Forbidden Red: Widowhood in Urban Nepal

by Kathey-Lee Galvin

For centuries, Hindus in Nepal required a widow to surrender to burning on their husband's funeral pyre. Now illegal and rare, social remnants of the practice persist. By the time the funeral fire is extinguished, the woman as wife no longer exists. Her separation from family and society, along with rites that change her social status, begin. Often, she is stripped of jewelry and other outward accoutrements of married life. Her red clothing--a...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874222834
• ISBN13: 9780874222838
• Release Date: February 2006
• Publisher: Washington State University Press
• Length: 176 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.2"

Customer Reviews

An extensively researched investigative study of the plight of widows and their struggle to survive

Compellingly authored by anthropologist and academician Kathy-Lee Galvin, Forbidden Red: Widowhood In Urban Nepal, is an extensively researched investigative study of the plight of widows and their struggle to survive in the historical and modern constrictions of Nepali society. Delving deeply into the lives and struggles of widows in a culture which has societal predilection towards rejecting, disowning, or ostracizing or otherwise discriminating against these women, Forbidden Red informs its readers of the painstaking process of living beyond the death of a husband as illustrated through interviews from women of varying castes, religions, ages, and residential choices. Forbidden Red is very highly recommended reading, especially for students of anthropology, Nepali culture, gender based sociological issues of third-world and South Asian cultures.