Women's Abuse in India, America and Elsewhere

An American Woman's Perspective

The following accounts are not for the faint at heart but their stories NEED to be told.

"A 22-year-old widowed teacher in India is forced to climb upon her husband's funeral pyre and burn alive. Not far from where this is taking place, a young woman is found, still alive but blinded, eardrums perforated and her nipples and genitals torn away with a pair of pliers." 

These bone-chilling words constitute the opening of a new novel "The Ashram" authored by the novice Indian writer Sattar Memon. The book came highly recommended by abused women's group "Saheli". It exposes, I was told, stark women's abuse and through the protagonist Dr. Jonathan Kingsley, leads to the emancipation of abused women. The book lived up to its image.

Seeta; the young school teacher in a village of India is about to sit atop a blazing pyre and hold her deceased husband's head in her lap, wants to become suttee so that her soul can join her beloved in heaven. As I read, I broke out in a cold sweat and began panting. To be fair to the author, I won't divulge this page-turner's mind boggling and vivid scenarios, but you'll be relieved to know that no new suttee has taken place in India since 1989 when a young woman named Roopkumar actually burnt to death in the regal state of Rajasthan. But the way some unfortunate women are still undergoing a variety of abuse and feeling its pain, shame and damage to the psyche, some wish they as well might be burnt to death to escape the pain.

The same pain I know all to well, as I too was an abused woman.

Suttee aside, let me share with you the depth and magnitude of women's abuse that is going on in every corner of the world. But first, mind you, when it comes to the abuse of women, the United States of America is no exception.

A one-month pregnant woman in the USA is stabbed to death by her son, while nearby a woman is doused with gasoline, thrown inside a cab and set on fire by her husband. Her screams for help are not answered in time and she burns to death.

A young woman in Africa succumbs to infection and dies after being subjected to the "harmless practice" of female circumcision.