There’s hope on the horizon for Nigerian women as the House of Representatives makes progress on a bill seeking to abrogate harmful widowhood practices and uphold the fundamental human rights of the womenfolk, Daily Trust reports.
Nigerian women, who lost their husbands, have over the years been made to face all forms of repressive and degrading widowhood practices in the hands of their late husbands’ relatives in clear violation of fundamental human rights and dignity of womanhood.
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Usually, according to different cultures, burial rites involve varying degrees of physical hardship, deprivation, rituals, emotional instability and psychological trauma.
For many women, widowhood is often the beginning of life-long oppression and misery.
Besides the dehumanising and repressive practices against women, it’s also a common practice that when a man dies, the relatives usually rush in to take possession of all the properties and valuables left behind, thus, depriving the woman and children (if any) of their rights.
In an effort to address these harmful practices, the House of Representatives recently passed, for second reading, a bill seeking to amend the Violence Against Persons Act 2015 to prohibit discrimination against widows and all forms of repressive and degrading widowhood practices in the country.
The bill is sponsored by Adejero Adeogun and Sergius Ogun.
It, among others, proposes that “a person who attempts to inflict any harmful widowhood practice provided under subsection (1), commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years or a fine of N1 million or both.”
It also proposed that “a person, who incites, aids, abets or counsels another to commit an offence under subsection (1), commits an offence and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term of three years or a fine of N1 million or both.”
The bill equally proposes that “a person who receives or assists another who, to his or her knowledge has committed an offence under subsection (1), is an accessory after the fact and is liable on conviction to imprisonment for a term not more than two years or a fine, not more than N1,000,000 or both.”
In his lead debate, Adeogun said widows in several parts of the country were made to pay heavy penalties for the painful departure of the husbands that they loved and shared their lives with.
He said the bill proposed to amend six sections of the violence against persons act to make provisions to safeguard widows from violent and evil customary practices, denial of property rights, rape, forced marriage and all other dehumanizing acts that undermine the dignity of the widow.
“Widowhood is not by choice. Widows are victims of the inevitability of death. So why does our society criminalise the unfortunate incident of widowhood? Why are widows denied the right to mourn in peace? Why is the trauma of their loss met with more trauma rather than solace?”, Adeogun said.
He said the bill, if passed into law, would be recorded in history as one of the most important legislations passed by the 9th assembly, adding, “We would have succeeded in giving to the widows in our nation what could be described as the ‘widows mite.”
The bill seeks to insert after Section 38 of the Principal Act, new sections “38A” and “38B” which provide: “38A (1) that “In addition to the rights guaranteed under the Constitution or any other international human rights instrument to which Nigeria is a signatory, a widow shall have the right to: (a) continue to live in the matrimonial home after the death of her husband and where she remarries, she shall retain the matrimonial home if it belongs to her or she inherited it and shall not be forcefully evicted.”
Part (b) of the section proposes that a widow shall inherit from the property of her late husband or in-laws where the property is jointly owned.
Custody of children
On the custody of children, the bill proposes that “a widow shall be vested with the guardianship of a child if she is the mother of the child.
It also proposed a person shall not, under any custom, practice or testator to a will transfer guardianship of a child of a widow to another person other than the widow unless she is of unsound mind and body or such an action could be detrimental to the interest and welfare of the child.
It stated in Subsection (6) that “A widow residing with her in-laws or parents according to custom, tradition or due to other circumstances shall not be denied access to the facilities under this bill on that ground.”
What constitute harmful widowhood practices
The bill defines “harmful widowhood practices” to mean all traditional behaviour, attitude, or practices that negatively affect the rights of a widow.
This it says includes being forced to go into seclusion for any length of time; sleep in the same space with the body of her deceased husband; (iv) unweave her hair, keep a low cut, shave or scrape her hairs; (v) sit or sleep on a bare floor or mat; (vi) cook or eat from broken plates.
It’s timely, widows have suffered a lot – Gender activist
A gender activist, Ene Ede, described the move by the House of Representatives as commendable, saying, it would go a long way in addressing the challenges widows face in the country.
She however advocated that the penalty for offenders should be more stringent, adding that there should be no option of fine.
The activist described widowhood as a traumatic experience, adding that people must learn to respect the sanctity and dignity of the widows rather than subject them to untold trauma.
A Cross River-based gender rights activist who has been fighting the cause of widows, Mrs Imah Adegoke, expressed delight over the development.
Adegoke, who is the Coordinator Trustee of The Imah Nsa Adegoke Foundation (TINAF), said widows had gone through so much in the country and that such legislation would be of great relief for them.
“It’s a very welcome development. We are very excited that they are willing to do that. Seven years’ jail term is a wonderful time but if you ask me, I would have recommended five years. The one in Cross River is three months which is too small. Five years without an option of fine is still fine. Because, the truth is that when there’s an option of a fine, people just pay the fines and walk away.
If you want it to be effective, you can make it even three years without option of fine upon conviction. That way, they know that once there’s a conviction, there’s no escaping this matter but when you give option of fine, it’s almost like a plea bargain in Nigeria which has become a corrupt system.
“Women have suffered so much; I’m telling you and I think the act should also give examples of what these harmful practices are because the communities that engage in these practices do not consider them to be harmful. We need to give examples of these practices like inhumane and dehumanising practices.
“They can make specific mention and put a clause of not excluding others; that will give room to incorporate any other harmful practices. That’s an aspect I think should be included.
On the custody of children, I think it’s good to have custody of the children but we also need to know that some relatives of the husband are good and as such, should have visitation rights to the children. ’’
She said some women could be stubborn and they would like to pack the children to the exclusion of the relatives of the husband which the children must have probably related with. The law should include visitation rights for relations of the deceased spouse so they can visit, for those who want to visit.
She said besides the issue of harmful widowhood practices, the new law should also address the issue of inheritance rights for widows which she described as a major challenge facing widows.
“The final thing is this; all children should be entitled to the property of their father; whether born within the marriage or not, that’s what the Cross River State’s law provides. As long as the man acknowledged that the child was his child while alive, that child upon his demise is entitled to share in his property if he dies intestate.
Speaking on some of the harmful practices widows go through, Mrs Adegoke said: “In some crazy cases, they tell them not to talk to anybody; they can’t go out and they can’t have their bathe in this age, that’s madness. And then, in some cases, they ask them to hold a machete over their deceased husband so they can prove they didn’t kill the man.
“Meanwhile, when a woman dies, even if the man had strangled her in the middle of the night, so he can marry his new girlfriend, nobody suspects him of killing that woman and to prove his innocence.
“He doesn’t go through that but the woman is a different species; she is always accused of being responsible for the death of her husband and sometimes, they have to wash the dead body and give the water to the woman to drink to prove her innocence.’’
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