Domestic Violence to Maids

Few days ago I noticed that a lot of young girls from the lower class got married in an early age without getting the basic right of education. In a curiosity to know why do parents do that I got hold of the girls who got married before time and asked them several questions which led to their and their parents justification.

Shahzeen said “my first few months of marriage were the best time I have had spend in my life, but gradually every good in my life started to vanish and I became nothing more than a statue of sacrifices, in fact worse.” I know Shahzeen since 3 years when she started working at my place as a maid. The initial days of her working stage at my place started soon after her marriage which we all were aware of but never knew the reason why, until today.

            While I was stepping in the kitchen I bumped intp her by mistake and saw red bruises all over her neck while she was working. I was forced to ask her what was wrong but she kept refusing and saying that there was nothing wrong. Eventually, I dragged her to the point where she started crying like a little baby and told me that her husband beats her every night. Getting shocked at the fact, I was curious to know why he did so. She told me that she got married 3 years ago when she was only 16 years old. Her dream was to become a high class working women after acquiring proper education, which was thrown in the bin pushing her to stage of marriage. Poor Shahzeen, from that day till today is killing her dreams and herself gradually burning in this fire. She was forced to work by her in-laws because her husband Feroz, 34 years old, didn’t earn a living. He beats her every night because he is a drug addict, and Shahzeen failing to fulfill the want of more money for this purpose brings him to this point. Unfortunately, the only thing I could do after hearing her story was cry with her and let people know how some of the lower class girls are treated through this.

            After knowing what my maid had gone through I went up to my friends’ maids who were married. I found out that getting slapped by their husbands was as normal as drinking a glass of water. These maids named several other women facing the same issue. Some of them were so used to of this beating that they didn’t have a single tear in their eyes while delivering their sorrowful stories.

            Faiza (another maid) told me that one of the reasons for her husbands’ behavior was insecurity as she worked and earned a living whereas he didn’t. One of my friends’ maids, Zainab, told me that after several failed attempts to get saved from this torture by her own family, she tried to act brave once and went to the police station to launch a complaint against her husband. The looks and dirtiness in the eyes of the police man sickened her to run away back home and she made herself believe that the way she was living is the real life for her.

            God knows how many such girls are suffering from the same torture in this country. After going through all the research and investigation the thing I regretted the most was that there is no strict following of law in this country. At least, there should be some ‘dedicated’ group of human right activists especially for women to save them from this torture. Does being poor mean that all the rights of that person are snatched away anytime by superior people in the society? I hope one day the higher authorities think about them and make Pakistan a better place to live, not just for themselves BUT for these lower class people too.