Count yourself lucky if your husband pampers you and showers you with loads of love and affection because life is the opposite for Nneka, whose husband has virtually turned her into a punching bag.
Nneka’s case is one of hundreds of thousands of women who endure untold torture in the hands of their husbands. Her story…
I have been married to Joel for a few years now, but nothing has gone according to plan. A marriage for me should be heaven—it should be filled with dreams that make one not want to ever wake up. However, things are exact opposite of what I wished for as a child. Every dream I had about a happy home has now vanished into thin air all because of a bully called Joel.
That’s the problem with bride price…a man pays up with all his savings, your parents hand you over to him in the name of tradition, and years later you become his slave. Exactly what my life is at the moment; a nightmare as my husband has turned me into a slave. Each time Joel throws in the punch straight at my face, he yells at me—screaming and coursing my parents for making him waste his savings all in the name of a bride price.
He not only hits me whenever there is an issue, he also yells insults at me even in the public—dear Lord, what kind of a marriage is this? I have lost my dignity as a woman as I no longer have the courage to talk or contribute when visitors come to our home to pay us a visit. The last time I tried lending my voice to a discussion, I got a beating of my life as soon as the visitors left.
The beating I can endure, the cheating I also can ensure; but dear Lord not when he keeps calling me a barren woman who can’t conceive a child in her womb. Joel and I have not been able to have a child since we got married. While doctors attribute this to no one’s fault; my husband disagrees and instead continues to rain insults on my person and my family. How can we even have a child when he rarely touches me and has even moved into one of the two rooms in the flat? Joel now has a son from another woman; yes, the man now has a baby boy.
I wanted to leave, but tradition demands that my parents return the bride price as well as other things Joel brought when he came to ask for my hand in marriage. My parents are capable, but won’t do that because they say there is no room for me in the house. As if he wanted me to die, my dad has vowed to disown me as his child if I packed my things and leave Joel’s house.
Joel may not have asked me to leave his house yet, but his body language suggests he wants me out of his house. To buttress his point and drive home his message, my husband now comes home with the woman that recently bore him a child.
After reading my story, would you still say it’s not a man’s world?
Now that was some hell of a story from a woman whose dream of a happy marriage has now been shattered by a man that was supposed to be her husband…
The end.
Though, Nneka didn’t state exactly when the problem started or what she did to her husband before things got to this stage; it is obvious that a lot of women go through hell in their homes.
In naked pains of abused women, our desire is to draw attention to the plight of women all over the world. You can also share your story with the rest of the world. We guarantee your privacy, and will not reveal your true identity if that is what you want.