WUNRN
STATEMENT ON WIDOWS OF THE WORLD,
WIDOWS OF AFGHANISTAN, IN ADVANCE OF INTERNATIONAL WIDOWS DAY, JUNE 23
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جلال
فونديشن JALAL FOUNDATION |
An
Afghan Women-led, Women-focused Organization
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THE WORLD’S WIDOWS: Ignored, Lost, and Forgotten?
Decades of armed conflict and insecurity left behind some 1.5 to
2 million Afghan widows who continue to live under very difficult situations.
Despite the Constitutional guarantee of support to widows, studies reveal that
they continue to suffer from destitution, absence of support system, poor
health, lack of skills and economic opportunities, social exclusion, and
marginalization from all aspects of life. Many of them survive with little
support from government and relatives. Without other options, the rest are
pushed into slavery, prostitution, substance abuse or roadside pauperism. There
has been no recent comprehensive study to provide evidence of their real
situation and inform policies because those who are responsible for their
well-being are preoccupied with the mainstream issues of insecurity, politics,
poverty, graft, and many more.
The efforts of NGOs and international agencies to provide widows
with entrepreneurial support like training, capital, and market support are
highly commendable and must be continued and expanded. However, these are not
enough. The issues of widows are intermeshed with many mainstream issues from
which they are being marginalized. Peace building, for example, should take the
perspectives of widows because it is the lack of peace that created the
phenomenon of war widows. Politics is central to them because having been
marginalized for so long, they need to help elect national leaders who could
stand for the interests and concerns of widows nationwide. Graft and corruption
is also a serious concern of widows because it is this very issue that robs
them of resources and opportunities to rebuild their lives. Needless to say,
poverty alleviation is relevant to widows, not only because they are among the
most vulnerable, but because they are key to the solution of the problem.
Lifting widows from the mire of poverty logically translates into a reduction
of 2 million people from the statistics of impoverished Afghans.
The situation of widows in Afghanistan is not an isolated case.
There are around 245 million widows worldwide, 100 million of which are barely
struggling to survive. Many of them experience targeted murder, rape,
prostitution, forced marriage, property theft, eviction, social isolation and
physical and psychological abuse. Widows all over the world are ignored, lost,
and forgotten in the landscape of national affairs. Wherever there are laws,
implementation is weak. And where implementation is possible, not all issues
are covered. In many societies, the loss of male protection strip women of
social legitimacy for productive social existence. Like an inescapable death
sentence, women become widows without their consent and often in ways that
radically and irreversibly devastate the social and economic fabrics of their
life. Women’s capacity to rise above the shocks of widowhood is encumbered by
harsh societal traditions, lack of resources, and indifference by government
towards their predicament.
On the occasion of International Day of Widows, we call upon
fellow activists, governments and international agencies to:
a) Confront gaps
in the concepts and definition of widowhood, taking into consideration such
circumstances as prolonged disappearance of husband, status of women in
quasi-conjugal relationship after the demise of their partner, and other
realities experienced by women who lost their husbands inside or outside of
formal marriage;
b) Considering
that women outlive their partners in many parts of the world, governments
should institutionalize social support for widows that consider their needs
throughout their life cycle, including health, welfare, and economic support;
c) War reparation and rehabilitation programs should consider
giving priority to widows and orphans with a vision to compensate the loss of
opportunities for education and economic support that were taken away because
of the death of their husband/father;
d) NGOs and
civil society organizations should work towards the elimination of traditions
that make it difficult for widows to rebuild their lives, including blaming of widows
for the death of their husband, ostracizing of widows as harbinger of bad luck,
inheriting of widows like a property, denial of their inheritance from their
husband and in-laws, vilification of widows with pejorative names, and
subjecting them to a lifetime of slave-like servitude; and
e) NGOs and
civil society organizations should work with government and international
agencies to create credible data base that provide evidences on the status of
widows, mechanisms for solidarity, models of comprehensive legal framework for
widows, institutionalized resource allocation, opportunities for capacity
building and political commitments from leaders and policy makers.
We need to examine the concepts of marriage, family and wifehood
in the light of their implications to widowhood. Let us redeem the concept of
family as a source of security, protection and positive individual identity,
for women and men alike. As Yakin Erturk said, “The situation of widows should continue to be featured on international
fora until they become firmly integrated into the policy agenda.” His advocacy is as relevant in the
international level as it is at the country level.
Let us stand together to support and give them another chance in life. To all the widows of the world, reach out, speak out, and assert your rights. We stand in solidarity with you. You are never alone.
STATEMENT OF DR. MASSOUDA JALAL
Founding
Chairperson of Jalal Foundation and former Minister of Women,