Warcry of the Wronged and Repressed

Every single day, without fail, there is a violent, gender-based crime that forces us to sit up and take notice, jaded though we've become.

- Anuja Chandramouli

In Tamil Nadu, 27-year-old Rithanya took her own life after she was harassed for dowry, though her parents had already spent a fortune. Inured as we are to dowry deaths, this case generated outrage over a voice note the victim had left, in which she confided to her father: "There is only one man for one woman. In this birth, I got married once, and my life is not good. That's all. It is over." The bereaved father mentioned this in public and while condemning those who had driven her to death added that he was proud of her for sticking to the "oruvanuku oruthi" concept. Roughly translated it refers to monogamy but naturally only a woman is expected to adhere to this stricture and swear fidelity to the first man who has seen/touched her naked body and deigned to marry her. Men, of course are not bound by such inconvenient and impractical balder