{UAH} International Widows Day: “Invisible Women, Invisible Problems”.
International Widows Day: "Invisible Women, Invisible Problems".
By Vimbai B Chinembiri on June 23, 2017 — #Widows globally and particularly in #Africa are victims of all types of harassment and discrimination emanating from several myths and misconceptions. After losing their husbands, widows may suffer a double blow of being accused of witchcraft, suffer inheritance denial and can even be shunned and neglected by society. Today is International Widows Day, a day set aside by the United Nations to bring attention to the plight of widows globally.
Widows globally and particularly in Africa are victims of all types of harassment and discrimination emanating from several myths and misconceptions. After losing their husbands, widows may suffer a double blow of being accused of witchcraft, suffer inheritance denial and can even be shunned and neglected by society.
Today is International Widows Day, a day set aside by the United Nations to bring attention to the plight of widows globally. This year the commemorations run under the theme, "Invisible women, Invisible problems". There's a lot of stigmatisation surrounding widows, which has seen them being ostracised in society, being seen as having a streak of bad luck because of various religious and cultural practises. This is sadly despite the fact that many women have been widowed through wars.
In a statement on the commemoration of this day, the UN said, the children of widows are often affected, both emotionally and economically. Widowed mothers, now supporting their families alone, are forced to withdraw children from school and to rely on their labour. Moreover, the daughters of widows may suffer multiple deprivations, increasing their vulnerability to abuse. While the face of poverty across the continent is that of a woman, widows often suffer a double blow especially considering that women are often at the bottom of the radar economically.
Kawale Orphan Care in Lilongwe, Malawi. Here are some of the pastors, volunteers and orphans from Kawale Orphan Care. Image Credit: Flickr/ Khym54
According to the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a report by the World Widows Reportpublished by the Loomba Foundation estimates that there are 258.5 million widows globally with 584.6 million offspring. More so, widows are regularly accused of killing their husbands either deliberately or through neglect – including by transmitting HIV/AIDS – in India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and sub-Saharan Africa. Property seizures and evictions by the late husband's family are widespread in many places including Angola, Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
As indicated earlier, women are widowed due to armed conflict. In some parts of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, for instance, it is reported that around 50 per cent of women are widows, while there are an estimated three million widows in Iraq and over 70,000 in Kabul, Afghanistan.
It is with this in mind that the UN has encouraged governments to take action to uphold their commitments to ensure the rights of widows as enshrined in international law, including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. Even when national laws exist to protect the rights of widows, weaknesses in the judicial systems of many States compromise how widows' rights are defended in practice and these challenges should be addressed.
More importantly as communities we have a mandate to ensure we empower widows and protect them from abuse. We have to ensure they have adequate healthcare, education, decent work, full participation in decision-making and public life, and lives free of violence and abuse. The loss of a loved one alone is life changing and difficult to go through, we should therefore give them a chance to build a secure life after bereavement. Creating these opportunities for widows helps protect their children and destroys the cycle of inter-generational poverty and deprivation.
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