Wednesday, August 12, 2009

WIDOWS OF NEPAL FOR SALE?

In Nepal, being a widow is a curse and such bereaved women are now being converted into chattels to be auctioned off to willing men, who are paid to accept them?
When Icheoku thought that the rest of the world are making progress, somewhere at the foot of the Himalayas mountain, a community is denigrating their women and robbing them of their humanity with brazen impudence? What an absurdity in the Himalaya, indeed, that men are paid to take in extra warmth, sex, help, companion and possible offspring?
Icheoku
asks, who will then marry "worthless" single girls, who are not 'viable commodity' as a source of income and lack the added advantage of widowship; the new preffered status which yields income for men whose responsibility is just to say 'yes'? The government of Nepal will pay men to take in widows; but could a still married man take such widow as a second or third wife? The plans has drawn the ire of the women of Nepal whose interest is infringed by the new government's scheme to pay cash incentives to men for marrying widows? The single women have a dog in the matter as their prospective husbands most likely will now settle for the cash-cows widows with a price-tag; while the widows protest their being converted into disposable property, while the fortunate women whose husbands are still alive are protesting a likely future fate? $650 USD, the amount paid on the head os each widow is a lot of money to entice a man to for just say 'I do". Moreso, some men could see that as a means of an easy money and there is no requirement that they must stay married to such a widow or provide conjugal necessities to her?
Icheoku says, these women of Nepal possibly misspoke when they shouted, "You can't sell your mother," because the widows are not even being sold; but are rather being given away for free with an extra inducement of cash for the men to agree to accept them? Bribery 101? In other words, the wome of Nepal are mere worthless 'garbage', good only for the dumps which the men are being incentivize to have them? Can you imagine what fate then awaits such handed-off widows in the house of their cajoled new husbands? Icheoku says, if domestic abuse and enslavement has a base in this world, then such a women subjugating country as Nepal is that place!
Admitted the government possibly meant well as it try to humanize widows and once again, make them more socially acceptable. But as one activist pointed out, it would only add to their woes as men would marry widows for money and later abandon them? A possibility, since there is no mechanism in place to prevent the unravelling of the bonds of marriage so soon after the forced marriage? These women would have been better empowered in a different way such as giving them jobs, better health care and education! If the Hindu religion truly humiliates bereaved women in this manner, then Icheoku holds the religion in contempt for violating women's human rights. With 50,000 Nepali rupees ($641) for every widow in Nepal, that is more than enough to start some actual empowerment either through education or vocational training. It is instructive also that revolving violence and HIV-AIDS have decimated the male population of Nepal resulting in a by-product of very high number of widows.
Another unfortunate thing with this Nepalese society is that "as soon as a woman becomes a widow, she loses her status within the home and society. She is not allowed to participate in religious ceremonies and can no longer wear red clothing - which is considered auspicious - and jewellery". Their place in Nepalese society is so deplorable that according to one commentator, "If you see a widow walking on the street on your way to do some kind of special job, you have to return immediately because it's considered bad luck to see her". Icheoku says, really? But how about the widow's children or relatives? Widows for sale as practised in Nepal is a culture whose time has come to change it. Are there any Diaspora Nepalese around, or don't you cringe reading such a bad testimonial of your motherland?

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