Voices against patriarchy

This anthology offers rare insights to challenge the impunity for violence against women in South Asia. VRINDA GROVER

- SOMDATTA MANDAL

This anthology is a blend of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry that celebrates women's resilience and their capacity to transcend victimhood. Inspiring courage in victims of all kinds of violence, it covers instances from all the countries in South Asia, something that we nowadays consider the Global South. The outspoken tales of resilience amid suffering in this book strike at the very heart of the patriarchal mindset in all its forms. The topics covered across the borders of India into Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. It includes stories, narratives and chronicles of rape - familial rape, the rape of children - murder, hudood, honour killing, marital violence, dowry cases, forced disappearances, molestation, stalking and the egregious identitarian crimes committed upon tribal women and girls, and others for their class and caste status. They look back at the shadows cast by rape, neglect and abuse on the widows of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War and feature the untamed primordial urges in all these societies that underpin many crimes against women, such as those taking the form of Sati, the outrageous practice of acid attacks and the ultimate humiliation-the rejection of a girl child by her family. We are all familiar with such forms of social evil and atrocities against women, but it is appreciable how the editors have been able to garner so much information between the two covers of the book.