Blog #7: Lawyer fights 'widow sex' tradition in Malawi

 

Seodi White who is a lawyer and human rights activist who has long fought for gender justice in Malawi is now fighting for widow sex cleaning tradition in Malawi. Widow cleaning is a tradition in which widows perform a traditional practice which involves having sexual relations in order to cleanse herself. The reason she would need to cleanse herself would be to keep her dead husbands spirit from coming and to visit her and her family and cursing them. It is not something that is forced upon women in Malawi but it is something that is practiced in fear. These women actually believe if they don’t they will die. With this tradition comes other issues such as disease due to unprotected sex and the chances of getting HIV is increasing. This tradition is engrained into the culture so much that there are women who have become professional cleaners in their villages and men charge these women $50 for their services. The problem with that is that this is a country in which minimum wage is less than $1 a day. There are infinitives that have taken place to correct the situation such as using professional cleansers to tell their stories to stop others from following the tradition. Education is key to solving this issue and to get ahead in life and beat poverty which is something that White is a part of her mindset. Another issue other than Widow cleansing that White is trying to fight against is poverty in her nation that is mostly something that widows in Malawi are facing. These widows due to culture are having everything that was once their husbands taken from them from the husbands families leaving them and their children homeless. Women in Law in Southern Africa (WLSA) which is headed by Seodi White has fought for 10 years to allow women to keep their marital estates to reform these inheritance laws. Now there is a law that will aid in this for these women set in place by parliament.

                                                                                   

This cultural tradition of widow cleaning is a cause for gender inequality in Malawi even though it is not forced women believe in these misconceptions of not doing it and dying and go through whatever they can to sustain life. Men know that these women will do what they can to not become curse so they take it to their advantage and charge these women. Malawi already has a high poverty rate and people only get less than $1 a day and these men do not care about that and charge women outrageous amount of money essential for women’s peace of mine. $51 is a lot of money when you barely have anything to eat. Regardless of these women doing these cleanings or not they of course have to face their own patriarchal societies ideas of about what women can own after their husbands die. Now they have to fight just to keep a roof on their head. The good thing is that there has been a law passed to aid in this issue but of course everything is slow and it will take time for everything to fall into place. Like the author said education is key to help these women better their lives. 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/21/world/africa/seodi-white-women-malawi/index.html?iref=allsearch

Chanel Martin

3/22/13

4:17pm