Cultural Stigmas and Superstitions Surrounding Widowhood

Women around the world who are widowed often have the experience of grief and loss compounded by the cultural stigmas of widowhood. Widows are one of the most marginalized and outcast groups in many cultures, especially in Africa and Asia where they live under an avalanche of hardships and superstitions. Such societies force them into further isolation, often accompanied by the loss of basic rights that are essential to moving past their grief.

In Nigeria, widows face dehumanizing rituals and accusations based on cultural beliefs. Some traditions ask women to take an oath to prove their innocence when their husband dies. Other cultural practices will keep a woman confined in mourning for long periods of time or make her drink water used to bathe the body of her late husband.[1]

While hard to believe, practices like these are common. They undermine the dignity of widows and expose them to physical torture as well as psychological abuse.

In Nepal, widows are often held responsible for their husband’s death. One middle-aged widow was blamed for the death of a buffalo five whole years after her husband passed away. Facing beatings, torture and being fed human excrement pounded up in a mortar by members of her own community, the woman literally embodied the suffering endured by widows who are harassed as outcasts due to cultural stigmatism.[2] “Widows are among the most vulnerable categories of people in the country,” Prakriti Sapkota wrote in her 2019 report for World Pulse. “The social stigma attached to them deprives them of their basic human rights and freedom of speech.”[3]


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