The Solitude of Migrants' Wives: What Solution Do You Propose?
Senegalese women married to emigrants endure long separations, facing isolation, financial strain, and forced marriages, sometimes leading to infanticide. While some achieve independence through work, the article calls for community support and changed perceptions to address their hardships.
Married to men who emigrated to the West, thousands of Senegalese women spend years without seeing their husbands. They must deal with family pressure, financial hardships, and the lack of love. Sitting on a beige leather sofa, her long legs swing over the armrest. It is in her living room that Awa (names have been changed) tells the story of her life as a wife married to a “modou-modou,” as emigrants are called in Senegal. The couple has a 3-year-old boy. His father has never seen him. Until now, due to lack of documents, he has not been able to return to Senegal. Returning would mean risking not being able to leave again. In the meantime, daily phone calls and video messages from life here maintain the connection. Awa wonders: “In ten years of marriage, we have only lived together for four months. Without this separation, how many children could we have had? How many things could we have done?” Indignation takes over when she talks about how hard and humiliating it is to obtain a tourist visa to visit her husband. Awa waited three years before being able to travel during her vacation. They Haven't Seen Their Husbands for Two, Four... Even Ten Years Her story is that of most women from Louga, 200 km north of Dakar, the capital. In this city of 200,000 inhabitants, emigrants are numerous. Pushed by family and friends, many young girls believe that by marrying a modou-modou they will have no material concerns. And while the global economic crisis has complicated this idea, the
Given the pressures and isolation faced by Senegalese women married to emigrants, should the primary solution focus on dismantling the cultural ideal of the "modou-modou" marriage, or on equipping women with economic independence and community support networks?