Imagine being an eighteen-year-old girl, meeting a stranger twice, and being told that you are to get married to him. Picture that the dreams she had cultivated of care and companionship are shattered on the very first night of the marriage when she is subjected to verbal and sexual assault from the man that had vowed to love and protect her just a few hours prior. Every night, she faces a new ordeal, from being forced to mimic pornographic videos to forcibly having a candle or flashlight inserted into her vagina. If she complains to her family, they advise her to “try and adjust.” If she complains to the police, they rebuke her and tell her to be grateful that her husband is coming home to her instead of visiting a brothel. And when she tries to take her woes to the Supreme Court, they tell her that she is bringing a personal claim, not a public concern and as such, they cannot change the law for one person. This is the unfortunate reality for countless Indian women living among the culture of arranged marriages and remaining legally unprotected from the realities of marital rape.
Krina Patel