Women, especially those in the rural areas, continually experience harmful cultural and religious practices that tend to present them as sub-humans. Amongst these are the dehumanizing widowhood practices in certain sections of the Nigerian society where widows are required to mourn their late husband for up to twelve months.

During the mourning period, the woman’s hairs are shaved, the nails are cut and she is taken to nearby stream and given shabby bath as a demonstration to her that her crown has been stripped. These inhuman rites are enforced on the widow in spite of her health condition. They sleep and eat alone (not even with their own children), eat only food prepared by fellow widows, and are compelled to take early morning bath with cold water irrespective of the weather conditions. They are also compelled to stay indoors, restrained from public gatherings and restrained from sitting on the same chair with other women whose husbands are still alive.

In some traditions, the widows and their children are denied their rights to inheritance and access to their family wealth which is instead shared amongst the relatives of the late husband, thereby exposing the widow and her children to rejection, loneliness, emotional trauma and economic hardship.