Suchergebnisse

How do older women come to terms with widowhood? Are they vulnerable or courageous, predictable or creative in dealing with this life challenge? Most books about widows usually focus on younger women; this book interweaves the voices of older widows their experiences and insights to show how they have come to terms with widowhood and have recreated their lives in new, unsuspected ways. The widows speak about how they relate to their children, their friends, to men. With powerful emotions they describe their husbands' final illnesses and deaths, and the challenging early days of widowhood

Most of the developing countries of the third world, either
have an inadequate or virtually no vital registration system. The data
collected from the population censuses in these countries are defective.
In this situation it is hardly possible to measure mortality directly.
So demographers have tried to develop indirect methods in order to
overcome this problem. A widely known indirect method of estimating
adult mortality is the Orphan hood method developed by Brass and Hill
[5]. The method has been applied to a wide range of the populations in
the developing regions particularly several African and Latin American
countries, and has been found to yield a reasonable level of adult
mortality.

This article discusses the plight and suffering of widows in terms of their social, economic, psychological and human rights violations in three West African societies. The article describes the situation of the widows as silent victims who suffer cruel and dehumanising cultural and ritual practices as a mourning process for their dead spouses. The article also examines the gender inequalities suffered by the widows and makes some recommendations as to how these practices could be minimised or eliminated from those societies.