<Trigger warning: Mentions of marital rape. Reader discretion advised.>
I did not know that was marital rape – until I knew better. 'And when you know better, you do better', as Maya Angelou famously said. In my case, I want to 'do better' by talking about my lived experience, especially at a time when India still (infuriatingly) does not label marital rape as 'rape'.
I was in my mid-twenties when I met my ex-husband through common friends. After three years of dating, we got married. And nine years later, we were divorced when my child was four.
Trouble began within the first few months of our marriage. I lived with my husband and my in-laws.
It started with minor quibbles between us, then disagreements between the in-laws and me, and before I knew it, that house became a place that drove me to depression.