Why single?

Parsiana and its readers are obsessed with the pros and cons of intermarriage. But where is the discussion on why 30 percent of Zoroastrians in Bombay are single?

And what’s being done to study the reasons why this is happening and the steps that need to be taken to counter this?

We may be Parsis, but there is still a culture of parental interference, domination, intimidation, violence and persecution of women within patriarchal families – a tradition that can be handed down from generation to generation without ridicule or obstruction. Many of these families are also nurturing sissy boys, or mother’s little brats who never grow up.

In this day and age, when the woman has to be wife, mother, bread earner and family support person, the burden of emotional and physical torment makes it impossible to fulfill all the modern roles one has to carry out.

Emotional and physical abuse of women is punishable with jail sentences in the western world, so why not in India? These are criminal acts and should be punishable.

Encouraging women to report abuse, weed out these unsocial elements now, or we will see the 30 percent figure of unmarrieds rise to 50 and then it will be too late to reverse the trend.

NINA BHAVNAGRI

New South Wales, Australia