Women as Chattel: The Saga Continues

A woman in Kerala has won a divorce from her husband after she found out that she was artificially inseminated with her sister-in-law's husband's sperm and the fertilized egg was transferred from her womb to her sister-in-law (the victim's husband's sister) who had been trying unsuccessfully to have children. As an aside, the victim's husband had apparently been harassing her for dowry.

Digested that?

As far as her husband's family was concerned, she was nothing but a piece of property they owned, a fruit tree which they saw nothing wrong in harvesting. No thought as to her feelings, her sense of being, her moral authority over her body. And all this, to help a daughter of the family, a status to which the victim should have had equal rights to, if not more. Not to excuse the husband's behaviour, but men folk may not comprehend the sense of violation the victim felt. But the women? What was the sister-in-law thinking? What was the mother-in-law thinking?

I have felt for a long time now, that women, more so than men, are responsible for the dredges in which women wallow in our societies. Mothers-in-law forget that once upon a time, they too were daughters-in-law (Kabhi Saas Bhi Bahu Thi). They forget that their daughters will one day be daughters-in-law. Sisters-in-law forget that the daughters-in-law are the ones that now care for their parents. Women in high positions in society forget the struggles they went through that younger women face as they build a career and manage their families. The thought is: "I went through it, so you do too." Not: "I went through it, and so I will spare you that pain."

Who knows, if the victim had been treated properly, if she had been made to feel part of the family and not a dowry vehicle, she may have even agreed to donate her egg to her infertile sister-in-law.

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