Nutrition, Religion and Widowhood in Nigeria

Dominique van de WalleVisiting Professor Ungku Aziz Centre for Development Studies

University of Malaya

LECTURE 2, January 16, 2019

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The plight of widows varies across Africa

Recall from Lecture 1, African widows often face considerable disadvantage relative to women in their first marriage (Djuikom & van de Walle 2018).

• But, disadvantage depends on the society they live in.

• In the absence of effective policies, their situation is likely to depend on the socio-cultural norms applying to women following widowhood.

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Consequences of widowhood are likely to depend on the social norms widows are subject to

• Focus on Nigeria because the ill-treatment of widows is a grave concern there:• Well documented in Nigeria’s legal, human rights, & sociological literatures

• 2008 public opinion survey: 58% of Nigerians said widows faced discrimination relative to other women; far more than divorcees (World Public Opinion.org 2009).

• Evidenced by many Nigerian NGOs focusing on the rights of widows.

• Focus on religious groups because different processes follow marriage dissolution across the Christian and Muslim religions.

• Suggesting that widowhood may not have the same consequences for the 2 groups.

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Outline of talk

1. Motivation: nutritional gaps

2. Women & legal systems in Nigeria

3. Data

4. Determinants of nutritional status differentials

5. Robustness and sensitivity

6. Conclusions

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1. Nutritional gaps

Significant gap in nutritional status favors Christian over Muslim women in Nigeria (2008 & 2013 DHS)

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2022

2426

bmi

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50woman's age

95% CI Christian Muslim

The religious gap in BMI is largest for non-widows’ considerably smaller for ever-widowed women

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2022

2426

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Christian Muslim

95% CI non widow ever widow

bmi

woman's age

What factors underpin the differences in nutritional status?

• Aim is to better understand the sources of the observed differences in BMI between Christian and Muslim women in Nigeria with a specific focus on widows.

• A more or less equal share of Muslim & Christian women experience widowhood. But once it happens, different cultural and religious norms help determine a widow’s welfare & life outcomes.

• Our aim is to describe these processes and investigate whether Muslim widows fare better despite their worse overall endowments.

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Muslim women are less well nourished than Christian women in Nigeria but are they more, or

less well protected from shocks?

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2. Women & legal systems in NigeriaBackground, context and literature

Religion and ethnic context

Religion: Islam & Christianity each comprise about half the population

• Each group is geographically concentrated but there are also overlaps• Muslims: concentrated in Northern Nigeria which is poorer, more

rural. Worse access to and quality of basic social & infrastructure services; worse social (health & education) indicators

• Christians: concentrated in the richer, more developed South.

Ethnicity: 374 groups. But only a few make up the majority:

• Hausa-Fulani (31.3%): predominantly Muslim• Igbo (15.1%): Christians• Yoruba (16.1) and Igala : mixed religion

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Women & legal systems in Nigeria

Cultural and religious diversity are reflected in the variety of customary practices and legal traditions regulating family law (marriage, divorce, inheritance).

3 main legal systems: all formally recognized by the constitution

• English common law (including statutory law)• Customary law • Islamic law

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Marital status

• Marriage is nearly universal; first occurs at young ages: 30% (41% rural) of all girls 15 – 19 have been married at least once.

• Widowhood is more common for women: 1% of men versus 9% of women. • 11% of men aged 75+ versus 77% of women.

• Divergence by gender reflects: large spousal age gaps; higher male remarriage rates, surviving spouses for polygamous men; & longer life expectancy of women.

• In Nigeria’s patrilineal society, a woman’s rights to property, (land or housing), are dependent on her relationship with a man—usually a father, husband or brother.

Although statutory law formally recognizes a widow’s right to inherit from her late husband, most marriages are contracted under customary or Islamiclaw

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Inheritance under customary law

• Women have no inheritance rights under customary law.• Exceptions/variation across ethnic groups:

• Widows with children with deceased husband, particularly sons, may be allowed to retain possessory (not proprietary) rights on the conjugal home or hold the estate in trust for male children who are minors.

• Others lose custody of children under the customary view that offspring belong to the deceased’s lineage.

• Childless widows may be banished from the matrimonial home. Also happens to widows with children.

• Examples of property seizures, abandonment by in-laws common in the south.

• Many NGOs active in southern States focus on the rights of Christian widows

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Inheritance under Islamic law

Inheritance practices under Islamic law are more favorable to women.

• The Koran instructs that a deceased man’s property be inherited by his widow(s), his (male & female) offspring and his relatives, and specifies each’s share.

• Upon a man’s death intestate, his widow is entitled to one-fourth of the estate if childless; one-eighth if she has children or grandchildren with him.

• Polygynous co-wives share the one-fourth or one-eighth equally

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Treatment of widows

Nigeria’s legal traditions suggest that Muslim widows may be better protected

• However, whether laws are followed or enforced is unclear. • Islamic law is superimposed on long-standing customary practices that

may be hard to extinguish.

The consequence of inheritance for economic & social support is perceived by women themselves. Evidence of behavioral responses to the risk of widowhood:

• Risks of widowhood are a possible explanation for findings of son-preference in Nigeria (Milazzo 2014).

• Lambert & Rossi (2016); Dillon & Voena (2018).

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Treatment of widows (continued)

Potential ill-consequences of widowhood are related to unfavorable inheritance practices but also:

• Loss of economic means, housing, access to productive assets (land) that are conditional on marriage; loss of protection & status derived from a husband.

• Dehumanizing and abusive rituals (extended seclusion, having to prove innocence in death) are part of the mourning process across Nigeria (Ewelukwa 2002; Sossou 2002).

Widowers are not subject to the same practices.

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Treatment of widows (continued)

Some protection may be provided by remarriage.

• The levirate—remarriage into husband’s lineage—aimed to protect the widow & her children

• A widow can refuse, but may be forced to leave her children behind.

• Historically widespread across ethnic groups, the tradition is in decline.

• Christianity reduced prevalence of levirate & polygamy among converts & worked to restrict remarriage prospects.

• Among certain Christian ethnic groups, remarriage is tolerated, but requires bride price repayment. Christianity may have other dampening effects on remarriage.

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Treatment of widows (continued)

• In contrast, Islamic law encourages remarriage through the levirate or outside the lineage.

• Social pressures to remarry & procreate are pronounced for young Muslim widows. • remarry into polygynous households as lower-order rank wives.

• Polygamy is associated with higher remarriage rates.

In a context where publicly-provided pensions are non-existent & women’s rights & access to property remain linked to men, remarriage

can be a life saver.

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3. Data and basic descriptive stats

Data

• Two nationally representative, cross-sectional samples of women aged 15 to 49, pooled from Nigeria Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) for 2008 & 2013.

• Drop women subscribing to a traditional religion (1.1% of sample)

• 66,320 total women: Muslims (31,590); Christians (34,730).

• Both surveys identify previously widowed but currently married women.

• Draw on the household-level questionnaire for household level attributes; women’s questionnaire for individual level data.

• Special modules: asked ever-widows about inheritance & ill-treatment by in-laws.

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One clue to individual welfare: nutritional status

• Use anthropometric data to proxy individual well-being:

1. BMI = weight in kg/height in meters squared

2. Underweight (UW): defined as 1 if BMI < underweight cut-off benchmark of 18.5; 0 otherwise

• Common to use nutritional status as an indicator for individual well-being (Steckel 1995; Jensen 2005)

• Advantages: measured at individual level; reflects command over food but also sanitation conditions; accounts for caloric consumption relative to needs; and errors in its measurement are likely to be random.

• Correlated with income & consumption welfare measures22

Covariates

• Household level: DHS wealth index (linear & squared); log household size, household composition by age & gender, head attributes: gender, age, age squared, years of education.

• Individual level: Dummies for marital status: single, married &previously widowed, married & previously divorced/separated, currently widowed, and currently divorced/sep. (married in first union is omitted category).

• Religion, age and age sq., years of education, whether pregnant, head or spouse of head, & ethnic group (Hausa, Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba &Igala : all have at least some within group religious variation).

• Other: State fixed effects; dummy for 2013 survey round

• Test sensitivity to leaving endogenous variables out.

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Caveats

• From a health standpoint, BMI can be too high. Here focus is only on lower end of BMI distribution and potential undernutrition.

• BMI does not distinguish muscle from body fat. Less of a concern in present context.

• Nutritional outcomes and marital histories only collected for women aged 15-49

• Nutritional status only one facet of individual welfare

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Descriptive stats: Muslims are poorer

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Rural Urban Muslim Christian Muslim Christian School years 1.6 7.8 6.4 10.6 HH head years 2.9 7.4 7.1 9.9 Age 1st marriage 15.5 19.0 17.6 21.4 Polygama. husband % 46 22 35 11 Woman is head % 4 13 7 15 HH wealth index 9.2 10 10.6 11 % underweight 16 8 12 6

Muslim widows are more likely to remarry

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0

.05

.1.1

5.2

.25

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Christian Muslim

95% CI cur wid mar, prev wid

cur div sep mar, prev div sep

woman's age

Graphs by muslim

rural

Unconditional differences (Muslim –Christian) in average UW are smallest for widows

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Rural share of UW Urban share of UW

mar, once

single

mar, prev widowed

mar, prev div sep

cur wid

cur div sep

0 .05 .1 .15 .2Share of underweight

mar, once

single

mar, prev widowed

mar, prev div sep

cur wid

cur div sep

-.05 0 .05 .1 .15Share of underweight

Based on regression of UW on Muslim dummy, full set of marital status dummies, interacted with Muslim & not.

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4. Determinants of nutritional status

Methods

• Aim: to explore the determinants of nutritional status by religion

• Data pooled across 2008 & 2013 surveys:

𝑙𝑛𝐵𝑀𝐼𝑖𝑟𝑘𝑡 = 𝛽𝑋𝑖𝑟𝑘𝑡 + 𝛼𝑟 + 𝛾𝑘 + 𝛿𝑡 + 휀𝑖𝑟𝑘𝑡 (1)

𝑙𝑛𝐵𝑀𝐼𝑖𝑟𝑘𝑡 is the natural log of BMI for the ith woman in religious group r (C, M), living in state k, at time t (2008, 2013)

𝑋: set of women’s attributes;

α is a religious effect; 𝛾 are state fixed effects; 𝛿 is a year effect; and 휀 is an error term.

Log gives a better (more normal) error distribution as assured by the t-test

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Associations between BMI, religion & widowhood

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No covariates Full set of covariates: Rural Rural pooled pooled Muslim Christian Muslim -0.065*** -0.006 -- -- Widow -0.01 0.024* -0.023*** Mar. ex wid -0.001 0.003 -0.002 Year 2013 0.02*** 0.029*** 0.009*** Urban pooled Full set of covariates: Urban Muslim -0.046*** -0.006 Widow -0.008 0.016 -0.014 Mar. ex wid 0.011 0.015 0.004 Year 2013 0.022*** 0.026*** 0.018***

Key regression findings

• The religious difference in nutritional status is explained by covariates including geographic location, ethnicity, household wealth and women’s education.

• However, on accounting for observable characteristics, relative to being married once, widowhood is associated with a cost to BMI for rural Christians & similarly-sized benefit for rural Muslim widows.

• What differences do we see in nutritional status for each marital status when conditioning on the covariates?

• We predict nutritional status levels conditional on characteristics and evaluate them at covariate sample mean values

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Conditional, predicted average differences (Muslim –Christian) in UW are smallest for widows

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Rural share of UW Urban share of UW

Predicted levels are conditional on all observables & evaluated at sample mean values.

mar, once

single

mar, prev widowed

mar, prev div sep

cur wid

cur div sep

-.1 -.05 0 .05 .1 .15Share underweight

mar, once

single

mar, prev widowed

mar, prev div sep

cur wid

cur div sep

-.1 -.05 0 .05 .1Share underweight

Decomposing the gap: methods

• Blinder-Oaxaca decomposition of mean BMI gap helps distinguish between the component of a difference between groups that is due to unequal attributes and that due to unequal returns to those attributes

• Model: 𝑙𝑛𝐵𝑀𝐼𝑟 = 𝑋𝑟′𝛽𝑟 + 휀𝑟 (𝑟 = 𝐶,𝑀)

• Mean BMI gap 𝐺𝑎𝑝 = 𝐸 𝑋𝐶 ′𝛽𝐶 − 𝐸(𝑋𝑀)′𝛽𝑀

• The nutrition gap attributed to different characteristics:

[𝐸 𝑋𝐶 − 𝐸 𝑋𝑀 ]′𝛽∗

• The nutrition gap attributed to different returns to characteristics:

𝐸(𝑋𝐶)′(𝛽𝐶 − 𝛽∗) + 𝐸(𝑋𝑀)′(𝛽∗ − 𝛽𝑀)

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Decomposing the gap: findings

• The bulk of the gap—90%(rural),88% (urban)—is explained by differences in observed characteristics.

• Rural: demographics, ethnicity, wealth & women’s education. For ex., differences in education raise the gap by 31%.

• Urban: similar but ethnicity loses its salience, location plays a larger role.

• Only (an insignificant) 10% (rural) & 13% (urban) is unexplained by differences in the characteristics between the groups.

• Difference in “returns” to BMI of being a widow translates into a negative, highly significant (rural areas) contribution to the unexplained share, in effect reducing the overall gap.

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5. Robustness tests and sensitivity

Possible concerns (1)

• So far: Results are consistent with view that more favorable inheritance rules, & social norms that encourage remarriage, play a positive role in easing the shock of widowhood for Muslim relative to Christian women, as reflected in their nutritional status.

• But a few concerns might still be raised about this conclusion:

Concern: differences in nutrition may reflect ethnic social norms, or geographic factors related to a woman’s village of residence.

• Restrict sample to the Yoruba & Igala, mixed religion ethnicities

• Additionally, replace state with village fixed effects to exploit variation within villages where women of both faiths reside

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No overall Muslim nutritional disadvantage

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Subsample of mixed religion-ethnic groups

Subsample of villages with variation by religion

BMI Rural Urban Rural Urban Muslim 0.021 0.004 0.003 0.012 M current widow 0.064* 0 0.050** 0.02 M ex-widow -0.06 0.004 -0.017 0.014 C current widow -0.044* 0.01 -0.023 0.001 C ex-widow 0.019 0.046 0.023 0.018

• Among rural Christians, BMI gap for current widows, relative to married once women is larger & significant for mixed religion groups.

• Among Muslims, disadvantage of widowhood is offset with positive significant coefficient of interaction• No differences for urban Yoruba-Igala group or same villages.• Similar results for underweight

Possible concerns: (2) Differential selection into current widowhood

Concern: The worst-off Muslim widows (< 40) remarry & so are selected out of the current widow group among Muslims. But, we compare them to Christian widows, a group containing the well- and badly-off since far fewer remarry.

• To investigate, rerun regressions on (i) women 40-49: assume that Muslim widows either chose not to remarry or are too old to do so; (ii) by socio-economic status (proxied by high/low education,& above/below average height) on the argument that poorer are likely to be in greater need to remarry.

• If reversal in nutritional status is concentrated among the well-off, this would be evidence against our conclusion & in favor of positive selection of current widows.

• Height here is assumed to be a proxy for well-being during childhood and arguably predetermined to widowhood.

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Possible concerns: (2) Differential selection into current widowhood

• Results confirm the nutritional disadvantage of widows among Christian women; larger for older women than for the whole sample.

• Find a nutritional cost to Christian widows across socio-economic backgrounds.

• The reversal of the Christian advantage in favor of Muslim widows is significant only for poorer women—the uneducated & those with lower than average height in rural areas.

• For Muslims, it is the less well-off widows that have better BMI than other women, all else held constant.

• Suggests that the gap reversal for widows is not driven by differential selection into widowhood. Poorer Muslim women—the most vulnerable following a widowhood shock are better protected by the socio-cultural-religious norms.

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Possible concerns: (3) Other selection issues

• Muslim women are on average worse-off than Christian women in full sample.

• Concern: (i) the nutrition gap reflects fact that fewer & only the poorest Christians become widows at any given age.

• Yet, overall differences in BMI & other attributes are less strong in subsample of mixed ethnic groups & villages with women of both faiths (Figures).

• Absent/weaker results in these subsamples would be consistent with selection argument (i). But we find the opposite.

• (ii) Selective mortality exists among the most nutritionally deprived Muslim widows such that the data contain only the better-off survivors.

• Seems improbable. Would expect dying from undernutrition not to be discontinuous & to find some very undernourished widows who have not died yet which would push results the other way.

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BMI by age & religion in mixed-religion ethnic groups

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22

24

26

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bm

i

15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50woman's age

95% CI Christian Muslim

Suggestive corroborative factors

• Both DHSs ask ever-widowed women (i.e., current & remarried) whether she was totally dispossessed of her late husband’s assets and valuables.

• 2013 DHS asks current widows about ill-treatment/violence by in-laws:• Not asked of remarried widows: impossible to assess whether

remarriage is associated with such violence; and results in a small sample size, particularly for Muslim women.

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Remarried widows Current widows

Rural Urban Rural Urban

Christian Muslim Christian Muslim Christian Muslim Christian Muslim

% Widows dispossessed 79 31 73 39 42 27 43 23

N 295 469 93 137 752 197 468 136

Source: Nigeria DHSs 2013.

% Widows completely dispossessed of late husband’s property

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Rural Urban Muslim Christian Muslim Christian

Blamed for death 9

10

0

15

Physically abused 7

19

13

20

Maltreated 11

23

12

27

Her children are maltreated

7

17

3

20

Must prove her innocence 1

7

2

14

Asked in DHS 2013; around 500 current widows answer.

Violence and mistreatment of widows by late husband’s relatives %

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6. Conclusions

Conclusions

• The large significant gap in nutritional status favoring Christian over Muslim women in Nigeria is explained by women’s individual & household level characteristics.

• Religion only matters via these characteristics.

• Overall, Muslim women simply live in households & locations with worse endowments.

• Encouraging. Suggests that policies that successfully reduce poverty & promote human development can help reduce disadvantages

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Conclusions

• Marital status helps explain cross-group differences in nutritional status. • For Christians, the shock of widowhood is associated with worse nutritional

status while it is the opposite among Muslims.

• The effect is so strong that Muslim widows have better nutrition than C widows

• Cultural & religious norms combine with a women’s reproductive history & attributes, to determine a widow’s welfare & life outcomes.

• The average Muslim woman fares better nutritionally & is less afflicted by dispossession & abusive behavior from her in-laws, when the shock of widowhood befalls her.

• The most vulnerable to hardship at widowhood are on average far better protected under Muslim socio-cultural-religious norms and processes.

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Policy conclusions

• More favorable inheritance rules & social norms that encourage remarriage appear to ease the shock of widowhood for Muslim relative to Christian women in Nigeria.

• The nutrition differentials among widows may or may not be influenced by such practices.

• At a minimum, they are a reflection of the same socio-cultural norms & processes that attend the shock of a husband’s loss.

• Points to role that policy could play in protecting often young women who have the great misfortune to experience the shock of widowhood.

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Reference

Milazzo, Annamaria and Dominique van de Walle. 2018. “Nutrition, Religion and Widowhood in Nigeria,” Policy Research WPS 8549, World Bank, Washington, DC.

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