Manjula Datta O'Connor è una psichiatra clinica e presidente del Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Family Violence Psychiatry Network. Ha un interesse particolare per le esperienze di salute mentale delle donne migranti colpite dalla violenza familiare. Da tre decenni sostiene le donne nella sua pratica clinica.

Il suo nuovo libro, "Le figlie di Durga", attinge alla sua ricerca e alla sua esperienza clinica. Introduce i lettori alla complessità della violenza familiare vissuta dalle donne migranti dell'Asia meridionale in Australia, con un focus primario sulle donne indiane.

"Figlie di Durga" svela il contesto storico dei ruoli di genere nella società indiana secondo le leggi Manusmriti. Il Manusmriti, l'antico testo giuridico indiano, stabilisce leggi, diritti, doveri, virtù e condotta. Scritto nel I secolo d.C., ha ridefinito le donne indiane. Una volta forti e senza paura, sono stati riqualificati come creature dipendenti e sottomesse. Questo ideale di donne sottomesse è persistito per tutta la storia dell'India, anche se in misura diversa.

Manusmriti è stato scritto dalla casta più alta per la casta più alta. La colonizzazione britannica ha introdotto diverse riforme legali, inclusa l'applicazione universale di Mansumriti a tutte le caste. Originariamente inteso a preservare la purezza della casta più alta, Manusmriti divenne una legge rigida che minò l'uguaglianza di genere per tutte le donne indiane.

Migranti indiani in Australia

"Figlie di Durga" esamina criticamente l'influenza del cambiamento sociale nel tempo sullo stato di inferiorità delle donne. Descrive come le donne dell'India si sono organizzate per resistere agli effetti del dominio coloniale britannico. Datta O'Connor attinge in particolare alle esperienze di donne istruite che hanno cercato l'uguaglianza nelle loro relazioni e migliori opportunità per le loro famiglie in Australia.

Il libro pone le basi descrivendo la vita delle donne in India e di coloro che emigrano in Australia. Dopo il Regno Unito, l'Australia è il paese con la più grande popolazione di migranti indiani, che attualmente costituiscono il 2,8% della popolazione totale dell'Australia. Gli indiani costituiscono anche circa il 15% della popolazione studentesca universitaria internazionale australiana e circa il 20% del programma di visti per migranti qualificati dell'Australia.

Le donne, gli uomini e le famiglie indiani costituiscono quindi una parte significativa della popolazione multiculturale australiana. È fondamentale per l'Australia comprendere meglio le esperienze delle donne indiane che migrano in Australia.

Abuso di dote e figlie svalutate

Datta O'Connor svela il contesto culturale delle doti:la quantità di denaro o beni che dovrebbe essere portata in matrimonio da una sposa indiana. She also examines the underlying assumptions that make dowries a potential tool of ongoing abuse.

In Indian culture, daughters are valued less than sons. Parents are likely to achieve significant financial gain from a son's marriage, whereas the parents of a daughter start saving during her childhood to be able to afford her wedding and marriage. "Daughters of Durga" describes how women's families are often solely responsible for wedding costs, including presents, garments, jewelry, and the different phases of the wedding ceremony and celebration.

Datta O'Connor notes that the families of many of the women she sees in her clinical practice acquired significant debts through this process. She helps the reader understand the complex nature of Indian marriages and the financial expectations placed on the bride and the bride's family during (and often well beyond) the wedding procedures. Contributing factors include India's patriarchal society and the reinforcement of gender stereotypes.

Dowries remain a common practice in Indian marriages, but the coercion of women and their families to make repeated dowry payments to the groom or his family after the wedding has been recognized as a form of family violence in Australia.

While family violence affects a large number of Indian women, Datta O'Connor reminds the reader that many grooms and their families do not engage in dowry-related abuse. "Daughters of Durga" criticizes the patriarchal system that enables men's violence against women, but it also describes men who are "benevolent patriarchs"—in other words, men who may be the final decision-makers in family matters, but do so without violence and coercion.

Increased education means increased risk of family violence

Many of the experiences described by Datta O'Connor are universal for those affected by family violence. As I have observed in my own research for over a decade, coercive control, financial abuse, and the negative impact of status incompatibility are common issues.

Throughout the book, Datta O'Connor investigates the status of women about to be married to an arranged partner. Modernization has generated greater access to education for women in India. Today's Indian women are better educated and wealthier than their mothers and grandmothers. Families increasingly invest in the education of their daughter to increase her desirability as a potential wife.

Many Indian women thus complete university degrees that set them up with future career and earning opportunities. Yet as soon as a woman is married, her potential career is traded for her role as a "good" wife and mother. For many Indian women, this means being subordinate to their husbands and in-laws and giving birth to at least one son—because sons promise prosperity, while daughters are a financial burden.

"Daughters of Durga" illustrates how increasing a woman's status through education also increases her risk of family violence. Many men—Indian and otherwise—continue to feel threatened by highly educated women with career prospects, particularly where these may exceed their own.

Educated women in India have a chance at gender equality in theory. But in practice a woman may still find herself trapped in a patriarchal relationship that reinforces her inferiority.

Devaluing women harms everyone

The reinforcement of societal values that regard daughters as worth less than sons harms the mental well-being of the whole family. Again, this is not restricted to the Indian community:Datta O'Connor's findings consider mental health costs associated with family violence more broadly.

Australia's hyper-masculine culture has contributed to men's mental health problems, including staggeringly high suicide rates among Australian men. "Daughters of Durga" empathetically explores how expectations of what it means to be a "real man" in Indian society similarly affect men's mental well-being and the functioning of their relationships.

Social pressure to be the dominating head of the family has contributed to the deteriorating mental health of modern Indian men who seek equal relationships with a female partner. So long as the culture promotes gender inequality, Indian men who try to break out of the "man box" (which prescribes male dominance, strength and power within intimate relationships) will be reminded that they have failed as men.

This comes on top of gender inequality's obvious cost to women. Family violence has detrimental short-term and long-term effects on women's mental health. Datta O'Connor's clinical practice and research highlight the devastating consequences of family violence for Indian women living in Australia.

Like many other advocates, Datta O'Connor argues that addressing men's violence against women at its roots —by improving social attitudes to gender equality—would reduce the costs associated with the recovery needs of women and children, and mental health support for men. This would not only improve individual well-being, but promote healthy, respectful and safe relationships.

Preventing violence against Indian women

"Daughters of Durga" makes a significant contribution to our understanding of domestic and family violence in multicultural Australia. It also adds to current conversations around educating the community and service providers about women's experiences of non-physical forms of abuse, such as coercive control.

Datta O'Connor clearly situates the culturally specific experiences of South Asian women experiencing family violence within a broader context of universal, cross-cultural experiences. She highlights the importance of a nuanced understanding of family violence that considers culture, migration and gender.

She concludes by reimagining the Manusmriti in a way that reflects gender equality and freedom from individual and structural violence for women.

Indian women have made significant progress towards empowerment and equality in recent decades. Until men join them on this journey, women's increasingly elevated status through education will remain a risk factor for family violence.

Indian societal expectations need to shift away from women being "good" and obedient wives and mothers in order to prevent men's violence against them. Men need to be expected to support gender equality by contributing to housework and childcare, and by supporting women's career opportunities and financial independence.

To achieve this, Datta O'Connor concludes, we need to educate boys and engage men as allies in the fight against family violence—and violence against women more broadly.