No to abuse

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1 year ago

Jane sat motionlessly staring at the cloud. The bruises she got from yesterday's beating had turned purple. She could hardly see with one eye as it was swollen. The deep untreated cut on her chin was evident. Her whole body was plastered with purple bruises.

She had been living in an abusive marriage for years. Everyone told her to hold on. She was told that her husband would change. She just needed to exercise a little patience. She was also afraid of being tagged a divorcee. The society would not look nicely at her if she left the marriage. She was also afraid of the bad image that would follow her daughter. People would treat her child as a product of a broken home. The society she lived in saw a divorcee as a plague especially if it were a woman.

She looked at her daughter who was playing in the compound. Her child had been through a lot of trauma. At the little age of five, she had watched her father beat her mother countless times. Most nights, she was awaken by the cries of her mother being battered by her drunk father. Jane knew the psychological trauma her child was going through. She was also growingtired of going to the chapel everyday to say prayers for her abusive husband to change. She began to rethink her life.

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What was she teaching her daughter. That violence is good? That she is meant to be abused? No. For her sake and for the sake of her child, she had to leave. It doesn't matter if accusing fingers are pointed at her. It doesn't matter what people would say. Isn't it better for her to be criticized for leaving her marriage than people to cry justice over her dead body?

Image from GoogleImage from GoogleImage from Google

It was time to be her own person. To be happy for once in her life. A time of realisation that one cannot fix an abuser. A time to put her mental health as well as that of her daughter first. It shouldn't matter what people would say. After all, the people that kept telling her to stay were never there to comfort her. Marriage is not meant for suffering and no amount of sugarcoating should justify abuse.

She called out to her daughter, "sweetie, go inside and pack your bags. We are traveling".

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1 year ago

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