In India, Rapist's Wife Faces Harsh Judge: Tradition (Wall Street Journal)
“Akshay Kumar Singh and three other men were convicted this month of a crime that focused the world’s attention on violence against women in India: the gang rape and killing of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus in December.
“For the parents of the woman who died, the sentencing brought a measure of closure. For [his wife] Ms. Devi, who is in her 20s, and her 2-year-old son, her husband’s crime and punishment have opened up a chapter of profound uncertainty.
“Ms. Devi expects to be cast out by her in-laws and face ostracism and destitution here in India's conservative hinterland—not because she is married to a convicted murderer, but because she is a woman without a ‘As a widow, my honor will be lost forever,’ she says.
“Her husband’s relatives say they can’t afford to feed her. Her parents say they are too poor to take her back. The customs of purdah practiced in the region make it almost impossible for her to work outside the home.
“‘I am not educated. Our traditions are such that I cannot even step out of the house,’ Ms. Devi said. ‘Who will earn money to feed me and my son?’
“In the village where Ms. Devi lives in eastern Bihar state with her husband’s family, women are kept veiled and largely secluded. They can’t leave home without a male relative. Ms. Devi must wait until dark simply to go into the field behind her house to defecate.
“‘A woman going out for work is not in our tradition,’ says Vinay Singh, Mr. Singh’s older brother. Ms. Devi’s mother-in-law, Malati Devi, is blunter. ‘In our family, women die at home. They never venture outside,’ she says.
“Such attitudes may seem out of character in a country that had its first female prime minister, Indira Gandhi, in the 1960s, and that today boasts high-profile women politicians and executives. But India's countryside, home to nearly 70% of its 1.2 billion people, can be a stifling place, where women live highly circumscribed lives and lack freedoms their urban, middle-class counterparts are starting to enjoy.”
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