Widow reveals the treatment she was subjected to after losing her husband at 23

She added in the caption that her husband’s family took everything from her, leaving her to care for the kids alone.

She wrote: “I married at 19, had my first child at 20, second child at 21, became a widow at 23. They collected everything from me. The worst part is they don’t ask of the kids.”

Nigeria is home to about 15 million of the world’s 258 million widows. Widowhood in an ethnically and religiously diverse country like Nigeria, with three major ethnic groups and over 250 minorities, is complex. Widowhood is a period when a person has lost his or her spouse by death and has remained unmarried.

In patrilineal and patriarchal societies, including Nigeria, descent is traced through males, with systems controlled and dominated by men. In such societies, women are expected to be subservient.

Becoming a widow often compounds the disadvantages. It creates a doubly marginalized subgroup and sometimes subjects women to dehumanizing rituals and harmful practices.

Available statistics show that Nigeria has over eight million disadvantaged widows with over 21 million children. These statistics appear to be on the increase due to the prevalence of crisis, terminal ailments, crimes, religion, and politics.

What challenges does widowhood bring? As widows move through their own experiences of grief, loss, or trauma after the death of a spouse, they may also face economic insecurity, discrimination, stigmatization, and harmful traditional practices on the basis of their marital status.

In many places in Africa, widows and divorcees may be shunned, ostracized, and dispossessed. Divorcees and widows are also much more likely to suffer other forms of disadvantage. Relative to similar women in their first union, both groups have worse nutritional outcomes on average across Africa.