Team Herald
PANJIM: Optimistic that regressive widow rites and practices would become a thing of the past with sensitisation and change in the attitude of our society, Ashtavinayak, a women’s collective based at Pajifond-Fatorda called upon the government to take up decisive intervention in favour of the rights of widows.
“In a State like Goa which boasts of Goa Civil Code, cases of widows stigmatised and shunned for life are aplenty. And many of these abuses are normalised and therefore go unnoticed. For widows, it is a long-term struggle for rights, equality and dignity, and regressive widow rites practices are rampant even in the face of modernity,” lamented Qumrunisa Aga Shaikh.
Group member Rukhayya Shaikh questioned the acute discrimination that Muslim widows face.
“Muslim widows, especially younger ones are not allowed to remarry while a man is allowed to marry not once but multiple times in some instances, without even being questioned by the faithful or the society. This injustice needs to end,” she urged.
The participants appealed to the government, civil society and private sector to join hands to give preferential treatment to widows and their children in education and employment. WE, a movement for widow rights in Goa is currently engaged in mobilising communities.