Brief case histories of women survivors of violence

Abstract

Jagori’s experience in counselling and interventions in gender violence reveals the multi-faceted character of aggression against women. Gender violence is often perceived to be synonymous with domestic violence, dowry, rape, and physical aggression. The case histories documented here bring to light the encompassing reach of violence subsuming within it caste, class, religion, sexual orientation. The six cases we highlight below once again reiterate that the executors of violence could well be located within families or outside in an unfamiliar domain; in fact domestic abuse and parents’ determination to safeguard their daughters’ ‘honour’ could sometimes make homes especially unsafe, especially when they may threaten to take away the lives of their very own.