About one million American women become widowed each year. For many of us who have been there, it was a singular, searing experience.
But we are the lucky ones: In many parts of the world, losing one’s husband is about much more than coping with grief, loneliness, or financial upheaval. A husband’s death may plunge a woman into a state of widowhood—enforced by cultural, social, or legal bonds—she cannot leave. Widows are cast out. Their possessions, their land, and even their children can be taken from them.
Photographer Amy Toensing, with a grant from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, has publicized widows’ plight since she first shot the story in India in 2005. For this article we sent Toensing and writer Cynthia Gorney back to India, as well as…