評論
打印
Middle east and Afica: Inheritance in Zimbabwe: Why widows get evicted?
中東和非洲：津巴布韋的遺產(chǎn)：遺孀為何被驅(qū)逐？
The scourge of in-laws robbing the bereaved
姻親剝奪遺孀（財(cái)產(chǎn)）的根源
Activist, firebrand and feminist are just a few of the terms used to describe Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga, a former opposition MP and cabinet minister in Zimbabwe.
“活動家”、“煽動者”、“女權(quán)主義者”這些詞只是津巴布韋共和國前反對黨成員兼內(nèi)閣大臣Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga的一些頭銜。
No one would call her a pushover.
沒有人認(rèn)為她是一個好說話的人。
Yet despite her connections and some of the country’s finest lawyers arguing her case, after her husband’s death she was forced empty-handed out of her matrimonial home of 13 years.
盡管她有著人脈還有國內(nèi)最好的律師幫她打官司，在她的丈夫去世之后，她還是被迫兩手空空地離開了她在13年婚姻生活中一直居住的家。
Before Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga was widowed she and her late husband owned three houses, including one in the leafy suburb of Mt Pleasant in the north of Harare.
在Misihairabwi-Mushonga丈夫去世之前，她和她的丈夫擁有三座房產(chǎn)，其中一處在哈拉雷北部綠樹成蔭的芒特普萊森特郊區(qū)。
They shared bank accounts and owned several cars.
他們共享銀行賬戶以及幾輛汽車。
Some of this was left to her in a will.
在她丈夫的遺囑中，她也享有一部分的財(cái)產(chǎn)。
Yet after her husband’s death Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga lost almost everything, even her clothes, to her late husband’s brother, various other in-laws and his children from an earlier marriage.
然而，在丈夫去世后，她幾乎所有的東西，甚至她的衣服，都被她丈夫的兄弟，其他各種姻親以及前段婚姻的子女所瓜分。
“I am a typical example of a person who had access to information, a minister, but yet I woke up with nothing,” she says.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga說：“我是一個典型的例子，作為內(nèi)閣大臣我可以獲得很多信息，但是我醒來時什么都沒有了。”
Her destitution illustrates a wider problem.
她的貧困反映了一個更深層次的問題。
It is not only the government that grabs other people’s stuff in Zimbabwe, in-laws do it, too.
在津巴布韋，不僅政府會強(qiáng)占私人財(cái)產(chǎn)，姻親也會。
Tens of thousands of widows are stripped of their property after the death of their husbands.
數(shù)以萬計(jì)的寡婦在她們的丈夫去世之后變得一貧如洗。
A report released this week by Human Rights Watch (HRW) , an outfit based in New York, documents numerous cases of Zimbabwean widows losing their homes, the land that they had tended for years and even the fruit growing on their trees.
本周，人權(quán)觀察（總部設(shè)在美國紐約）發(fā)表的一項(xiàng)報(bào)告記錄了數(shù)不勝數(shù)的案例，在這些案例中津巴布韋的寡婦失去了她們的家，她們數(shù)年來辛勤耕作的土地，甚至是果樹上的果實(shí)也被剝奪。
Such abuses are common in many countries, HRW says.
人權(quán)觀察組織說，這種情況在很多國家都很常見。
The Loomba Foundation, another NGO, estimates that 38m widows are extremely poor.
另一個非政府組織---魯巴基金會估計(jì)大約有三千八百萬寡婦處于極度貧窮狀態(tài)。
In Zimbabwe the problem is acute because of short lifespans and the tendency of men to marry much younger women, particularly if they are rich.
這種情況之所以在津巴布韋很突出是因?yàn)檫@里的人均壽命短，并且男人，尤其是富裕的男人，更愿意娶比自己年齡小得多的女人。
So the country has an alarming number of widows: more than half of women older than 60 have buried at least one husband.
所以這個國家的寡婦數(shù)量格外多，60歲以上的女性人口中，一半以上都埋葬過至少一任丈夫。
The dispossession of old women continues despite laws that, on paper, protect them from predatory in-laws.
盡管有法律明文保護(hù)年長女人免遭姻親剝奪財(cái)產(chǎn)，但是姻親對她們的財(cái)產(chǎn)的剝奪從未停止過。
This is thanks to two quirks in Zimbabwe’s legal system.
而這是因?yàn)榻虬筒柬f法律體系中的兩個奇特之處。
The first is a hangover from a tradition of “wife inheritance” or “kugara nhaka” whereby, in some parts of Zimbabwe, a widow (and thus all her property) is inherited by her husband’s brother.
第一處便是傳統(tǒng)習(xí)俗中遺留下來的“妻子繼承制”或“kugara nhaka”，在津巴布韋的某些地方，一位寡婦（包含她的全部財(cái)產(chǎn)）都由丈夫的弟弟繼承。
(This custom helped HIV spread like wildfire. )
（這一習(xí)俗導(dǎo)致了艾滋病的廣泛傳播。）
Although wives are no longer handed over these days, their homes and property still are.
盡管現(xiàn)在，寡婦不再被“繼承”，但她們的房子和財(cái)產(chǎn)還是會被“繼承”。
This is because the laws restraining in-laws only apply to women who can prove that they were married.
這是因?yàn)榉芍粚δ切┠茏C明自己的婚姻情況的婦女生效從而限制姻親。
But as many as 80% of marriages in the countryside are “customary” and not registered in writing anywhere, so widows going to court to enforce their rights end up having to ask their in-laws to confirm that they were indeed married.
但是在津巴布韋鄉(xiāng)村，80%的婚姻是“約定俗成”的，并沒有任何的書面文件證明，所以，寡婦們想要通過法院阻止姻親之間的財(cái)產(chǎn)掠奪行為，必須由姻親承認(rèn)他們的婚姻關(guān)系。
Given the loot at stake, many refuse to testify honestly.
鑒于之間的利害關(guān)系，許多人做假證，否認(rèn)事實(shí)。
“Widows are forced to rely on the husband’s family, who stand to gain if they deny that the marriage took place,” says Bethany Brown of HRW.
人權(quán)觀察組織的達(dá)尼·布朗說：“寡婦被迫要依靠過世丈夫家人的證明，如果這些人作偽證，他們就能夠獲得財(cái)產(chǎn)”。
Many widows can’t get their property back without a lawyer, and can’t afford a lawyer until they get their property back.
很多寡婦需要律師的幫助才能得到她們的財(cái)產(chǎn)，而她們在贏回她們的財(cái)產(chǎn)前卻請不起律師。
That they are often old and weak makes them even easier to push around.
她們通常年老體弱，更容易受人擺布。
Solving the problem is not a question of passing new legislation but of extending the rule of written laws.
要解決問題不是出臺新的法律條款，而是增加現(xiàn)有成文法律的條款。
Ms Misihairabwi-Mushonga predicts that widows will continue to be dispossessed so long as traditional views on marriage hold sway.
Misihairabwi-Mushonga認(rèn)為，只要傳統(tǒng)的婚姻規(guī)則還存在，寡婦的現(xiàn)狀就不會有改變。
譯文來源考研英語時事閱讀
