Shakil Ahamed:
Recently,I was heading to join an invitation on the occasion of birth of a newborn baby. On the way, I heard a woman’s voice screaming and trying to get off her husband as she was being beaten up by her husband. I turned around, quickly rushed to spot if I could be of any assistance to settle down the couple. Reaching over there what I discovered was quite inexplicable! She had bruises in her eyes and marks of being tortured were clearly visible. At that very moment, I noticed their six years old bdaughter was trying to stop her father from beating her mom and was screaming saying ” Please somebody save my mom!”. When I went close to them, they stopped seeing my presence and started calling each othernames. What surprised me a lot that I found the victim was pregnant. How on earth someone can be violent towards his pregnant wife while she needs care and affection at this crucial period! The man who was beating his wife posses great social importance, is respected by common folks, but when he gets home he starts making fuss over some issues, most allegedly over dowry. I had no authority to interfere over that as the neighbours of them think it is daily habit of the couple and they are used to with it.
What really made me concerned was that the six year old girl is growing up watching such scenarios Will she really be able to bear such a traumatizing childhood? She is likely to be traumatized and end up hating her parents when she is fully grown up. And what about the unborn baby who is about to see the nasty world and its cruelty?
Then I joined the invitation party with the thought of that incident. I noticed most of the invited guests were wishing the baby good luck, prayed for his better future.
I started gazing at the baby boy and he giggled. When I was leaving the party, I just wished the boy,” Be whatever you want to become in future, just don’t be violent to your wife, children and parents because they mean everything to you”.
#Stop Domestic Violence.
The writer is a student of National University, Bangladesh