‘The Man Behind’: Anisha Had Her Family’s Support To Leave Her Abusive Marriage But Most Women Don’t. Will Things Ever Change?
Recently when I was watching the movie Ammu, I came across one of the most powerful scenes I have ever seen. It is the conversation between a daughter and her mother – where the former tells the latter that she was hit by her husband. The mother after questioning her daughter goes on to say that she also faced a similar situation and her mother asked her to quietly take the abuse – instead of fighting back. But she won’t be like her mother, and tells her that it is not okay to be abused in any form nor is it okay to take the abuse. This particular scene highlights the importance of having a family that supports you and gives you the strength to fight. And before you tell me real and reel life is different, let me give you an instance of a real-life woman, Anisha, who shared her story of an abusive marriage on Hauterrfly‘s The Man Behind and spoke about how it was her family that helped her come out of it.
Anisha got married to a man when she was just 18 years old. Back then, her parents and everyone around her told her not to get married, but she did not listen and went ahead with it. Within one week into the marriage, she realised that she had made a bad decision but thought that it would get better and so she stuck with it.
Also Read: Exclusive: Aishwarya Lekshmi Says She Hopes ‘Ammu’ Can Encourage People To Walk Out Of Abusive Relationships
In the first episode of The Man Behind, Anisha revealed how he was overtly possessive and when she started earning more than him, he used to get insecure. She even spoke about how he used to do drug and alcohol abuse and then would force himself on her in front of their daughter, Jessica. The last straw for her was when he physically abused one of Jessica’s friends.
After leaving him, Anisha went into depression because she was constantly scared of what he might do. It was during that time that she received a lot of support from her parents. Her parents took her in and tried to even get her out of depression. They gave her a sense of security that she never got. And it wasn’t just her parents, when she found love and married Ashwin, she received a lot of support from his family as well. His mother and father never judged her for being a divorcee and rather understood her.
Also Read: Shweta Tiwari Opens Up About Her Abusive Marriage With Raja Chaudhary And Her Daughter’s Reaction To It
Hear her story on The Man Behind:
Anisha is one of the few women who got immense support not just from her own parents but also from her new parents. It was the love and strength that the old and new family provided that gave her the strength to not just come out of it but also have a life.
Being in an abusive relationship and getting out of it is not easy, in fact, I’d say it is one of the worst places to be in. But having a family that stands by you and supports you, makes this easy. Having a family that doesn’t judge you and helps you out of it makes it easy. A supportive family gives a sense of safety and security like no one else. The woman knows that she can turn to them and that she has someone looking out for her. Isn’t that what we all want at the end of the day? Someone in our corner?Anisha
