Widows, in Tanzania and many other parts of the world, face discrimination on a regular basis, which often condemns women to a life of poverty. In the face of this discrimination, says this research from the Social Science Research Network, there are no national or international consensuses on the importance of changing the customary legal rules relating to widows, and on the larger question of the proper place of customary law and harmful traditional, cultural, and religious practices in the changing African society.