Women are dying and we are helpless with multiple layers of shame

Dejected. Disgusted. Shameful. These three words sum up my last two days.

About eight years back, there was a couple living in our house, renting a flat. They looked young, educated. They had a small baby girl. Their life seemed happy to me. It was their love marriage.

The man (he doesn’t deserve the word ‘man’ anymore, he’s a devil) was a college lecturer. His wife (we would call her ‘didi’) was studying masters and was an ambitious and talented young woman.

Gradually, mommy got to know something was not going right inside their place. She started getting hints. She started hearing remarks from others about the couple.

They were living on the ground floor of our house.

One fine day I saw her in black goggles while she was doing house chores. It looked strange. Maybe she had some eye issue, we thought.

She was seen wearing goggles just like that for the next few days. We were curious, mommy sensed something wrong with her. We felt it was her personal matter.

One moment, mommy asked her if she was fine and needed to put on goggles like that. She responded, said, her eyes were hurting for some reason.

The next day we spotted a bruise-like mark on her cheekbone. It was kinda shocking. She tried to smile in front of us. We also didn’t feel the need to interrupt her personal life, which I feel was the biggest mistake from our end.

Mommy discovered the man as a terrible human as he would beat his wife every day and night. She was living in hell with fake smiles all over her face.

I could not spend time with her as I had started working in India, I would just see her when I visited home.

After a few months of their stay in our house, mommy asked the man to leave the place as she didn’t find him the right fit.

The couple left the house and started living somewhere nearby. Later, I heard they built their own house.

Just two days ago, I woke up to the news that shook me to the core.

That didi (sister) who was married to a devil committed suicide leaving her two young daughters in nothingness.

I turned cold. I felt dejected. I felt disgusted. More than that, I felt shameful. I felt extremely regretful for that young lady who was well educated, married to the man she loved, had two beautiful daughters. But gave up on her life leaving the kids in a void.

She was silently struggling with domestic violence and we, so-called evolved human beings, couldn’t help her out.

She never sought help from anyone and those who wanted to raise voice against that man, backed off thinking the man is a devil and could harm them as well.

The lady was forced to commit suicide. She went, but left a loud laugh at this so-called modern society. Indeed a sharp slap on our faces.

This three-month lockdown has left countless women to die. And we are helpless with multiple layers of shame.

PS: The blog was first published on Facebook

Originally published at https://leenachitwan.com on June 14, 2020.