My Favorite Thing About America Is The Divorce Rate And I Mean That Sincerely

My favorite thing about America is the divorce rate. & I mean that sincerely.

— Arnessa (@Rrrrnessa) September 7, 2016

 In my usual morning chore of digging through Twitter, I stumbled upon the above tweet and was stunned at first. I mean, what? Divorce rate? Why would someone be happy about broken marriages, couples getting separated? But then I followed the thread. Arnessa goes on to make you believe why the divorce matters and how women are treated in most parts of the world. Although she keeps most of her discussion around immigrant communities, I would like to remind people how the tale is same in most parts of India and other developing nations as well. The more and more women are not educated, the more pathetic their lives. By education I don’t mean the knowledge to read and write but general awareness about their right, equal say in marriage etc..

It was high time somebody spoke it how it was ought to be. Following are the text of short and crisp tweets Arnessa tweeted that will put you to think the society we all inhabit in. My only request to all readers is, help any women you find experiencing domestic abuse, educate her of her rights. Try to motivate her to live on her own. Tell them tales of the women who have done it; Arnessa herself!

I’m also exhausted at immigrants who brag about how the divorce rate is so much lower back home as if it is an accomplishment.

The reason divorce rates “back home” are so low is because of societal expectations that force women to stay with their husbands.

Lack of access to domestic abuse assistance, stigma surrounding single motherhood, lack of financial independence all contribute to this.

“Our parents/grandparents stayed together no matter how hard it go”. Your grandpa used to beat your grandma and she stayed b/c she had to.

Women got beat, cheated on, used for physical and emotional labor….trust me, they would have wanted to leave had they been able to.

Even now in immigrant communities in the Diaspora the stigma around divorced women is so high that they end up staying in abusive marriages.

Divorce rates got higher in the U.S because it got easier for women to leave. When that happens back home our divorce rates will rise too.

The romanticized idea of women staying with their husbands “no matter what” is so damaging, toxic, and abusive.

I remember talking to this old Bosnian woman and her telling me about her life in the village. She had a 60 year long marriage with 7 kids.

Everyone looked at that as “goals” but she told me the day her in-laws passed away & husband passed away was the best day of her life.

She was abused emotionally & physically. Did all the labor in the house and on the farm. Raised the kids. Her husband? A cheating alcoholic.

When I asked her why she didn’t leave she said “where would I go? Back then if you got divorced you were discarded from society”.

With no money of their own and multiple kids, women stayed in these marriages only because they had to.

Those “family values” people talk about missing were built entirely on the abuse and fear of women.

Spare me the “ha ha ha America has such a high divorce rate and we don’t”. We don’t get to brag about it when our women are forced to stay.

Not every one of those long marriages was abusive. My grandparents have been together for 50+ years and had a very healthy marriage.

But there are exceptions to every rule. The standard was and in many places (back home) still is….abusive marriages.

I get a lot of crap for being a divorced single Muslim mother and honestly the stigma is totally worth the freedom I get.

Obviously not getting married in the first place instead of getting a divorce would be a better option. Right?

But for women like me, for women “back home” marriage is an expectation. Religiously, societally, and family wise too.

Not to mention that for many immigrant women marriage is the only “out” they have…they think it will provide freedom.

The amount of young Muslim girls that I personally know that got married only to escape their abusive parents is absurd.

But when marriage is your only choice and then that marriage becomes abusive too…what do you do? Get a divorce…if you can.

And if you can’t get a divorce…well then you’re stuck. You’re now burdened with a lifetime of abusive.

None of that is romantic. None of it is “relationship goals”. We should be striving to provide safety to all women.

Safety from abusive families. Safety from abusive spouses. Safety from societal pressure to get married and stay married.

Tweets published above are done so after taking prior permission from Arnessa. You can find her on Twitter here.

 

Thanks for reading my story. Do share with your friends if you liked what you just read. It means a lot to me and helps other people to discover it :)