Widow humiliated for entering Kali temple

[Guest guest]

Widow humiliated for entering Kali temple

 

Merinews network

India

 

4 April, 2008,

 

Superstition and illiteracy continue to be a curse for the

country, especially in backward states. In a shameful

incident a widow was made to wear a garland of shoes and

to top it, her face was blackened after she defied a ban on

her offering prayers at a Kali temple in Dhanbad district in

Jharkhand early this week.

 

Kalawati Devi was barred by villagers from entering the

temple because she was a widow, reports in the local media

said.

 

Victims of superstition and backwardness, the villagers

believed that her husband had died due to some fault of

hers. Therefore should she enter the temple to pray, it would

portend ill for other villagers, especially the married

womenfolk.

 

The widow defied the ban imposed on her by the villagers,

entered the Kali temple and offered prayers. A resident of

Pawapur village in Dhanbad district, she paid a price for her

daring.

 

Villagers spied her at the temple and surrounded her. They

made her wear a garland strung together with old shoes. Not

satisfied they then proceeded to blacken her face and

paraded her in the village square. To make matters more

unseemly than they were, most of those who humiliated

Kalawati were women.

 

When the widow filed a case at the police station against six

men and 30 women of the village, incensed villagers staged

a demonstration outside the police station on Wednesday

demanding that the case be withdrawn forthwith.

 

 

http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=131779

 

More:

http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/uncategorized/widow

s-face-blackened-for-praying-in-jharkhand-

temple_10034407.html

[Guest guest]

Namaste,

 

Something struck me as interesting (not in a positive manner, though) about this

article. The things that interested me were the 'superstitions', so to speak,

and the 'cultural symbols,' if I do not sound too crude pointing these things

out.

 

In this individual village, is the shoes supposed to mean anything? I have also

seen a similar article point out that they made the woman walk naked,

humiliated. Does this symbolize anything in terms of this individual village?

Finally, I was wondering what this stigma with widows is all about...I seen this

vaguely referenced in more than just this article.

 

I am aware, again, that this is just one village and definitely does not

represent the norms of all groups and villages in India. However, I have

noticed the stigmatization of widows being a common theme in South Asia in more

than one particular group. I am curious about all of this to attempt to

understand why the woman got humiliated.

 

These are just my thoughts... I feel like a blundering novice, LOL.

 

 

Jai Ma!

 

Sincerely,

Christina

 

 

 

 

---- msbauju <msbauju wrote:

> Widow humiliated for entering Kali temple

>