It's Time to Break the Silence

Upasana Rana

On June 23, the world marks International Widows Day, a global reminder of an issue that remains largely invisible. This year’s International Widows Day comes at a time when the world is confronting overlapping crises, wars, climate disasters, pandemics, and economic shocks. These disproportionately affect women, especially widows. Yet national policies and humanitarian responses continue to overlook their specific needs.

As the Executive Director of Women for Human Rights (WHR), and as someone who has worked closely with over 100,000 widows across Nepal, I witness firsthand the painful reality of widowhood, especially in South Asia, is not just a personal loss, but a lifelong sentence of marginalization. Widows are too often seen as symbols of bad luck, blamed for their husbands’ deaths, and stripped of property, dignity, and identity.

There are an estimated 258 million widows around the world, and nearly one in ten live in extreme poverty (The Loomba Foundation, 2024). According to Nepal’s 2021 Population Census, widows constitute 6.6% of the female population, more than one in every 15 women. The majority of women (71%) marry between the ages of 15-24, with 23% marrying even earlier, often before the age of 15. This early marriage sets the stage for vulnerability; these girls are pulled out of education and denied economic opportunities. When widowed young, they lack the skills and networks to assert their rights.

Among widows, a staggering 81% are completely illiterate, locking them out of formal economy, public services, and digital resources. Nearly 55% live alone, an indicator not just of solitude, but of social rejection. These women are often cast out by both their marital and natal families, increasing their exposure to poverty, emotional isolation, and abuse.

Access to technology and mobility is severely limited: 32% of widows lack smartphones, 76% lack internet access, and only 6% have adequate transportation or communication facilities. In today’s world, where access to information is a lifeline, this digital and physical exclusion pushes widows even further into the margins.

Economically, 52.9% of widows are inactive, mainly due to household responsibilities and age-related limitations. For younger widows, the absence of training, income, and childcare options traps them in dependency. And for older widows, physical fragility and a lifetime of unpaid labor deny them the dignity of financial independence. This systemic disempowerment leaves widows vulnerable to discrimination, exploitation, and abuse.

Among the most burdened are widowed mothers, who are often forced to raise children alone without support from either their husband’s family or their own. These women face not only financial hardships but also emotional abandonment and societal judgment. Struggling to secure a future for their children, they are often denied access to education, healthcare, and identity documents due to their widowhood status. Young widows, in particular, are vulnerable to exploitation, harassment, and abuse. Isolated and economically desperate, they become easy targets for trafficking or manipulative relationships, especially in patriarchal settings where their autonomy is constantly controlled.

Yet despite this exclusion, widows are not passive victims. At WHR, we have seen widows transform their pain into power, becoming entrepreneurs, political leaders, peacebuilders, and human rights defenders. Through collective mobilization and legal advocacy, these women are challenging the very systems that once silenced them.

From Marginalization to Legal Reform

WHR has led a nationwide movement for widows’ rights, driving several landmark legal reforms. These include:

• They no longer need to wait until the age of 35 to inherit their deceased husband’s property.

• Single women can now sell or transfer property without the consent of adult sons or unmarried daughters.

• The condition of remaining in the chastity of their deceased husband to claim inheritance has been abolished.

• A government policy providing NRs. 50,000 to men who married widows was successfully protested and amended.

• Single women can now obtain passports without the consent of male family members.

• The practice of "Vaikalya" (child widow) has been officially declared harmful and discouraged.

• WHR played a key role in the establishment of the Single Women Protection Fund under the Ministry of Women, Children and Senior Citizens.

These legal victories are more than symbolic, they restore agency and dignity to countless women. But reform is not enough. Implementation and awareness are crucial.

What Can the World Learn from Each Other?

Other countries are also making progress:

• Rwanda has passed gender-sensitive inheritance laws and ensured widows were central to post-genocide rebuilding.

• Kenya has criminalized harmful widowhood practices like "widow cleansing," while civil society provides legal aid and shelters.

• India offers widow pensions and vocational training in some states, and organizations like the Guild of Service support abandoned widows.

• South Africa provides grief counseling, economic literacy, and women-led cooperative models.

• The United Nations now calls for disaggregated data collection by marital status, recognizing widowhood as a category for targeted policy and protection.

These examples show what’s possible when widowhood is addressed as a rights issue, not as charity. They underscore the urgency for Nepal and other countries to center widows in their social protection systems, policy planning, and development agendas.

Time to Break the Silence

On this International Widows Day, I call upon the government, civil society, international actors, and the media to break the silence around widowhood.

Let us:

• End cultural practices that stigmatize and isolate widows.

• Ensure their access to property, inheritance, and citizenship rights.

• Provide targeted social protection, legal aid, and trauma support.

• Recognize widows as agents of change and not objects of pity.

Widows have lost their partners, not their potential. It's time we saw them, heard them, and stood with them.

(Writer Rana is executive director, Women for Human Rights (WHR) which advocates for the rights of single women (widows) and advancing gender equality)