Praise the lord and say no to men: Older women empowering themselves in Samia, Kenya.

In rural western Kenya, older Samia women, often victims of forced marriage in youth, are refusing traditional widow inheritance (remarriage) and renewed male domination after a husband's death. They make their refusals in the strategic public discourse of funeral speeches. The ability of older women to bring about change in female roles and power is related to their positions in extended families and support from 'saved' Christians. Examination of Samia women's everyday resistance to patriarchal power reveals the dynamics of gender relations within the overlapping power structures of kinship hierarchies, marriage, and religion (Christianity). It is also an example of religious renewal as a force in social change.