Widowhood and Harmful Traditional Practices against Women in South East Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

The paper ascertains widowhood and harmful traditional practices against women in SouthEast, Nigeria: challenges and prospects. Widowhood is a condition in which a woman lost her husband by death, it is a state in which a woman or widow has lost her husband by death and did not remarry. The death of a man automatically plunges his wife into widowhood, in a patriarchal society; widows are subjected to inhuman treatment at the death of their husband. Widowhood practice is an unjust cultural practice directed against women who lose their husbands, the effects of this obnoxious culture especially women in this 21st century has undermine the personality of women folk. Empirically, the paper adopts relative deprivation theory as its framework using descriptive method to investigate harmful traditional practices against women in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states respectively on their rights through cultural seclusions. Most women in South-East are not comfortable with this exclusion, nor stand to oppose this through court litigations. Most communities has not in any way abrogated these traditional harmful practices since it is an established culture, the intervention of some non-governmental organizations has in a little measure reduce some harmful punishment meted on the bereaved women. It has been observed that discriminatory widowhood practices were to humiliate women made by men to relegate women to the background. The paper address some strategies to cut down these harmful practices to better the lives of women in Nigeria on the aegis of women aids collective and other non-governmental organizations.