The program aimed at highlighting the issues of widows basically in the developing countries and demanding a separate UN resolution on widowhood witnessed encouraging participation also by university students, professors, researchers, human and woman right activists, among others.[break]
After inaugurating the conference by lighting the lamp, Vice-president Paramananda Jha in his speech said that a country like Nepal where widows face high degree of discrimination needs really a big push from the government and the social sector to change the scenario.
“While our society faces high degree of gender discrimination, it is even more severe against widows. The government has polices to secure their rights or empower them but a lot still needs to be done in this direction,” he said.
Lily Thapa, founder chairperson of Women for Human Rights (WHR), a single women´s organization, made everyone emotional as well as inspirational as she talked about her days of hard struggle as a widow.
“It takes a great deal of courage to overcome the obstacles and sorrows in the life of a widow in our kind of society. I have been through all that and it inspired me to found and work for an organization like WHR, which brings discriminated women together and empowers them in every possible way,” Thapa said to indeed a huge applause.
Speaking at the function, immigration and asylum lawyer and international focal person of South Asian Network for Widow´s Empowerment in Development (SANWED) Margaret Owen said that a government is responsible to ensure that women are not marginalized and everyone is equally treated as an agent of peace.
“The aging widows need even more attention from the government and this is a global issue,” she said.
Discussions, speeches and paper presentation from several representatives with highlights of the situation of widows of their respective countries indeed interested the participants. However, a play on a widow´s life and her transformation into a victor directed and played by veteran actress Mithila Sharma, among others stole the show. “I did not understand the language but it was very very beautiful,” remarked Kohinoor Yeasmin from Bangladesh.
The program was jointly organized by WHR and SANWED with the support of UN democracy fund.
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