The Children Who Prayed for Their Father to Die

Writer: Yugenrae

A woman was shouting helplessly as the man tightened her scarf around her neck, trying to strangle her while threatening to kill her if she refused to abort child. From the window their daughters watched, frozen and crying, as their mother was facing the violence. For countless people, domestic violence is not something they see in newspapers or documentaries because it is something that is part of their lives since childhood. I am one of them. Yes, that woman was my mother and that man was my father.

“For countless people, domestic violence is not something seen in newspapers or documentaries; it has been part of their lives since childhood.”

I have come from a house where man has the absolute authority, where he uses his power to abuse women, where he throws the plate on his wife, injuring her just because the meal did not taste good. I have come from a family where man uses the dirtiest language towards his wife, where she always compromises, because if she speak up, she fears to face abuse. I have come from a family where wife is beaten in public simply because she disagreed with him. I have come from a family where woman must endure all forms of violence because if she leaves the home, she has nowhere else to go.

“I have come from a family where man uses the dirtiest language towards his wife, where she needs to compromise, because if she speak up, she faces abuse.”

I have come from a family where children, even though they loved their father, prayed, “Oh God, let our father die.” I have come from a family where father instructs her daughters on how to behave well, giving reasons as, “If you get married and still you behave like this, your in-laws are going to beat you.”

“Oh God, let our father die.”

But the thing which disturbs me most is why my mother considers all this normal? why women never question this? Why they also teach their daughters to just, compromise?