By Funmi Olasupo

Abuja — The Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Hajiya Zainab Maina, has raised alarm that the  insurgency in the country was increasing the population of widows.

Speaking in Abuja during the Widows Empowerment Scheme to commemorate the 2014 International Widows Day, with the theme, ‘Empowering Widows, Uplifting the Status of Women,” Maina said most widows were struggling with the grief they found themselves without any social support.
Widowhood, she said, had remained     traumatic, particularly for the women.
This, according to her, explained the challenge of integrating widows into national development processes.

The Minister said:  “It is believed that the pathetic state of widows is made more difficult by some cultural expectations/ deprivations associated with the phenomenon.”
She lamented that evidence indicated that over the long term, women were affected more severely than men financially, psychologically, sexually and socially.
She added: “This practice, to all purposes and intents, are contrary to universal religious injunctions. They are regrettably another aspect of discrimination against women.”