Amrita’s Story: Life of Women in Rural Sindh

I have nine siblings including five sisters and four brothers. Although all of us live in miserable and poor conditions, I am the most unfortunate among all. I got married at the age of fourteen in an extremely poor, illiterate, and horrible family. I don’t want to use such bad words for my in-laws, but they made life extremely difficult. I don’t how even how I am surviving after tolerating domestic violence regularly for almost 8 years.

My husband used to drink a lot at night every day; he used to spend all of his earnings on drinkings. Then he used to beat me every day for no reason, and sometimes he used to beat me secretly. I used to endure all of this silently because I have four children(two sons and daughters ) and had nowhere to go. My children were also very young at that time, and my parents are also too old to afford our expenses. Unfortunately, all brothers are very selfish so I could not think of going toward them.

One day I was cooking the meal at night; he came suddenly, and took the burning wood stick from the stove, and hit me with that until I fell unconscious.

The next day, my parent took me to the doctor and then to their home. I decided not to come back, and I stayed at my parents' home for two to three months. After that, I started feeling my burden on them so I took chance and return to his home. I found some changes in his behavior after that incident, and also he promised to never hit me again. Instead, he used to take my side whenever my inlaws used to taunt or say anything to me.

Still, he behaves strangely sometimes — I Can’t do anything about it.

What I hate most about him is not the fact that he used to beat me, but his decision to not allow my daughters to go to school. My daughters were studying until recently he stopped them going to school. I tried a lot to convince him; however, he is stuck to his decision. I wish I could change his mind ever.