INDIA-FESTIVAL-RELIGION-WOMEN

TO GO WITH INDIA-FESTIVAL-RELIGION-WOMEN An Indian widow holds a lit earthen lamp on the banks of the Yamuna river during a celebration for the Hindu festival Diwali in the northern city of Vrindavan on October 21, 2014. The women, who chanted as they walked through the streets of Vrindavan to mark the Hindu festival of Diwali, are widows who have left or been abandoned by their families. Until recently, they were kept hidden from society and all but forbidden to celebrate. But that is now changing, and local residents cheered the women on as they passed through the streets of the temple-filled town, many proudly wearing brand new saris gifted by a local organisation. AFP PHOTO/ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP / ROBERTO SCHMIDT (Photo credit should read ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)