Dispossessing the Widow

Gender-Based Violence in Malawi

The dispossession of widows - commonly referred to as 'property grabbing' - is one of the most prevalent and entrenched forms of violence that women experience in Malawi. This book presents findings of case-studies of Malawian women who have encountered dispossession of matrimonial property when their husbands died.It provides a theoretical framework and definitions; outlines the causes of this practice, the form it takes and its harmful economic, psychological and physical effects; and discusses the cultural, economic and legal factors, which perpetrate it. The study then examines how the justice delivery system deals with the dispossession of widows as a form of gender-based violence, revealing how the present justice system, and structures of delivery fail to respond to this form of gender-based violence widely considered a violation of human rights.

The study is collectively authored by researchers of WLSA-Malawi, and is their second publication, following In Search of Justice: Women and the Administration of Justice in Malawi (2000).

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