I am a housewife belonging to a middle class family. I couldn’t complete my education due to my father’s death at an early age. I got married to a man saying that he would love me a lot and respect me. I thought I would have my own little world where I would have my husband, my children and my in-laws. I thought that they would love me and fill the void that I had in my heart due to losing my father but reality was totally different.
My in laws thought that they brought a maid to their house who would handle the household chores and treated me like that. They tortured me not just physically but mentally also, by passing taunts about not bringing dowry from my poor mother’s home. My brother and sister-in law told me not to come often to my own home which my late father built for his wife and children and I have the right to live there as well.
I miss my father a lot. The last advice that he gave me while being on his deathbed was to always stay strong and stand for my rights but I feel sorry for him that I couldn’t do it. My children whom I kept in my womb for nine months don’t respect me at all, they feel ashamed of making me meet their English-speaking friends and my husband has forgotten that he has a wife. I am no more than a piece of furniture in my home. I feel like a punching bag whom everyone use whenever they are frustrated or angry. You read it right. These words show the pain in the heart of a typical middle class housewife who got married at an early age because of family pressure.
Nobody asked her about her will and she didn’t utter even a single word because she was taught from her childhood to never question her family. But it’s high time that we start recognising the value of a housewife and give her the same respect that a male bread earner of a family gets. She is the real CEO of her household without whom the household and its members can’t survive even a day. She should voice it out openly if she feels that she is neglected and treated badly by others rather than tolerating it. She should start thinking about her happiness.
When needed, she should be ready to become goddess ‘kaali’ for those people who torture her and give them the taste of their own medicine. She should stop playing a victim in her life now. If she wants, she can continue her dream of pursuing a career even now, she can complete her education and she can even leave her abusive husband and start a new life. It’s totally alright if she takes a stand for herself and she starts thinking about her own life. She shouldn’t feel that she is a bad mother or a bad wife. Not at all!
She entered in this life alone and she will leave this world alone so isn’t it right if she thinks about herself? Isn’t it right if she leaves an abusive husband? Then why we often blame her and call her a divorcee? Why we start looking at her in an ugly and strange way? Why we make sure that we realise her that she is alone? It’s high time that we change our mentality and become her strong support. So, It Is my appeal to all those women who tolerate any kind of torture and abusive relationships to take inspiration from goddess ‘Kaali’ and fight with all the monsters in their lives. “There is nothing wrong in thinking about yourself, a woman doesn’t need to be a goddess of sacrifice every time”. It’s high time that she herself takes a stand for her rights rather than waiting for someone else to stand for her and fight for her. And all the women should take a pledge to think about their happiness without feeling guilty at all!