Since 2015, more than 11,000 women married to Indians abroad have approached India’s foreign missions with complaints of domestic crises. Many cases involve allegations of fraud and abuse. But in most instances, overseas officials are able to do only so much to help.

Violence against women is legitimized by social norms, beliefs and institutions.

A FEW WISPS OF HAIRT
The morality police arrested Mahsa Amini, who also went by the name Jina, on September 13 for a violation of Iran’s strict hijab laws. Some hair was visible under her headscarf. Three days later she died in hospital, allegedly from being beaten in custody.

It was the tragic death by suicide that has laid bare the daily trauma of the three sisters from a landless household married to an affluent family with demands for dowry from impoverished parents.