Mrs Amanda Asagba, the President of the African Women Lawyers Association, has called for stronger laws to protect widows’ rights in Nigeria.

Asagba made the call on the International Widow’s Day celebration, observed every June 23, to draw attention to the voices and experiences of widows and to galvanize the unique support that they require.

The theme for this year’s widows’ day is tagged: “Invisible women, Invisible problems,”

In a statement on Wednesday, Asagba, called for urgent action to protect widows against various forms of violence, including harmful widowhood practices.

”A majority of widows are subjected to torture, inhuman and degrading treatment after the loss of their spouses, which consequently, makes it imperative for favourable policies to be implemented to safegaurd their rights.

”For many women around the world, it is a devastating loss and that loss is magnified by a long-term struggle for basic needs, as well as their human rights and dignity.

”They may be denied inheritance rights to the piece of land that they relied on for livelihood or evicted from their homes, forced into unwanted marriages or traumatizing widowhood rituals and subjected to other harmful cultural practices.

”They are stigmatized for life, shunned, shamed and isolated. and many of these abuses go unnoticed, even normalized.

“Therefore this theme of Widows’ Day 2021, urges us to identify those women and make their problems visible to society,” she said

According to her, the purpose of celebrating International Widows’ Day is the acknowledgment by the UN, that widows are invisible to policymakers.

“Policies focus upon common citizens, labourers, jobless youths, and other suffering segments of society; however, nothing is specifically discussed about widows in policy-making meetings.

“Such an ignoring attitude means that issues of more than 258 million widows worldwide remain unaddressed,” she said