Nutrition, Religion, and Widowhood in Nigeria

Milazzo, Annamaria ; van de Walle, Dominique

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: NUTRITION;    BODY MASS INDEX;    WIDOWHOOD;    RELIGION;    INHERITANCE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8549
RP-ID  :  WPS8549

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

It is known that Muslim women in Nigeriahave significantly worse nutritional status than theirChristian counterparts. The paper first shows that thisdifference is explained by covariates including geographiclocation, ethnicity, household wealth, and women’seducation. However, on accounting for observablecharacteristics, Muslim widows enjoy a higher nutritionalstatus than Christian widows, particularly in rural areas.The patterns are robust to including village fixed effectsand are confirmed for mixed religion ethnic groups. The dataare consistent with more favorable processes followingwidowhood among Muslims, namely inheritance practices andremarriage options. Data on inheritance and violencepatterns by religion confirm that Muslim widows aresignificantly less likely to be dispossessed of their latehusband's property or to be mistreated upon widowhoodby in-laws. Muslim women are more likely to be chronicallyundernourished but less nutritionally vulnerable to thismarital shock.