Padma Vibhushan Mahasweta Devi, Indian social activist and writer releasing “Behind Closed Doors” in presence of Ms , author at an event held in Oxford Book Stores, .

Prof Susie Tharu, Professor Emeritus, Cultural Studies Department, English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad releasing “Behind Closed Doors” in presence of Ms Rinki Bhattacharya, author at an event held in Hyderabad In the NEWS

2 September 2004 Opening doors The malaise of domestic violence cuts across class barriers. Rinki Bhattacharya has demolished more than just the myth of domestic bliss with her book, “Behind Closed Doors”. USHA RAMAN speaks to the author lifting the veil of darkness. AFTER MORE than 20 years of listening to and academic approaches. “While there is Dispelling myths women share their experiences of domestic no longer that silence or disbelief that once The book, she hopes, will dispel some of violence, after collecting many “powerful, surrounded the issue, there is still very little the “myths” about domestic violence and moving stories” from victims who needed support for women who face violence within empower more women to break the silence. to share and find belief, and after making the home,” she says. “There is still so much “Many women think violence is something her own way out of an abusive relationship, sanctity attached to marriage.” that happens only among the working Rinki Bhattacharya decided class,” she says. “So there’s a that a book needed to be lot of denial that women in upper written to break the myths classes go through before they about the “silent crime” of see that they too are victims.” domestic violence. When talking to poorer women, Rinki Roy Bhattacharya, Rinki found that even they thought ex-wife of the late Basu that women in well-to-do families Bhattacharya and daughter would never have to deal with of noted filmmaker Bimal domestic violence. But with Roy, knows how to wield the education and wealth also comes power of the written word. isolation, and women rarely Through a regular column connect what is happening to in ’s Mid-Day them with the notion of crime. In newspaper, she repeatedly addition, “educated” women also dealt with the issue of feel a greater sense of shame that violence against women. keeps them from “coming out”. Documenting domestic Moreover, there is little social violence support for victims of domestic “But the media has its violence. In Rinki’s film, “Char limits. There’s only so Diwari”, one woman recounts much you can do through how no one in her Mumbai a column in a newspaper,” chawl responded to her screams she says. “So I started because they all thought it was a collecting the stories, `gharelu mamla’. documenting everything Long way to go I heard and saw about “We’ve definitely made progress domestic violence.” It was in over the 20-odd years that I have the mid-1980s that the idea been working in the area, but we of putting these stories into are still not geared up to provide a book came to her. She a good safety net for the majority sent in her manuscript to a Author Rinki Bhattacharya... some light on shrouded deeds. of abused women,” notes Rinki. well-known publisher, who Photo: K. Ramesh Babu. Groups such as Nirmala Niketan initially reacted favourably. and Nari Kendra in Mumbai, Many months later, they changed their Statistics bear that out. A cross-cultural Sakshi in Delhi, Vimochana in Bangalore minds and returned her document, “totally study conducted in 2002 by a U.S.-based and Asmita in Hyderabad have made a mutilated”. “But I’m a documentarist at research group in collaboration with Indian difference to some women. Police are more heart, so I kept at it, writing and recording,” researchers found that two out of every five sensitive, the special Crimes Against Women she says. women in remain silent about abuse (CAW) cells have helped to some extent. And almost two decades later, Sage because of shame and family honour. India But not enough. “Where is the visibility for Publications decided to publish these oral had one of the highest rates of domestic such issues in the public environment?” histories in an edited volume titled “Behind violence in the world, with and estimated asks Rinki. Rinki feels that we need to Closed Doors” dealing with domestic 45 per cent of Indian women reporting some educate women more about the possibility violence in India. “The book is in a sense form of abuse. Of the women reporting of such violence. “I was really pleased when a sequel to a film I made in the 1990s,” violence, 50 per cent were kicked, beaten a woman picked up my book, telling me says Rinki. “There’s been an overwhelming or hit when pregnant. About 74.8 per cent she wanted her young daughters to read it response to it across audience segments.” of the women who reported violence have and understand that this could happen to The narratives of battered women are attempted to commit suicide. anyone,” says Rinki. interspersed in the book with essays by scholars and activists, combining journalistic 30 May 2004

Can you beat that? Writer, columnist and documentary filmmaker Rinki Bhattacharya has edited an anthology on domestic violence. She should know. She’s been there Satish Nandgaonkar interviews the ex-wife of late director Twenty years is a long time to wait for catharsis. erupted. “He began screaming at me. That was Those were difficult days, for many refused to But cathartic is how Rinki Bhattacharya describes perhaps the beginning of the abusive behaviour.” believe her. But Bhattacharya tends to recall the the experience of awaiting the release of her new As Bhattacharya coped with the changes in her support that she got from different quarters — book — and her volcanic act of angst — on life — moving from a liberal well-to-do family from psychiatrist-turned-actor Mohan Agashe, domestic violence next week. “With this book, I filmmaker Satyajit Ray and actor Smita Patil. want to give it (her past) a decent burial,” says “Dr Agashe gave me tips on how to deal with a much-mellowed Bhattacharya — writer, Basu’s anger. Manikda wrote me a sympathetic columnist and documentary filmmaker. For after letter after he read the Manushi interview. Smita 18 years of physical and verbal abuse from her Patil publicly refused to share any forum with husband, and 20 years after she first spoke about Basu,” she recalls. it in an explosive interview — bringing domestic As she emerged out of her own shadow, she violence out of the closet — she is ready to lay began to collect books on domestic violence, her ghosts to rest. increase her involvement with the Women’s The former wife of filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya Centre and help other women in distress with was among the first high-profile women to a helpline for battered women. “Women are in speak out about domestic abuse. Her account constant denial. Many women think suffering was carried in a 1984 interview with senior MOVING ON: Rinki Bhattacharya at is their fate and they internalise it. Unless the journalist Madhu Kishwar in Manushi. The her Bandra home. victim tries to reach out herself, we cannot help,” interview brought to the fore the ugly side of Photo: Gajanan Dudhalkar she says. Bhattacharya, one of ace director ’s Bhattacharya has also produced a documentary promising associates and maker of sensitive into a one-room chawl and becoming a wife and — titled Chaar Diwari (Within Four Walls) — films such as the National Award-winningTeesri mother — she began to discover a parallel face that record the testimonies of domestic violence Kasam, and the trilogy, Anubhav, Avishkar and of her husband. There was, on the one hand, a survivors, exploring its psychological impact on Grihapravesh. sensitive and a creative side to the filmmaker women and children, the lack of legal recourse Rinki Bhattacharya has now edited an anthology whose films focused on strong women in search for women and the societal attitude of regarding on domestic violence, Behind Closed Doors – of an identity. And then there was the man who it more a “personal affair” than a social problem. Domestic Violence in India (Sage Publications, subjected his wife to frequent verbal and physical The book has been within her for long years. The Rs 295) which explores the various complex abuse. idea first came to her in 1984 when she began facets of what is called “the silent crime”. The For Bhattacharya, who was a part of her collecting personal stories of women victims of 234-page book includes interviews with women husband’s crew — helping in scripting, domestic abuse. Behind Closed Doors contains victims of domestic violence in different parts costumes, set and production design — the the raw testimonies of 17 such women. They of the country, apart from analytical articles anomaly was stark. “I think he was one of range from the story of Neela, whose husband by her youngest daughter Anwesha Arya, and the most talented directors. Coming from his dictated everything from which lipstick she should academics and writers such as Sobha Venkatesh background, what he achieved was great. But, wear to how the food should be served clockwise Ghosh, Kalindi Mazumdar and Shirin Kudchedkar. excessive abusiveness existed like a parallel on a plate, to Hansa who converted to Islam to For Bhattacharya, the book is a culmination of stream in him,” she says. legalise her bigamous marriage. “But I don’t a personal war against domestic violence which Rinki Bhattacharya put up with physical beatings want just battered women to read this book. began soon after her marriage. One of Bimal till 1982. One day, 22 years ago, when she was We have to try to explain the social structure Roy’s three daughters, Rinki was born in Calcutta writing an article in her room in their Bandra and contextualise the violence. We have data in a joint family. Her family moved to Mumbai bungalow, Gold Mist, her husband pounded on collected from the JJ Hospital to show the extent when she was nine years old after Bombay her bedroom door, demanding that it be opened. of domestic violence. I have not used academic Talkies hired Roy to direct a film. Rinki first met “No doors are going to be locked in this house,” language, to make the book more accessible to Basu Bhattacharya when he was assisting her he screamed. He grabbed her by her hair, pulled women,” she says. father for the film, Parakh. She was 17, and her into the bathroom and began lashing her Bhattacharya also believes that it is important to completely bowled over by Bhattacharya. So with a kimono belt. Rinki’s teenage son Aditya see men who abuse as victims. “You have to look much so that she eloped with him four years intervened and put a stop to the beating. “That at the abuser in a social context. Basu came from later. was when I realised how all this was affecting my a family where women had never gone to school “He was very charming and had a way with children,” she says. Bhattacharya decided that and wore a ghungat. When he met someone words. He would visit our house frequently for she was not going to take it anymore. The next who was city-bred and more sophisticated, he long chats with my mother. But my family was year, she filed for divorce and moved out (though didn’t how to deal with it. I have nothing against opposed to our affair. I left my house with just it was only in 1990 that the formal divorce came Basu. The poor man has suffered in his own two saris when I married Basu,” recalls Rinki, through). way,” she says. reclining on a sofa in her pleasantly decorated Why hadn’t she filed for divorce earlier? After her husband’s death six years ago and the Bandra house. A painting of Bimal Roy hangs “Because I had no independent source of marriage of all three of her children, Bhattacharya on one of the walls. A number of framed posters livelihood,” she replies. I was writing columns has moved out of the bungalow they shared for of Roy’s women-centric films like Bandini and for a couple of newspapers but that was not two decades, and now lives by herself in a flat Sujata adorn the walls sharing space with his sufficient for survival. Besides, filing for divorce in Bandra. With the publication of this book, she classic, Do Bigha Zameen. is a trauma. Family members would tell me to wants to move away from domestic violence and Now 62, and a grandmother, Rinki speaks about give marriage another try and I was hesitant explore other issues. She is now compiling a book her experience of domestic violence without to go to court.” on eminent women who share their experiences bitterness. “It began soon after my marriage. “When I realised that this was not my life, I of motherhood. Kamala Das, Shashi Deshpande, My son Aditya was three months old and was decided to talk about it. Talking works like Mallika Sarabhai, Neela Bhagwat are some of very ill. Basu stepped out of the house to buy therapy,” she asserts. She started going to the the women who will feature in her new project. medicine, and for seven hours there was no sign Women’s Centre to discuss what was till then “It is out of my system now. The book has cleared of this man. I was crying, thinking something had a guilty secret. “I got so much support from my mind for other work,” she stresses. The happened to him. He came back at 9 pm with the centre that I joined as a volunteer there,” catharsis is complete. no medicine,” she recalls. The shocked mother she says. asked her husband where he had been and he 20 June 2004 the times of india A Voice against Violence Her face is an autumn composition, the 20 years... trapped in abusive relationships... and golden brown eyes only hint at the pain It was only when her young son Aditya those of us who escaped...’, has 17 once endured. Even as her book, Behind rushed in to protect his mother from being chilling narratives, culled from a host Closed Doors - Domestic Violence in brutalised, that the path ahead suddenly of case studies, about women linked by India, painstakingly put together over became suffused with light. The seeds of a common thread of suffering, some of two decades, was launched last week at rebellion were planted in that moment. whom take positive action. The stories Mumbai’s Crossword Book Store by Union “Most women justify domestic violence range from the one about Hansa whose minister Sunil Dutt, with readings by Dr in their minds, seeing themselves as less foetus was damaged by her husband Shirin Kudchekar, Mahabanoo Mody- than ‘perfect’ wives” she says quietly, sitting on her stomach and beating her Kotwal and others; the primary feeling “They remain in abusive relationships for up, to the inspiring one about Sarla was one of relief. A catharsis of sorts decades without knowing how to cope, or whose parents, unlike many other Indian had taken place. how to escape. There’s also the question parents, stood firmly by their daughter It is a coming of age for Rinki Bhattacharya of ‘family honour’, and the undeniable in her survival struggle, and helped her - zealous activist, writer and filmmaker, fact that wife-beating in our country has become independent. daughter of the illustrious Bimal Roy, and social sanction!” The book, besides chronicling these victim of domestic violence. Nothing in She adds, “Women in situations like records, is also an invaluable source of her carefree childhood had prepared her these desperately need protection from information for students and scholars for the physically and verbally abusive injury, food, shelter and advice. I was no of social work and gender studies. The relationship that she entered into with different from these women...” Except chapters on ‘Police Attitudes and Women’ the late filmmaker Basu Bhattacharya, that Rinki Bhattacharya was a fighter. by Kalindi Mazumdar and ‘Devi: The who was once an assistant director on the Over the next 15 years, through her Disempowered Goddess’ by Anwesha sets of her father’s film Parakh. columns, her documentary film Char Arya (Rinki’s daughter), are powerful Wife and mother of three children, who Diwari which recorded testimonies of and moving. got into the habit of locking herself in survivors and examined the psychological In its barest essence, the book is a voice an inner room, to pore over a diary that impact of violence on children, through that resonates with clarity in a muffled, her trembling fingers could not write in, the crisis hotline she founded, Rinki vulnerable universe. Rinki found herself curiously paralysed has chipped away steadily at society’s when it came to protecting herself, or regressive attitudes that leave women (Mini Chandran-Kurian) taking proactive steps. Consequently, she with so little choice. stayed trapped in the situation for nearly Her book, aptly dedicated to ‘women

8 June 2004

Wailing Wives experiences,” informed an emotionally- If you were a man, you felt miserable charged Bhattacharya. “This is not an there. The launch of Rinki Bhattacharya’s enjoyable, but a compulsive reading.” acclaimed book Behind Closed Doors: Union Sports and youth affairs minister, Domestic Violence in India at Crossword, Sunil Dutt, looking younger in jeans and Kemps Corner on Saturday brought out blue shirt, made the mood lighter. Dutt, some unpleasant truths. who had once stalked Maharani Gayatri As theatre persons-Mahabanoo Mody Devi in Delhi for hours “because she Kotwal, Jayanti Bhatia and Sagar Arya the most beautiful women I had ever – read poignant tales of battered wives seen”, counselled women: “Be self- (Aruna, Karuna…), the predominantly reliant so that you can kick out the man women audience cursed the wife if he tortures you. That’s what I told my beaters. “Two decades ago I suffered this daughter too.” violence. I asked 17 others women who had gone through this hell to share their 4 June 2004 Out in the open Shakespeare certainly did not have the studied daringly, in detail. The lower and Says Bhattacharya, “Whichever section Indian domestic-violence scenario in mind middle-class have served as founder of the of society they belong to, women face the while working on his Taming of the Shrew. book’s full-baked arguments. Contributions worst when they lodge a First Information Also he perhaps hadn’t even anticipated from names like Kalindi Mazumdar, Sobha Report (FIR). High time they care for legal that the wife-beating would see more Venkatesh Ghosh, Malvika Karlekar and awareness, at least the Indian Penal Code criminal versions in centuries to come. Madhu Kishwar assure that the book can (IPC) and Property Rights.” Only to make feminists roar in defense become a handbook for anti-patriarchal The book loaded with socio-political and compile books worldwide. high-head-edness prevalent in the Indian demography violence venues — the And had he read Rinki Bhattacharya’s society. chardiwari being one — has many Behind Closed Doors, Domestic Violence Says Bhattacharya, “The idea behind characters to it. Where on one hand it in India, he would have surely sobbed. A compiling the works of these experts is would be a favourite with debaters, it has book, little about short-cut divorce cases to provide a rather comprehensive study strong properties to make “silent” victims and more about the continuing abused of the domestic-violence problem. Like open up. With several Hindustani naari relationships and painful escapes in India. others contributing this book, I have also characters, the book will be of interest to Heavy in authenticity, with papers and been involved with domestic-violence foreigners too. excerpts from “dependable and reliable victims for several years. There are various Something like the “evolution” of the Indian women activist,” as Bhattacharya puts dimensions to the problem in our country, women from Durga or Kali, or the female it, this book has been strategically depending on social, political and domestic mentioned in Manusmriti , might irritate packaged. It comes from the top-rung factors. The book makes these known, mature Indian readers. But it will be liked of women-rights activists, whose works and louder.” by those who know little about the problem have found space here in chapters and While other taken the burden of posing background. anecdotes — a result of decades of direct as researchers, Bhattacharya herself has Fortunately the book doesn’t really dealing with domestic-violence victims. settled down with some direct narratives engage in loud male bashing. Women Theories, arguments and observations are from victims. “Only a few from among the instigating domestic violence on women strongly Indian. But one cannot claim that 500 women” she spoke with. The book are troubled with glaring attention. Even Bhattacharya’s motive is to pose domestic has done good to the Indian female by the former Government has been criticized violence as a global phenomenon. mentioning that even the customary slaps for its “faulty” Bills and Amendments. Bedrooms, drawing rooms and police and kicks are violence. Ironically, most of Bhattacharya reverts, “How about some stations have been peeped into the the narratives however defy this agenda women-shining now?” of its activists.

20 June 2004 About the hell that is marriage Rema Nagarajan YOU’VE HEARD it often enough. Domestic violence cuts across joint account with all the money within easy access of the all classes. In Behind Closed Doors—Domestic Violence man; spending all your salary on the family while he stashes in India it’s the narratives of women who were battered by away his or transfers all the property to his name; or making the men they loved that are compelling. It is depressing but a joint investment in his name. Sounds cynical? Read about unputdownable. Or it could just be the vile curiosity of the those who found out the hard way and you won’t shrug this next-door-aunty-type in me. advice off easily. There are a couple of chapters before and after the narratives The book has it all — rape within a marriage, manipulation giving an extensive analysis of the problem and providing using children, branding of a woman as insane. The college sociological explanations on everything from the phenomenon lecturers, womens’ rights activist, maids, the ones who of “unwanted” female children to measures being attempted to converted to Islam to marry the already married man they tackle the problem. While these are interesting, nothing brings loved, a woman rejected by her husband when she was home the point better than the narratives. For those with stars in her 60s after being married for 42 years—they are all in their eyes about love and marriage this is a must. It gives there. Most found peace and dignity only after getting out crucial and commonsense pointers about never keeping a of the relationship. 30 May 2004

Author opens doors on domestic violence On the eve of the launch of her book Behind Closed Doors: Domestic Violence in India, activist Rinki Bhattacharya throws light upon this crucial, yet neglected, issue. You’ve pointed out in the introduction that Who will lobby for a law on these issues when society violence against women inside the home is in denial? Also, the system is too complicated. Even is not unique to Indian culture. But how with laws, women would prefer to keep quite about such do you think it’s different in India, vis- violence. They face so much brutality in court and at the à-vis other country? hands of their families and the police. Domestic violence Domestic violence victims are linked is seen as a non-issue, a ghar ka mamla at best. by factors of commonness rather than How, according to you, can domestic violence difference. These women feel isolated, against women be curbed? they’ve been brainwashed into believing that they’re responsible for the violence It can’t be stopped. Women have to seek help inflicted on them. They’re likely to keep themselves. Let’s not underestimate the resources mum about it and suffer alone, form women have to live a dignified life, be it education or a deep sense of shame. sheer strength of character. Also, grassroot changes must take place as far as attitudes to women and the girl Do you stand by the legal child are concerned. Honour killings, which is an extreme definition of domestic form of domestic violence, are now more common in violence in India (section India than they were previously. Clearly, that is not a s498 of the Indian Panel good sign. Code), which centres around cruelty, or do You have been a victim of domestic violence you think it excludes yourself. Has writing this book been a cathartic bigger problem experience? areas then it Yes, definitely. I think this is something I just had to do, includes? and now I feel I can move onto other kinds of writing, I stand by the maybe fiction. law, but it is an The book does not touch upon male victims of outdated law. domestic violence. Comment. The fact is that It’s because men are not victims of such violence. There the law which is a book being written by a man who believes that it is should have been only men who suffer from domestic violence, but I don’t implemented by believe that. If men are victims of domestic violence, it’s now is hanging in a negligible number of men. Also, men are not victims a state of suspension of continuous, long and repeated domestic violence, because it’s very like women are. controvercial. There is no law regarding marital rape either. As far as lows Behind Closed Doors: for violence against Domestic Violence in India women are concerned, Edited by Rinki Bhattacharya do you think there is a reluctance on part of SAGE, pp 232 the Indian government Rs 295 to lobby for or implement them? 6 June 2006 Speaking out on abuse The play Katy lack the sharpness of its literacy version in Rinki Bhattacharya’s book Behind Closed Doors: Domestic Violence in India, but nevertheless manages to convey the message

One of the most eminent critics Lacking the sharpness of a text written row in front of me was offering a quicker in the city, Shanta Gokhale for the stage, it hung loose and sagged solution to the problem than the legal will separate the best from the in parts, despite the director’s and actor’s process. “She should have hit the man banal on Mumbai’s best efforts. back,” she muttered. “These buggers are But once the audience began asking cowards. Give them a pasting and they culturescape each fall in line.” week questions, it became clear why Flavia Agnes, head of Majlis’s legal cell, had chosen Katy I thought of Champa in ’s itting in the Indian over the other stories in Bhattacharya’s Sakharam Binder. She walks out on her Merchants Chamber book for this event. In the auditorium sat sexually abusive husband and thrashes Sauditorium on young women lawyers from Majlis’s District the daylights out of him when he comes Sunday morning, Lawyer’s Initiative. Their question revealed grovelling back. What a hungama that listening to Katy’s a subtle bias against Katy. Where was the pasting had causes. Ban the play, the story unfold on the problem in a live-in relationship, they asked. moralists had screamed. But the law small, functional With no children, owning a flat, financially had stood by the play and it went on to stage, I was a independent and unshackled by the sanctity become a hit! child again, of marriage, wasn’t Katy in a position to There are very few Champas in real life, overhearing a dear aunt sob on my mother’s shoulder, “I can’t take the beating any more”. Years later at age 10, putting that despairing cry together with the badly bruised arm she has tried so hard to hide under her pallu, I came to the horrified conclusion that the jolly man I fondly called uncle Uddi, was not so jolly at home; that uncles in specious apartments in Cumballa Hill beat their wives just as brutally as Gopal in his hut across the road. Katy is one of 17 first-person narrative of physically abused women in Rinki Bhattacharya’s book, Behind Closed Flavia Agnes chose the play Katy to inaugurate Majlis’s sixteenth Doors: Domestic Violence in India. Unlike anniversary celebrations the remaining 16, it is not the story of an abused wife but an abused live-in partner. throw out her abuse any time she chose? more Katys. Financially independent and So the reason why Majlis had chosen this Why did she tolerate eight years of abuse professionally successful though she is, rather unrepresentative story to inaugurate before doing it? Katy is as psychologically paralysed as a its celebration of 16 years of making justice Stepping into the space created by these dependent wife would be in an abusive accessible to woman, wasn’t immediately doubts, Flavia questioned the mindset marriage. It takes a women years to realise obvious. that lay behind them. An abused woman that she has done nothing to deserve Directed by Sheeba Chhada and enacted is an abused woman, she said. Who are abuse; that when her tormentor apologises by Puja, Katy fell a little short as theatre. we to judge? Katy’s story offered her the after each violent episode, promising that The trouble lay with the text. Written as opportunity to broaden the audience’s it will never happen again, she must not a personal narrative meant to be read, viewpoint to include all women. Doing believe him, because it Will happen, again it meandered nostalgically through the this was important, for Majlis believes and again. Even after the woman comes to narrator’s childhood, home environment that offering emotional support to abused a full understanding of her situation, she and happy first relationship with a married women is as much part of a lawyer’s work needs more time to find the will to act. The man, before coming to the second as providing legal aid. day she does, she frees herself from within. relationship that had turned abusive. Meanwhile, a middle-aged woman in the She is now ready to take charge of her life. Daily News 29 October 2004 Colombo Rights violations behind ‘closed doors’ For the ones who think of discrimination – a clear proof of what the status quo is and barbaric control, a male dominated against women as an imaginary exercise, in relation to women’s place in society. socialization process laying much, the book ‘Behind Closed Doors’ woven The nerve – wracking experiences if emphasis on patriarchal values, facilitates around domestic violence in India, edited seventeen Indian women – all of whom and fortifies what is now termed as silent by Rinki Bhattacharya, and published have dared socio/cultural barriers in crime. Sad but interesting are the varied by SAGE Publications India (Pvt) Ltd, is coming out and confessing the horrendous myths and stereotypes that justify women ample proof. crimes inflicted on them, is exemplary and deserving subordination and inferior The stress, strain, agony status. The narratives and strife women go also bring out – the very through in their day to high degree of patience day lives is evidence in and tolerance on the the narratives presented part of women who in the book where women even choose to deny the themselves speak out existence of violence – their innermost private so evidence in them not lives putting ‘masculinity’ even reporting such to the to shame – seemingly a relevant authorities. situation which finds it’s Nevertheless the parallel in Sri Lanka – the profiles reveal the vast only difference being that magnitude of emotional the Lankan women goes strength embedded in through similar trauma – such women as they truly behind closed doors, pluck enough courage sheerly out of fear, shame and fortitude to put back and prestige loss. their lives’ broken pieces Significantly among and fight to venture out the women that were into destinies unknown. harassed as clearly Though numerous indicated in the book, international conventions were those that tied the are ratified, all such nuptial knots with sons of still await entry into the educated and well to do domestic legal framework parents who themselves of many countries. collaborated with their Violence against women sons in harassing their has thus found social wives. licensing as it were, as they go through the Interestingly, a book ordeal with none to listen of this nature cannot to their tales of woe. be reviewed without reference to the local Noteworthy are the domestic scene. measures taken by Indian Noteworthy is the marked women to fight such increase in Sri Lanka’s brutality and horror. For divorce statistics, unlike instance, HELP is ready earlier. But that’s it. at hand – a hotline for women in distress. Nothing goes beyond. No victim of violence to be noted by women outside India as speaks of the scars left behind and if she well. This apart, many social workers and does its just one rare instance. So a book women’s groups dedicated to the cause of the like of ‘Behind Closed Doors’ cannot The intensely patriarchal system one could of their kind places India ahead of other be even dreamt of in our country. Dowry observe as being mainly instrumental in countries that are yet to reach that monies, land, women’s intellect and male gender crimes. milespost in fighting for women victims prejudices are among a whole host of what The devaluation, subordination and of violence. invited men into harassing their women mistreatment of women, their brutal