Afghanistan
more
information here
Early
report
On August 8th 1998 Taliban troops entered the northern
Afghanistan city of Mazar-al-Sharif, shooting at "anything
that moved" in what witnesses described as a "killing
frenzy." In the days that followed, the troops conducted
house-to-house searches, arresting and executing Hazara men
and boys. Eyewitnesses reported that troops demanded they
recite Sunni prayers to prove they were not Hazara. Scores
and perhaps hundreds of Hazara men and boys were summarily
executed, apparently to ensure that they would be unable to
mount any resistance to the Taliban.
Many
women and girls have been abducted and raped. The majority
of the women are widows.Under the fundamentalist regime, women
are forbidden to work outside their homes. This rule has resulted
in more than 400,000 war widows being made destitute and unable
to feed their dependants – children, the sick and elderly.
more
information here
Canada
In
1987 a Turkish widow who was subjected to rape and harassment
by young men and whose government refused to protect her qualified
for refugee status as a member of the social group “single
women living in a Moslem country without the protection of
a male relative”. (Canadian Immigration Board Decision.
M87-154IX)
Sweden
Widows
in relatively wealthy Sweden have organised a protest against
a January 1990 amendment to a Parliamentary Resolution of
1977, which had made a widow's pensions dependent on her income.
The 1990 amendment made this change retroactive to affect
widows widowed prior to 1990. Some 52,000 widows are affected
with reductions of income of SEK 4200 per month, forcing them
to sell homes and relocate. A well-organised widows' group
is suing the Regional Social Insurance Office in Stockholm
claiming that these amendments contravene the Swedish Constitution
and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Editor's
note: widows organised themselves and used the Human Rights
Convention. But they live in a more equal society, are literate,
educated, and are aware of their rights. Contact:
United
Kingdom
WIDOWED FATHERS ENTITLED TO "WIDOWED MOTHER'S ALLOWANCE"
The UK authorities have agreed to pay social security
benefits in arrears to two male applicants, as if they had
been bereaved widows and will continue to pay these benefits
on an extra-statutory basis until new legislation is in place
reforming the pension system. This decision came as a result
of the applicants arguing that the discrimination they were
subject to breached article 14 (prohibiting discrimination)
of the European Convention on Human Rights, taken in conjunction
with both Article 8 (right to respect and family life) and
article 1 of Protocol No 1 (protection of property) to the
Convention.
