Today is not about law or case studies. It's about speaking what's on my mind. My dad is in the process of shifting his office, and there were books all over. I chanced upon a book about 'Husband being subjected to cruelty by wife for divorce and maintenance'. It kicked off my curiosity and I picked up and kept it aside to have a read. My husband happened to see it, and passed all the comments he wanted to his heart's content about how true it was and poor him...etc, etc. We pulled each other's leg , the whole family joined in and had a good laugh, end of story, or so I thought.
The irony of it was, that the very next day when I was just having a casual chit chat with one of my family member, she told about this incident where someone known to her got beaten up badly by his wife. My immediate reaction, "What! Really, what did he do and was he so weak that he got beat up by his wife?" . I don't know if that would be only my reaction, or just a response any other person would have. What she told me further, was what disturbed me and got me thinking. She told me that the wife instigated him to beat her and infact wanted him to beat her up, she threatened to drag him to the police station the moment he dared to lay even his little finger on her. This couple have their issues, personal unto them. I am not judging who is right and who is not. But there are a few women who are misusing the law that is made to come to the rescue of those in trouble.
I am a woman, speaking up against another woman, these women, who think they are having the law on their side, and that they can use it as they please. In reality, I am actually here to speak up for the women. You may question me, 'how is that?'. I'll tell you.
Usually, all of us have predetermined answers or reactions to a lot of situations in life. Like,
Situation 1: Woman got beat up by her husband,
Reaction: poor thing, must have been beaten up for dowry, or he must be having an affair, or he must be a drunkard.....so on and so forth.
Situation 2: Man got beat up by wife,
Reaction: may be he did something to deserve it, he must have done something wrong....
Why is it that we don't stop to think otherwise, may be there is something else behind it. I think it's time that we don't react this way. There are a few men out there who are genuinely harassed by their wife. They don't come out with it in the open because they stop to think about what the others would say, and even if they do come forward, I do not think the society at this juncture is going to listen to Their woes. They are either branded as liars or weaklings.
The reason I am talking on this subject is that these few women are actually doing something that is going to, in the long run, hurt other women who are genuinely going to need the law to be there for them. If few women go on misusing the law for getting back at their husbands for some personal reason which can be resolved otherwise, neither the law nor the society will be there to back up the women who really need help. Someday there might be a woman who comes knocking on the doors of justice and the reaction she may get is "she's lying, she must be wanting to just file a false complaint to get back at her husband". Its a question I want to pose to women, "do we really want to get there"? Why deprive another woman off the justice she deserves. Hope we don't reach that juncture someday.
Women have been oppressed for centuries, it took decades and decades of fighting to get a woman what she has today. To see these few women take all that away is unsettling. I can only ask off these women not to do it. This, only for the sake of the other women who may really need help of the law in the time of need.
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