In recent months, state news media have reported on some cases of murder of husbands by women.
The most shocking thing is that his wife murdered a man in Jaipur. The couple had disagreements with their five children over most of their 25-year marriage. Their children and neighbors witnessed the battle and aggression. In the early years, the husband beat his wife. Five years ago, his wife, who was 42, started working in a clothing factory and developed a relationship with young businessmen. She quit her family and housework. The husband opposed his wife's new friend and she brought her into the family circle as a brother.
One day, the husband found them and faced his wife, which led to a dispute, and his wife and the young man killed him. They wrapped their bodies in bed sheets and drove to the suburbs of the city on their bikes, where they burned their bodies.
Police were alerted when a local man found a semi-burning body, known as the Emergency Hotline. CCTV footage showed the couple transporting the body and being arrested. The 10-year-old daughter said the last thing her mother told her was: “I've had enough of your father. That's why I killed him.”
In March, in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh, a man was murdered by his wife and her lover. His dismembered body was sealed inside a plastic drum filled with cement. The man recently worked from London where he worked. The couple got married in 2016 and lived with a five-year-old daughter for the past three years.
In the same month, two weeks after her marriage, a 22-year-old woman hired a contract killer to murder her husband in Auraiya, Uttar Pradesh. She has been in a relationship with a man for four years. Her parents disapprove of the relationship and forced her to marry another man.
In April, a woman in the Madhya Pradesh Berhanpur region was allegedly killed by her husband with the help of her lover, and then videos were taken to show him his blood-soaked body.
Are these extreme violence and criminal events new? Probably not. Such violent cases may occur but are not covered in the media, especially social media. With better technology, such crimes can be easier to record and report. Now, women are also likely to commit such crimes timidly.
For decades, intimate partner violence (IPV) has been primarily from male to female. But it has been changing, reporting that women are violent against men. When women leave their homes and enter the workforce or become entrepreneurs, they become more confident economically and socially. In marriage, family and family places, women are top priority, and many are now questioning this. They were unhappy and felt trapped.
Natasha Bhardwaj is a criminologist whose research focuses on the impact of gender on crime. “These murder measures are not only crimes of passion; they are often crimes of trouble,” she said.
“Many of these women have no way out. Divorce is impossible, leaving is impossible, abuse is ruthless. For them, murder is not about power or control, because it is usually when a man kills his wife. It is about escaping.”
Escape is also a way to resolve the anger that women feel.
Researchers Olivia Metcalf and David Forbes suggest women get angry a lot. They link women’s anger to trauma and regard anger as an important emotion for a harmonious society functioning, motivating us to address personal, social and systemic injustice. Therefore, anger is normal and adaptable, which is a threat to typical traumatic events, powerlessness, injustice and betrayal.
“Men and women do not have a good service to the gender socialization they receive,” said Sandra P. Thomas, the lead researcher for female anger.
Thomas conducted a study on women’s anger, a large-scale survey involving 535 women aged 25 to 66 years old. Anger, she said, is a confusing and painful emotion that is combined with hurt and pain. It is based on interpersonal interactions, making women feel deprived of power or resources, treated unjustly, or others are irresponsible for their actions. The criminals are the closest they come to.
How do we deal with women’s anger? Researchers believe that recognizing, paying attention and respecting women’s anger is crucial to eliminating cultural dynamics that inhibit women’s emotional power. By actively seeking women’s anger, understanding their sources, and listening to their experiences, we can develop an environment that values and validates women’s emotions.
Media is a powerful tool to influence people of all ages, helping by reporting and portraying women’s anger and portraying women as multidimensional creatures that express anger while transcending vulnerability. Most media images portray women as imitating men in violence and criminal activities or among victims.
We may see more criminal activity by women against men and vice versa. The growing violence in the media can ask people what they can kill. A desire for another possibility of life and media descriptions are attractive to men and women. Whether this kind of life is real or not has nothing to do with it. They will not have any incarceration or stop them.
Murder is the only way for the desperate people.
The author is a development and communication consultant
