Prevalence

Created January 2011    

Widowhood

Despite the fact that widows constitute a significant minority of the world’s population, little comprehensive research has been conducted on the conditions of this often-vulnerable segment of the population. Throughout the world, widowhood is predominantly experienced by older individuals, although higher percentages of younger widows are found in developing countries and regions afflicted by conflict and/or HIV/AIDS. 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.

Globally, it is estimated that 37% of individuals over the age of 60 are not married, the majority of whom are widowed. When disaggregated by gender, the data reveal that older women are far more likely to be unmarried than are men, with 52% of women over 60 unmarried as compared to just 20% of men over 60. In the least-developed countries, this disparity is even greater, with 16% of men and 59% of women being unmarried. Contributing factors to these gendered differences include the fact that women have a longer life expectancy than men, men tend to marry younger women, and widowers are significantly more likely to remarry than are widows. From World Population Ageing 2009, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division.

In nations affected by HIV/AIDS and armed conflict, widowhood rates among women are even higher. For example, 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. In Iraq, though no official statistics exist, up to 65% of women are believed to be widowed (from Margaret Owen, Widowhood Changed the Way I looked at Human Rights, WidowSpeak), and in Afghanistan, decades of conflict have resulted in an estimated 2 million households for which war widows are the sole providers. From Follow-up and Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: Report of the Secretary-General Addendum:  The Situation of Women and Girls in Afghanistan, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

In Rwanda, the convergence of armed conflict and HIV/AIDS has been especially devastating. In 2000, the Rwandan NGO, Association of Widows of the Genocide of April 1994 (AVEGA), reported that two of its members died of AIDS every week. Many of these widows had contracted HIV after being sexually assaulted during the 1994 genocide in which their husbands had been killed. 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.

Traditional census methodologies may be ill-equipped to accurately record both the numbers and socioeconomic status of widows. Surveys may record widows as being single, leading to an underreporting of the incidence of widowhood. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.  

Further, the higher rates of poverty experienced by widows means that many are either homeless or residing in non-permanent housing, making their numbers more difficult to record. When a widow is living with relatives, inequalities within the household may not be recorded, leading to the misperception that such widows are well-off when in fact they have access to only a negligible share of household resources. 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. 

The Maltreatment of Widows

In general, widows in developing countries are subject to more discrimination than are those in the developed world. Discrimination ranges from violations of inheritance rights to harmful practices such as widow cleansing and forced marriage. Furthermore, upon being widowed, the combined effects of these various forms of discrimination leaves many widows more vulnerable to trafficking, sexual assault and domestic violence. 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. 

Inheritance

The violation of inheritance rights is a substantial source of discrimination for many widows. In many parts of Africa and Asia, customary and/or religious laws exist parallel to the formal legal system. In certain cases, as in India, constitutional guarantees of gender equality have been ruled subordinate to discriminatory customary laws. From Madhu Kishwar and others v. State of Bihar and others (1996) SCC (5) 125. In other instances, formal legislation guaranteeing equality is enacted, but never formally implemented, and many communities – especially those in rural areas – continue to abide by discriminatory customary and/or religious laws. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

In much of Africa and parts of South Asia, widows lack inheritance rights. In fact, in cultures in which it is common to pay a bride price, widows are often viewed as being property themselves and may be “inherited” through practices such as levirate. Under most customary law systems, if a widow has sons, the sons will frequently inherit their father’s land. If they are young, their mother may be able to stay on the land as her son’s guardian; if they are adults, the widow’s land security will depend on her relationship with her sons. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

Under Islamic law, a woman inherits one-eighth of her husband’s estate, and should receive one half of her brother’s share of her parents’ estate. Though this theoretically provides Muslim widows with greater – though unequal – land security, in practice, many widows are nonetheless disinherited. One 1995 study revealed that just 32% of Banladeshi widows received their full inheritance share from their deceased husbands. 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. 

Throughout Africa and parts of South Asia, property grabbing is common across ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Though typically perpetrated by male in-laws, such as the widow’s husband’s brothers, property grabbing can be carried out by any relative, even the widow’s own brothers. It can be carried out by means of force and/or intimidation, and in some instances, is perpetrated while the widow is performing obligatory traditional mourning rites. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

Women’s legal aid clinics in Africa report that such incidents make up the majority of their cases, though many courts have been wary of interfering with what they view to be customary laws. This is despite the fact that the manner in which these customary laws are carried out has changed significantly, due to increased poverty, land scarcity, the transition to a market economy, and urbanization, among other factors. Whereas in the past, widows were often able to rely upon traditional support systems, these systems frequently no longer exist. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

Mourning Customs and Harmful Practices

In addition to inheritance rights, widows are subject to a number of harmful mourning practices, ranging from sati, the ritual immolation of a widow upon her husband’s funeral pyre, to regulations on appearance, diet, and freedom of association and marriage.

Widow Cleansing

In many African societies, ritual cleansing marks the close of the mourning period. Until this cleansing is performed, widows are often not allowed to take part in public life, thereby interfering with their ability to assert property and custody rights, in addition to preventing them from performing jobs and other necessary day-to-day activities. Further, being “cleansed” is seen in some societies as a symbol that the woman is in fact the widow of her deceased husband and therefore privy to whatever rights may come with that status. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

In countries and regions such as Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and western Zambia, the cleansing involves ritual head shaving and traditional bathing in herbs. In other regions of Africa, the cleansing involves sexual intercourse with a male relative or even a stranger. This can be especially devastating in regions with high rates of HIV/AIDS, placing both sexual partners at high risk of infection (especially where the deceased husband has died an AIDS-related death). From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

Restrictions on Daily Life

Across cultures, widows are subject to restrictions on what they can wear, eat and do. In some Indian and African as well as Orthodox Jewish cultures, widows must shave their hair. In India, traditional Hindu widows are expected to wear plain white saris and refrain from wearing bangles, nose rings or other ornamentation. The Hausa of Nigeria prohibit widows from using perfumed soap and require her to wear an old gown, which she cannot wash until the mourning period, typically lasting a month, has passed. Other Nigerian ethnic groups require widows to drink from the water used to wash her husband’s corpse while also prohibiting them from bathing during the mourning period. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows. Though the Ghanaian legislature outlawed the practice of forcing a widow to drink the water her husband’s corpse was bathed in, 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. 

A study in Imo State, Nigeria revealed other similar experiences: widows incarcerated during the mourning period; widows forced to persistently wail; and widows made to stay in a room with the husband’s corpse until burial. 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.

Other African and Indian Hindu widows are required to eat from broken plates and are limited to eating bland food. Indian Hindu widows are thought to be inauspicious and are therefore not invited to events such as weddings, even if it is the widow’s own child who is to be married. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

Levirate, Widow Inheritance, and Restrictions on Remarriage

Levirate, in which a widow marries her brother-in-law so that the two may continue the deceased man’s lineage, was formerly practiced in China and is currently practiced in parts of India and Africa. Though the specifics of the practice vary (e.g. whether the widow will live in the same house as her brother-in-law and what status the widow will have), traditionally, levirate provided a widow and her children with needed support. With the rapid socioeconomic changes in the past decades, however, this is no longer consistently true. If a bride price or dowry has been paid, there may be additional pressure for her to marry a male relative from her husband’s family so as to avoid an obligation to pay back the dowry or bride price. From Margaret Owen, World of Widows.

Under Islamic law, widows are encouraged to remarry, but are required to undergo a waiting period of 130 days after a husband’s death (no such restriction applies to widowers). Though in many Islamic states widow remarriage is uncommon, it is more common in African Islamic cultures. However, there is evidence that many Muslim widows do not exert much, if any, power to choose the husband to whom they will be remarried. From Margaret Owen, World of Widows.

Within higher Hindu castes, widow remarriage is not forbidden but is seldom practiced. Remarriage is more common among lower caste Hindus, though widows do not necessarily exert much influence over who they will marry. In many instances, a second marriage is not a celebratory event, as is a first marriage, and remarried widows report receiving less respect as compared to when they were in their first marriage. From Margaret Owen, World of Widows.

Sati

Sati, an Indian custom whereby a recently widowed woman immolates herself on her husband’s funeral pyre, reflects the belief that a woman’s life ends with her husband’s. Though it has been outlawed since 1859 and carries criminal sanctions for those involved, sati is still occasionally carried out by Indian widows, frequently attracting media attention and pilgrimages to the sati site. The practice primarily continues in Northern India. From Margaret Owen, A World of Widows.

Witchcraft Accusations

In certain Asian and African cultures, widows are subject to accusations of witchcraft. This is increasingly common in regions with high rates of HIV/AIDS, where widows are being blamed for their husbands’ AIDS-related deaths. Such widows are frequently subject to violence and sometimes death. According to a 1999 HelpAge International study conducted in Tanzania, five hundred older women, usually widows, are killed each year as a result of witchcraft accusations. 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. In 1997, an outbreak of cerebrospinal meningitis led mobs in northern Ghana to assault and kill several women accused of bringing about the deaths (caused by the disease) through witchcraft. From Mensah Adinkrah, Witchcraft Accusations and Female Homicide Victimization in Contemporary Ghana, Violence Against Women. 

Compiled 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 (2001)

Margaret Owen, A World of Widows (1996)

World Population Ageing 2009, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2009)

Margaret Owen, Widowhood Changed the Way I looked at Human Rights, WidowSpeak (2005)

Follow-up and Implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action: Report of the Secretary-General Addendum: The Situation of Women and Girls in Afghanistan, Division for the Advancement of Women, United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2001)

Mensah Adinkrah, Witchcraft Accusations and Female Homicide Victimization in Contemporary Ghana, Violence Against Women (2004)