Widow, Women and Nepalese Society-I

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According to Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary "Widow is a woman whose husband is no more i.e. he is dead and she is still unmarried." Nepalese society believe that widow is responsible for the death of her husband therefore, they are considered as BAD LUCK.

In ancient time religious books used to be the main source of law and order. Nepalese society has been declared as male dominated society from past, They used to be dominated in the name of  witch, Chahaupadi, Jhuma, Badii, Deuki, Widow as well as tortured by extremely dire words Randi, Beshaya, Radi etc. Religion, culture and social values clearly reflect the dominating attitude towards women. In spite of this in some religious book like Manusmriti we can find that women are respected. According to the Manusmriti happiness of god lies on the respect of women. One of the law and order according to religious book was the Sati Tradition. Sati Means to get burnt alive along with the dead body of husband. But due to change in time there was change in system. Sati was popular but not compulsion. If we look in the historic book of Shrestha, 2055 we can read that Queen Rajyabati (Mother of Mandev) wanted to go to sati, but because of child Mandev's denial she couldn't. Similarly, Bhauma Gupta's mother Abhiri, Jayadev's mother batashadevi also rejected for Sati. But all of them followed the rule of Sati Barta Rule. Later, Prithivi Narayan Shah united Nepal and some royal women like Nayabi got chances to rise in politics. But the position of general women remained the same. In 1968 B.S.(1929 A.D.) Rana Prime Minister Chandra Shamser declared the end of sati system. 

According to Census of 2068, more than 50% of population is women. There is equal role of women in family, in society and in development activities. At past women were treated as the servant. Nowadays we can find most of the women are provided with opportunities and are educated. Situation of women of urban area is better these days. But the situation of women of rural area is still unsatisfactory. 

In Nepal Generally there are two types of Widows. Child widow and Adult widow. Some decades ago there used to be child marriage in Nepal. How can any child know the literal meaning of marriage. In such situation if the women becomes a widow she used to be called as Child Widow. Similarly, if the women who is of adult age and knows literal meaning of marriage becomes widow then she is called Adult Widow or Mature widow.