has children. Divorce is better
than widowhood for most women. Customary
law completely bars widows from inheriting land from their deceased
husbands, even when the land is marital property, and subjects the
widows to being inherited by men from her husband's family. It excludes
widows from being administrators of estates. The consequences of
this discrimination against widows are severe and constitute infringements
of their human rights. The harms inflicted by gender-biased inheritance
laws include: impoverishment, harassment; ostracism, ill-health
and psychological damage. Discriminatory effects of these inheritance
laws have become magnified as the scourge of AIDS has greatly increased
the number of widows in Tanzania. Customary
inheritance law came into being during a time when family or clan
members supported widows upon the death of a husband. However, these
traditions are dissipating in modern society as a result of migration,
urbanization, the influx of different cultures, the influence of
religious groups and increased access to education. The dissipation
of traditional ways makes customary law regulating inheritance problematic,
because widows are often left with little or no means of support.
Customary
inheritance law and discriminatory customs within our societies
contribute to the exploitation of widow's rights particularly the
right to inherit property. Also, the multiplicity of law systems
leaves a gap that permits the courts and self-styled traditionalists,
who often include unscrupulous relatives of the deceased, to choose
those laws that most harm widows. This situation constitutes an
injustice to widows and needs to be changed. But
the situation can be changed to ensure inheritance equality to widows.
The Constitution and international treaties ratified by Tanzania
provide for two possible potential sources for law reform. Tanzania
has a commitment to democracy and basic human rights and its Constitution
and the Treaties it has ratified reflect these Commitments.
There
are other available strategies for the promotion and protection
of widows' rights, which are critical to women's rights. However,
because customs and Ideologies do not change overnight, differential
standards on inheritance matters for widows based on both custom
and law will not change rapidly. Only a multidimensional approach
can achieve progressive change. Gender
discrimination on widows issues is a cultural product; the culture
itself must be changed if we are to achieve a society based on equality.
The most viable ways of changing the inheritance customary laws
is by transforming popular beliefs and attitudes. Thus, a major
emphasis should be placed on educating and gender sensitising both
men and women. In addition, lobbying for effective law reform and
coordinated strategic litigation are important tools that can help
to improve the status of widows.
