APTOPIX India Hindu Festival

In this Saturday, Nov. 2, 2013 photo, Indian widows light lamps as they celebrate Diwali or the festival of lights at an Ashram in Vrindavan, India. In India, for all of its recent modernization and openness to foreign cultures, being a widow remains one of the worst stigmas a woman can endure, and women are far from equal here. When her husband dies, the widow often becomes a pariah, excluded from family gatherings for fear the mere fall of her shadow will bring bad luck and tragedy. (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh)