Domestic Violence: Worship in Words, Wounds in Reality

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India is a land of deeply rooted social traditions. Although women are revered as embodiments of Lakshmi and Durga, society remains largely androcentric, where violence against women is often normalized. Men’s actions are concealed, much like a swamp silently swallowing whatever falls into it.

Society restrains women with a constant “don’t”, while empowering men with an unquestioned “you can" & this social normalization of an unquestioned “you can” grants men a licence to act according to their will.

This license often manifests in everyday surveillance and control—brothers turning into informal guards who monitor when their sisters arrive or leave, and husbands assuming the role of perpetual invigilators, conducting daily “examinations” of their wives’ behaviour. Failure to conform is not met with dialogue, but with humiliation, reinforcing dominance rather than partnership.

When such unchecked authority enters the private sphere of the household, it often culminates in domestic violence, where women are compelled to respond not with retaliation but resilience—an experience articulated in the poem below

Stains – Afreen Ahsan
I will try to recover your pain,
but I can’t hide your stains.
Since the day I met you,
my life took strange turns.
Since the day I met you,
you taught me so many lessons,
when you whipped me for the first time.
I couldn’t believe that you did all that
for a few dimes.
When, for the first time, you
introduced me to reality,
that day I got to know
your real personality.
Your given stains also reflect on my face,
but they don’t have much power
to affect my grace.
Yes, it is tough to live with
your given stains,
but maybe this is the will of destain.

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