Today, June 23, is International Widows Day. Experts say that 1 out of 7 widows in the world are not only in poverty, but war is one of the reasons that make women widows.
The United Nations has declared June 23 as International Widows’ Day to establish the rights and social dignity of billions of widows in the world who are suffering from extreme loneliness and suffering.
There are an estimated 258 million widows worldwide and nearly one in ten live in poverty. Conflict, conflict, and war are one of the reasons for the increase in the number of widows in the Middle East and North Africa. Only one in 10 women of marriageable age in the world is a widow. This number is in Afghanistan and Ukraine.
As far as history is known, the United Kingdom-based Loomba Foundation was campaigning for the approval of the United Nations to establish Widows’ Day. Indian-origin Raj Loomba is the founder of the foundation and chaired by Sherry Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
According to a report by the Loomba Foundation presented to the General Assembly, more than 60 million widows in the world live in extreme poverty after losing their husbands. There is no one to look after these helpless women. Raj Loomba said, he has seen the hardships of his mother’s widowed life with his own eyes. He said his mother became a widow at a young age. After his father died, his grandmother asked his mother to take off her colorful sarees and remove the Sindhi vermilion, and put on a white cloth. His widowed mother had to live a life of extreme hardship until her death.
Sherry Blair said, through this recognition of the United Nations, it will be easy to establish the human rights of helpless widows.
History of International Widows Day
On December 21, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly officially adopted June 23 as International Widows’ Day. However, the celebration of Widow’s Day started even before that. Loomba Foundation has been celebrating Widows’ Day since 2005. Rajinder Loomba, a member of the UK House of Lords, founded the Loomba Foundation to highlight the problems faced by widowed women in developing countries and work to solve them. Rajinder Loomba decided to start this foundation after witnessing and realizing the struggle his mother had to go through after being widowed in 1954 at the age of 37.
Then the United Nations decided to declare International Widows Day as an annual day. Losing a loved one in any situation is painful. And life after losing a loved one is quite difficult. Widows’ Day is celebrated all over the world to highlight all these issues. Widows go through incredibly difficult times. Even women are deprived of their rights after losing their husbands. They are deprived of the right of inheritance.
Superstitions in various countries believe that widows practice witchcraft. Against this mentality, widows are often persecuted and even separated from their children. Widowhood is an unexpected and unfortunate event in every woman’s life. We should remove prejudice from society and stand by widows.
You may read Happy International Women’s Day 2023
Significance of International Widows Day
Many women around the world lose their husbands prematurely. They are not in a position to stand up on their own. It is very important to take care of them considering their socio-economic situation. Not only are they deprived of means of livelihood but also the right of inheritance and equal fundamental rights. This is a huge problem in today’s world. According to the official website of the United Nations, there are more than 258 million widows around the world. If we depend on the number of dependents on them, the determination will increase manifold. Their family members have to face many problems constantly.
Children Elders Many others are involved in the life of a widow. They have to endure constant mental agony which endangers their lives. International Widows Day highlights the marginalized widows in society and motivates well-wishers of society to stand by the widows. International Widows Day tells us that the accident in someone’s life is not the fault of the person but rather their misfortune. To make the world beautiful and secure, we need to stand by widows and help them. Campaigners for Widow’s Rights said many widows have to give up their rights because of their husbands’ wishes or social norms.
She has to bear diseases that are dishonorable to her. Even in some cases the widow is blamed for the husband’s death or killing him. In India, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, and sub-Saharan African countries, women are blamed for HIV/AIDS. In countries such as Angola, Bangladesh, Botswana, India, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe, wives do not receive a fair share of their husband’s property. In many cases, if a girl is widowed in childhood, she is married off to an older man. So as a conscious citizen everyone should stand by the neighborhood widows and help them lead a normal life. And follow all steps to remove all prejudices against widows from society.
How to celebrate International Widows Day?
Various studies attribute the widowhood of women to natural disasters, complications, accidents, and death or the natural death of husbands due to old age. The UK-based ‘Loomba Foundation proposes to protect and ensure the dignity and rights of widows around the world. This day is now being celebrated internationally since 2010, subject to its adoption by the United Nations. The widows of society are always treated unfairly. Widows are despised. When a woman becomes a widow, everyone around her starts treating her abnormally.
But we forget that anyone in our family can fall into this situation at any moment. Due to superstition, ignorance, and lack of awareness, widows all over the world have to spend their days in dire conditions. Lack of religious knowledge and inferiority are responsible for this condition. It is mainly because of this that self-interested persons call widows inauspicious. Due to the death of the husband, the widow is deprived of her own rights and not even the right to lead a normal life. For good reason, widows cannot live as independent beings.
Given such conditions, this day is observed every year to stand by the widows. Every country takes initiative to observe this day with special importance. Let’s see some ways to celebrate this day-
Raise awareness
One of the most important ways to celebrate International Widows Day is to raise awareness. Let people know about the inhuman oppression and injustice that widows are subjected to and motivate people to stand by widows. They have no hand in this helpless life of widows. Rather, they are victims of misfortune. They are human beings like us and they have the right to live a normal life independently. But our society has many superstitions about widows.
People think widows are evil. Their husbands died prematurely because of them. From all these thoughts, widows have to be subjected to various kinds of torture. They are not allowed to participate in any function in society. They can’t even wear colorful clothes if they want to. They are deprived of all kinds of rights and even widows are deprived of the basic rights that every human being has.
And the reason for this is the ignorance of the people of the society. Due to an uneducated attitude, people of society cannot accept widows normally. So, on this day, every citizen should stand by these helpless women. To stand up against the injustice done to them. The sooner our social system changes, the better the country will be. So, raise awareness today on International Widows Day.
Donate
Many organizations in the world are working to help widows. She lost her husband prematurely and lived a miserable life as a widow. They don’t have the means to live a nice normal life and even become so destitute that they don’t have the means to take their daily meals. Many other people are involved with these widows. Their children are their parents. They also constantly face various problems. When the breadwinner of a family dies prematurely, disaster strikes the family.
The widow of that person does not have the power to provide food for everyone in the family. Day by day the family reaches the extreme peak of poverty. This is how a family is destroyed. Keeping all these things in mind, the government in every country of the world gives a monthly allowance to widows. This made their life a little easier. There are also some voluntary organizations that work to help widows. Donate some money to voluntary organizations with International Widows Day today. Your donation will greatly benefit the family of a widow. As human beings, we should all wake up our consciences and stand by these helpless people
Share your story
If you are a widow, share your life story today on International Widows Day. There are many women in our society who have overcome the reactions of their widowhood and started leading normal life. Every country in the world has widow marriage customs. There are many good men in society who recognize widows by remarrying them. Those women can easily overcome their adverse conditions and lead normal life.
Also, there are many examples of brave women in society who have become self-reliant even after becoming widows. They have chosen the means of earning and leading a normal life. Many single mothers in society are raising their children alone. After the death of the husband, all the women join various employments and take all the responsibilities of the family. If you are one of these brave women, share your story today on International Widows Day. By doing this, other widows will also have the courage to rise above their adverse situation.
International Widows Day Quotes
We have no control over our destiny. If a woman loses her husband prematurely, she is not to blame for the accident. Rather, after losing a loved one, that person becomes much more helpless. However, in our society, widows have to endure various injustices. Sadly, we are still steeped in superstition. The world is so advanced, yet we still haven’t been able to remove superstitions from society. And it’s a shame for us. We always blame the widow. But we should all stand by those women. In ancient times, if a woman lost her husband prematurely, that woman was also buried alive. This concept has changed over time. The world has improved.
The ritual of widow marriage has been introduced. But still, superstitions are followed in some countries. They are blamed for the helpless condition of widows. Every year this day is observed with special importance all over the world to stand by those helpless women. There are many women in the world who, despite being widows, have become self-reliant and have taken up the responsibility of the family. All those women have also faced various adverse conditions in their life. But as human beings, everyone should have their own rights and freedoms.
We cannot interfere with anyone’s freedom. First of all, awareness should be raised on International Widows Day. There are also several sayings about the rights of widows. Educated humanitarians have stood by widows throughout the ages and given valuable advice. All those quotes are presented to you now-
- “Social security is based on a principle. It’s based on the principle that you care about other people. You care whether the widow across town, a disabled widow, is going to be able to have food to eat.” – Noam Chomsky, American linguist
- “Human rights are for everyone and not contingent on marital status. For many widows, losing their husband also means losing rights, income, and possibly their children.” – Antonio Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations
- “‘Widow’ is a word I never thought would describe me, but I had to learn to deal with that.” – Eve Arden, American film actress
- “Widowers marry again because it makes their lives easier. Widows often don’t, because it makes their lives harder. ”― Siri Hustvedt, The Summer Without Men
- “Additionally, many widows took over family shops or businesses- and, not uncommonly, ran them better than their dead husbands. Y.pestis [black death germ] turns out to have been something of a feminist.”― John Kelly
- “I have yet to meet one widow who hasn’t changed in monumental ways as she has coped with her loss. Most of us have gotten to the point where we are not the “pleasers” we once were. We say what we think, we realize that life is precious, and we don’t have time to be anything less than who we really are.”― Catherine Tidd
- “In a socialist society, people are always motivated to achieve unity and the truest form of freedom—Organising themselves and coming to help those who are in need. You will find organizations such as social welfare that take great care and give support to the poor, unemployed, old people, widows, etc.”― Mwanandeke Kindembo
International Widows Day Status
We should all awaken to our humanity. We cannot stop any man from living his normal life. Every human has the right to live a healthy and beautiful life. But some uneducated barbaric people of the society have been constantly despising widows. As conscious citizens, we should stand by the widows and protest against the uneducated prejudices of society.
We can make our world a beautiful peaceful place only if we can change the condition of our society. International Widows Day is observed every year to support widows. To eliminate the prejudices of society, first of all, the awareness of the people of the society has to be increased. You can share a status on your social media account today to raise awareness. By this, all people will be aware of International Widows Day. And you have a status that will be able to remove the prejudices of society. Here are the statuses for your convenience that you can collect on International Widows Day-
Let us stand by the widow of society. Let us not blame anyone for his fate. Every person in society has the right to live well. We should not deprive him of all those rights. This is the call on International Widows Day.
The widow around us is also someone’s sister or someone’s mother. After losing her life partner, the widow has to go through many calamities. Help the widows around you on International Widows Day today to build a healthy society as a conscious citizen of a free country.
To build an educated society, first of all, prejudices must be removed from society. Every country in the world is now given the status of widows of all the more developed countries. We should remove superstitions from our minds. Then we can be healthy-minded people. Let’s commit to International Widows Day.
International Widows Day Message
International Widows Day is an international event organized by the UN on 23rd June every year. This day aims to create awareness about the poor situation in our society, and the rightful violation of millions of widows and help them to get their rights. The day was first observed in 2005 by a London-based NGO ‘Loomba Foundation’. In 2010, the United Nations recognized the importance of this day and declared it a world observation.
If you want to create awareness but don’t know how here, you are in the right place. Here are some International Widows Day messages that you can send to a widow you know to give her the courage to live on-
- I want you to be brave. You are not responsible for this situation in your life. People in society can’t stop you because I know you are a brave woman. Happy International Widows Day to you.
- You are the most beautiful woman I have ever met. You never give up in any situation in life. You are the woman who is the hope of a family. After the strong structure of the family is broken, you become the hope of the family. Happy International Widows Day to you.
- Life never stops. Life changes with time. Bad times in our life will lead to good times. I have to adapt to all situations. Seeing you, I learned to understand the meaning of life. You are my role model in life who stood strong even after losing your life partner. Happy International Widows Day.
- Congratulations to you for going through every phase of life with indomitable courage. You are a good mother good daughter and a good wife. Even after losing her husband, she did not lose her spirit. Best wishes to you. Happy International Widows Day
- Even after becoming a widow, you have not become a burden to the family but have shouldered all the responsibilities of the family. This family is incomplete without you. You are the pride of every woman. Hope you can achieve all success in life.
FAQ about International Widows Day
What is the date of International Widows Day?
23 June. Source-Wikipedia.
Why is International Widows Day celebrated?
The United Nations has declared June 23 as International Widows’ Day to establish the rights and social dignity of billions of widows in the world who are suffering from extreme loneliness and suffering.
When was the first International Widows Day celebrated?
In December 2010.
Let us awaken the conscience. Increase the awareness of society and eliminate superstitions. If you stand by the side of these helpless widows, they will be able to live a much easier life. All these women face various obstacles in life. By educating society we can improve their lives to a great extent. Let’s all come forward to raise awareness on International Widows Day. We all should help to lead a happy life. If you have any questions about International Widows Day, we will try to answer them as soon as possible. Thanks for being with us. Keep visiting our website regularly to know all the information about the upcoming day.
