The Practice of Widow Cleansing

This piece discusses the universal nature of violence against women but particularly looking at the culture of widow cleansing that is practised in Malawi, but also common in Zambia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Tanzania, Ghana, Senegal, Angola, Ivory Coast, Congo and Nigeria. The author discusses how this practise, together with widow inheritance have affected the spread of HIV in some regions and continued to perpetuate gender based violence.