BOP 2006 > Still Photography Winners > Photojournalist of the Year (Over 115,000 circulation)
- Honorable Mention
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"Widows of the River"
Hindus go to the city of Varanasi, on the banks of the Ganges River, to be cleansed before they die and cremated after. Many men, bringing their wives, abandon these women in the city after their death, leaving the widows to fend for themselves. Hundreds of widows populate the city—most live in charity homes. Many are homeless. They have learned to live in the shadows of daily life, to go unnoticed. They are expected to devote the remainder of their lives to the memory of their husbands, without whom, according to their traditions, life loses meaning. By withdrawing from everyday life and luxuries, these women are living a form of suttee, the now-outlawed practice of burning widows alive, chained to the dead husband's funeral pyre. Now they're waiting in Varanasi, waiting for the Ganges to bless them with death.
The widows pray every sunrise to let death take them. To follow their religion appropriately, they must wear white and eat without spices or fish. Many shave their heads. Women use to be burned alive with their husbands on the banks of the Ganges.
Sabruta prays at sunrise alongside other widows and pilgrims. She brought a basket of dishes to clean in the river.
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