Manjula Datta O'Connor é psiquiatra clínica e presidente da Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Family Violence Psychiatry Network. Ela tem um interesse particular nas experiências de saúde mental de mulheres migrantes afetadas pela violência familiar. Ela tem apoiado mulheres em sua prática clínica nas últimas três décadas.
Seu novo livro, "Daughters of Durga", baseia-se em sua pesquisa e experiência clínica. Apresenta aos leitores as complexidades da violência familiar vivida por mulheres migrantes do sul da Ásia na Austrália, com foco principal nas mulheres indianas.

"Filhas de Durga" desvenda o contexto histórico dos papéis de gênero na sociedade indiana sob as leis Manusmriti. O Manusmriti, antigo texto legal da Índia, estabelece leis, direitos, deveres, virtudes e conduta. Escrito durante o primeiro século dC, redefiniu as mulheres indianas. Antes fortes e destemidos, eles foram recaracterizados como criaturas dependentes e submissas. Esse ideal de mulheres submissas persistiu ao longo da história da Índia, embora em graus variados.

Manusmriti foi escrito pela casta mais alta para a casta mais alta. A colonização britânica introduziu várias reformas legais, incluindo a aplicação universal do Mansumriti a todas as castas. Originalmente destinado a preservar a pureza da casta mais alta, Manusmriti tornou-se uma lei rígida que minou a igualdade de gênero para todas as mulheres indianas.

Imigrantes indianos na Austrália

"Daughters of Durga" examina criticamente a influência da mudança social ao longo do tempo no status inferior das mulheres. Descreve como as mulheres da Índia se organizaram para resistir aos efeitos do domínio colonial britânico. Datta O'Connor se baseia particularmente nas experiências de mulheres instruídas que buscaram igualdade em seus relacionamentos e melhores oportunidades para suas famílias na Austrália.

O livro define o cenário descrevendo a vida das mulheres na Índia e aquelas que migram para a Austrália. Depois do Reino Unido, a Austrália é o país com a maior população de migrantes indianos, que atualmente representam 2,8% da população total da Austrália. Os indianos também representam cerca de 15% da população de estudantes universitários internacionais da Austrália e cerca de 20% do programa de vistos de imigrantes qualificados da Austrália.

Mulheres, homens e famílias indianos, portanto, formam uma parte significativa da população multicultural da Austrália. É fundamental para a Austrália entender melhor as experiências das mulheres indianas que migram para a Austrália.

Abuso do dote e filhas desvalorizadas

Datta O'Connor descompacta o contexto cultural dos dotes - a quantidade de dinheiro ou bens que se espera que sejam trazidos para um casamento por uma noiva indiana. Ela também examina as suposições subjacentes que tornam os dotes uma ferramenta potencial de abuso contínuo.

Na cultura indiana, as filhas são menos valorizadas do que os filhos. É provável que os pais obtenham ganhos financeiros significativos com o casamento de um filho, enquanto os pais de uma filha começam a poupar durante a infância para poderem pagar o casamento e o casamento. "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.