AMMAN — There could be no more devastating
moment in a woman’s life than the loss of her husband, which reshapes her
family life and leaves her with a mountain of responsibilities, not to mention
the responsibility to raise her
children alone, according to the Jordan News
Agency, Petra.
اضافة اعلان
The number of
breadwinner widows in the Kingdom is
estimated to be around 30,000, according to official data.
Despite being a widow for nearly two decades, Umm
Mustafa managed to raise six children on her own. Her burden is compounded by
the fact that one of her sons has epilepsy, necessitating the placement of that
child in a specialized facility.
There is not enough money coming in to meet their
basic needs, and the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has made matters
worse, according to her.
Adla Al-Tweisi, the head of the
Wadi Musa Widows and
Development Families Association, says the association has a lending arm that
extends financial support to vulnerable women in the community to give them a
fighting chance in life.
For this reason, she is particularly interested in
empowering widows and other low-income families, as well as establishing
worthwhile projects to boost household income and provide financial assistance
to university students.
About 18 women received assistance from the
association, including one mother of five whose late husband had been building
a home before he passed away, said Tweisi.
According to the woman, the husband’s salary of
JD100 per month was used to pay back a bank loan. Consequently, the association
took the initiative to secure a loan from a donor, allowing the family to
finish the construction of their home and enabling the mother to work in sales.
Another widow has three children, all of whom suffer
from stunted growth. A loan of JD1,500 was obtained through the association,
allowing her to open a supermarket and earn a decent living.
Tweisi said that women may be involved in projects
or work to help their families meet their needs, which helps combat the culture
of shame within the community at large.
Jordanian widows
aged 15 and older make up approximately 9.9 percent of all women, while
Jordanian breadwinner widows make up nearly 75.4 percent. According to 2021
figures from the Department of Statistics, the percentage of unemployed widows
is around 7.9 percent.
Approximately 30,652 widows (heads of households)
receive monthly aid and 2,374 widows benefit from a unified cash support
program, according to media spokesperson and advisor to the Director-General of
the National Aid Fund Najeh Sawalha.
Psychologist Mai Mhaidat recently published a book
titled “Widows as a Model: The Support and Rehabilitation Program Provided to
Jordanian Women One Hundred Years after the Founding of the Jordanian State”,
in which she concluded that widows’ quality of life can be improved through
psychological, emotional, and behavioral therapy and support.
When the breadwinner husband dies, Mhaidat says that
some families are at risk of breakup, which puts enormous strain on the widowed
mother and exacerbates the family’s living conditions.
For widows and families with orphaned children, the
government runs multiple programs to provide for their basic needs while also
empowering women to start their own businesses and earn an income.
Widows should be given psychosocial support that
focuses on helping them find meaning in life, improve their emotional
well-being, learn problem-solving skills, and adjust to a life-altering event
like the death of a spouse, according to Mhaidat.
Vice President of the
Association of Psychiatrists
Alaa Froukh says that widows’ mental health benefits greatly from social
support. As a result of the husband’s absence, Froukh believes that the wife’s
psychological, material and social support is diminished, necessitating
additional assistance to deal with the new stresses.
Yousef Al-Sharman, professor of sociology at
Al-Balqa Applied University, believes that widows may experience verbal and
possibly physical abuse, in addition to being denied inheritance and having
unwelcome intrusions into their life.
He advocates for empowering widows to access their
full rights to alleviate psychological and social pressures, including the
presumption that widows should remain single to care for their children.
The UN General Assembly designated an International Widows’
Day, observed every year at the beginning of the last week of June, to
highlight issues affecting widows, who number around 254 million worldwide.
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