The multiplicity, contradictions, and shifting status of widowhood in post-earthquake Nepal

Abstract

This study brings a critical feminist approach to intersectional disaster research. It draws on qualitative research conducted in Nepal’s mid-hill region to centralize the experiences of widows, or single women, during and after the 2015 earthquakes. Through an intersectional lens, I deconstruct the monolithic experience of widowhood in Nepal to examine the messiness of reality and the possibility of different or even contradictory experiences in a post-disaster context. Intertwining social identities and factors beyond the trifecta of gender, marital status, and caste—such as family support, age, location, education, class, migration, property ownership, citizenship, experience in the public sphere, and NGO support—create a complex constellation of intersectionality that determined single women’s post-earthquake experiences and their access to post-disaster recovery. I find that the government’s post-earthquake housing reconstruction relief, which was predicated on property ownership, added a layer of systematic discrimination for many single women. Simultaneously, the post-earthquake development context provided a space for some single women to unite in a collective identity, facilitating a shift of longstanding stigma and an emerging renegotiation of what it means to “be a widow” in Nepal.