Wailing of the Womb: Witness the Night

A mother’s womb is a safe place for an unborn child as it provides a completely protected and insulated environment to the foetus. But today, in our technology-dominated society, the most secure and comfortable place, the protective cocoon – the womb – has become a place of misery for the woman-child. The smashed womb is no longer a sanctuary for the unborn child, as it belongs to a society that is starved for sons. With reference to Kishwar Desai's novel Witness to the Night (2010), this paper focuses on the forms of violence that women are subjected to even in the womb: female feticide and infanticide. It delves deeper into the inherent patriarchal beliefs in individuals’ minds, the open and hidden types of aggression that result from societal gender norms, and reveals how we collectively support violence based on gender.

Keywords: Gender-based Violence, Patriarchy, Dogma, Foeticide, Infanticide