By Philip George and Geetha K.

MY father hadn’t spent the majority of his savings on his only daughter’s marriage for her to be at the receiving end of a man’s temper and violence. Growing up, I’d had enough exposure to know what the toxic combination of alcohol and prejudicial social customs was capable of in Indian societies, and it hurt to see my educated sister unable to assert herself. I only returned to England without harming my sister’s abuser because Shanta confessed she felt there was still hope of reconciliation. It would take a few more years of suffering before she would get a divorce, at the core of which, I suspect, was her fear of stigma.