When the police do not come, when the law is a distant rumour, when the house is no longer a shelter, what happens? The world assumes paralysis. It expects waiting. It is wrong. Women do not just wait for rescue. They become architects. They become engineers and builders of their own safety. They survey the dangerous landscape and draft blueprints with nothing but their wits and their will. This 16 Days of Activism, we must spotlight this relentless, ingenious work. This is n

We claim to value truth. We build monuments to justice. We teach our children to speak up. Yet when a woman speaks about her violation, a different machinery engages. Our first instinct is not belief. It is interrogation. We demand evidence where there can be none. We question her memory as if trauma files a perfect report. We scrutinise her character, her past, her tone. This is not a natural response. It is a learnt, cultural reflex. It is a defence mechanism for a social o

I once sat in a room and helped a man build a cage for his wife. I did not lift a hammer. I did not twist a wire. I simply listened. A friend, a man I respected, dissected his wife’s character over a low table. He listed her flaws as if reading a defective inventory. He critiqued her failures, her tone of voice, the very space she occupied in his world. We called it venting. We called it a private moment among men. We nodded. We offered him more tea. We changed the subject.