Manjula Datta O'Connor est psychiatre clinicienne et présidente du Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Family Violence Psychiatry Network. Elle s'intéresse particulièrement aux expériences de santé mentale des femmes migrantes touchées par la violence familiale. Elle soutient les femmes dans sa pratique clinique depuis trois décennies.

Son nouveau livre, "Filles de Durga", s'appuie sur ses recherches et son expérience clinique. Il présente aux lecteurs les complexités de la violence familiale vécue par les femmes migrantes sud-asiatiques en Australie, en mettant l'accent sur les femmes indiennes.

"Filles de Durga" déballe le contexte historique des rôles de genre dans la société indienne sous les lois Manusmriti. Le Manusmriti, l'ancien texte juridique de l'Inde, énonce les lois, les droits, les devoirs, les vertus et la conduite. Écrit au cours du premier siècle de notre ère, il a redéfini les femmes indiennes. Autrefois forts et intrépides, ils ont été requalifiés de créatures dépendantes et soumises. Cet idéal de femmes soumises a persisté tout au long de l'histoire de l'Inde, bien qu'à des degrés divers.

Manusmriti a été écrit par la caste la plus élevée pour la caste la plus élevée. La colonisation britannique a introduit plusieurs réformes juridiques, y compris l'application universelle de Mansumriti à toutes les castes. Destinée à l'origine à préserver la pureté de la caste la plus élevée, la Manusmriti est devenue une loi rigide qui sapait l'égalité des sexes pour toutes les femmes indiennes.

Migrants indiens en Australie

"Daughters of Durga" examine de manière critique l'influence du changement social au fil du temps sur le statut inférieur des femmes. Il décrit comment les femmes indiennes se sont organisées pour résister aux effets de la domination coloniale britannique. Datta O'Connor s'inspire particulièrement des expériences de femmes instruites qui ont recherché l'égalité dans leurs relations et de meilleures opportunités pour leurs familles en Australie.

Le livre plante le décor en décrivant la vie des femmes en Inde et de celles qui migrent vers l'Australie. Après le Royaume-Uni, l'Australie est le pays qui compte la plus grande population de migrants indiens, qui représentent actuellement 2,8 % de la population totale de l'Australie. Les Indiens représentent également environ 15% de la population étudiante internationale des universités australiennes et environ 20% du programme australien de visas pour migrants qualifiés.

Les femmes, les hommes et les familles indiennes forment donc une partie importante de la population multiculturelle de l'Australie. Il est essentiel pour l'Australie de mieux comprendre les expériences des femmes indiennes qui émigrent en Australie.

Abus de dot et filles dévalorisées

Datta O'Connor déballe le contexte culturel de la dot - la somme d'argent ou les actifs censés être apportés dans un mariage par une épouse indienne. Elle examine également les hypothèses sous-jacentes qui font de la dot un outil potentiel d'abus continu.

Dans la culture indienne, les filles ont moins de valeur que les fils. 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.