Violence against widows is still a nightmare

The idea of being independent as a woman is being undermined by the continued mistreatment of widows.

Everyday women strive to live a life free of dependence on their husbands. They engage in activities aimed at uplifting them financially and socially.

But with all these efforts, till today we still see a number of women facing hard times at the hands of relatives upon the event that their husband dies.

Widows find themselves economically and socially marginalized after the death of a spouse.

They suffer from social stigmatization; they are evicted from their homes and are physically abused. All of these constitute serious violations of human rights.

Many of these abuses go unnoticed. But that’s not the end of the wrath, children of widows often times find themselves affected as well; they drop out from school and are subjected to different forms of abuse, especially in the case of girls.

They face hell on earth, with no immediate solution to their tribulation.

In many societies, widows are victims of bad beliefs and practices instituted in times past, but are still practiced today with strong enforcement such as “widow inheritance” whereby a widow is forced to get married to a male relative of her late husband, there’s also “cleansing” where the widow is expected to have sex with the siblings of her late husband to cleanse her.

This is what widows are compelled to endure in the name of customary practices. The customs of widow cleansing and widow inheritance are practiced in several communities throughout sub-Saharan Africa, including Tanzania.

Widows experience humiliation, undignified treatment and difficulties in attaining their legal rights.

Remarriage of widows for the purpose of fulfilling cultural obligations is one of the causes of the high prevalence of HIV.

In most cases when a husband dies, his widow no longer has a place in society, especially when it comes to matters of inheritance.

A widow of the deceased under customary law has no share of the estate of her husband where there are relatives from the clan of her husband.

The widow is left to be taken care of by her children. However, our Constitution recognizes basic rights that a woman has regardless of her status in society.

Rights to inherit and own property are among such legal rights bestowed unto women.

A check on reality casts a bitter shadow on the situation of widows in Tanzania, they are virtually invisible.

Research and statistics to reveal incidences of widow violence need to be undertaken to accelerate nationwide development in different spheres, whilst adhering to the agenda of ‘leave no woman behind’.

The Government should uphold their commitment to take appropriate legal measures to ensure that widows enjoy all human rights as enshrined in international laws, which acknowledge the rights of women in Africa by clearly stating that widows are not to be subjected to inhuman, humiliating or degrading treatment.

What different laws on basic human rights try to uphold are the intrinsic rights that every human being is entitled to. Women should enjoy their rights whether married or single.

Violence against widows should no longer be tolerated at any level.

All of us should join hands to build a community free from humiliation and indignity towards widows, thus promoting social justice in Tanzania, and make violence against widows a thing of the past.

The Author is a Human Rights Lawyer