Nutrition, Religion, and Widowhood in Nigeria
It is known that Muslim women in Nigeria have significantly worse nutritional status than their Christian counterparts. The paper first shows that this difference is explained by covariates including geographic location, ethnicity, household wealth...
| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Working Paper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
World Bank, Washington, DC
2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/386641534166582375/Nutrition-religion-and-widowhood-in-Nigeria http://hdl.handle.net/10986/30239 |
| Summary: | It is known that Muslim women in Nigeria
have significantly worse nutritional status than their
Christian counterparts. The paper first shows that this
difference is explained by covariates including geographic
location, ethnicity, household wealth, and women’s
education. However, on accounting for observable
characteristics, Muslim widows enjoy a higher nutritional
status than Christian widows, particularly in rural areas.
The patterns are robust to including village fixed effects
and are confirmed for mixed religion ethnic groups. The data
are consistent with more favorable processes following
widowhood among Muslims, namely inheritance practices and
remarriage options. Data on inheritance and violence
patterns by religion confirm that Muslim widows are
significantly less likely to be dispossessed of their late
husband's property or to be mistreated upon widowhood
by in-laws. Muslim women are more likely to be chronically
undernourished but less nutritionally vulnerable to this
marital shock. |
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