The tragic news of sub-inspector Mary Rose’s death to suicide in Rahim Yar Khan broke the internet on Monday, making headlines. What was most shocking was how someone from a law enforcement agency, someone with power, succumbed to death over alleged domestic issues.
Shaken by the news, Urwa Hocane took to her social media handle to condemn the patriarchal society that stigmatizesdivorce and makes it difficult for even women in power, to live life on their own terms.
The Udaari actor pointed out how Rose chose “suicide over divorce.” Speaking up against the stigma around divorce, she wrote, “Female Sub-inspector Mary Rose commits suicide in Pakistan and from what I gather of the story, she chose suicide over divorce.”
Asking all the right questions, she looked to society and her followers for answers. “When are we going to stop stigmatisingdivorce and not cost a woman’s basic right to live and breathe with her own choice? Why aren’t we talking about this? What do we fear?” she asked as she raises her voice and awareness against women suffering in Pakistan. Every woman has a right to divorce and yet it is something that is a social taboo and unacceptable. So much so that eventually women have to take their own lives or keep suffering in the hands of their oppressors.
The questions she asks are the exact questions that we need to first ask ourselves and then everyone around us. That till when will divorce be a social stigma and women will be looked down upon and be ostracized over this matter.
Hocane has always been a strong pillar for women empowerment and has always stood up against violence and oppression when it comes to women. And we need such powerful personalities like her to not just stand up against all this but become a voice for all those women who are suffering yet can’t vocalize their own pain.
