War widow

In the broad sense, a war widow is a spouse who has become widowed as a direct consequence of any kind of warfare, including usual wars and guerilla warfare. This definition includes both widows of servicemen and of civilians.^[1][2] For legal purposes one may distinguish the de-jure war widows, i.e., the ones who have legal grounds to claim the war-related widowhood, and de facto war widows.^[1] In some jurisdictions, war widows may be legally defined as "the spouses of servicemen killed in action". These widows receive a special treatment, such as special widow's pensions or honors during military ceremonies.^[3][4] In addition to personal experience, war widowhood has profound socio-demographic and economic effects on the society.^[5]