Families Who Hide The True Nature Of Their Men Are Responsible For The Violence Against Women That Follows

This thought often crosses my mind. Whenever a man commits a crime against a woman, much before that he has already shown the signs of that criminal instinct within his family.

Each one of us carries a Pandora’s Box. And we are told – never ever to open it. Why?

Because the box hides the dirtiest secrets of the family, and those around you. You are told that it is your ‘honour’ to let these secrets remain hidden, an abusive husband target practicing his manhood on his wife, or an uncle raping his niece.

Let family matters remain in the family, don’t do dirty laundry in public. Hold tight the lid on that Box if we want to save our marriages, save family, and honour.

A family always knows its men

This thought often crosses my mind. Whenever a man commits a crime against a woman, much before that he has already shown the signs of that criminal instinct within his family. What if, then and there his family, his mother, sisters had shunned him? What if the moment he had committed that sin outside, he was first boycotted by his family? Don’t you think it would have made at least an iota of difference to his shameless fetish for more crimes?

But because we hold on to that Pandora box, and offer him a safe sanctuary after he has sinned, he grows stronger every time. Somewhere we are equally responsible for the lawlessness of these hoodlums. Like the mother of one of the accused in the Nirbhaya case, who still hoped that her son will be let off.

In Greek mythology, when Prometheus stole fire from heaven, Zeus, the king of the gods punished him by sending Pandora to his brother. Pandora opens a box, which was strictly forbidden not to be opened. She was the Christian equivalent of Eve. Out of curiosity, she opens the lid of the box and all the evils of the world fly out.

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But what remains inside the box is – Hope.

Pandora is blamed forever for her curiosity. But in my eyes, she was brave who dared to confront the problems rather than hide them in the closet. Like we should be of our women, instead of suppressing their voices.

Image source: a still from the film Provoked

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