Ahmedabad: Relatives of an 18-year-old woman were taken aback when her father placed a sandalwood garland on her picture and lit an earthen lamp near it — signs usually associated with honouring the dead. A counsellor of the Abhayam service said the man wanted to signal that his daughter was dead to him because he believed she had eloped.The man posted the picture on his social media, stoking a flood of shaken, confused reactions. Rattled, the woman called Abhayam women’s helpline.“The woman said that her father was furious when she left home,” a counsellor said. “She has been staying with her mother at her maternal uncle’s home for some time. Her father, however, imagined she had eloped with a youth she loves.”The counsellor said her father had become so “paranoid that he had stopped her from attending college.”The helpline counsellors outlined the troubled family circumstances of the woman. “Her parents had fallen in love and had married about 19 years ago,” the counsellor said. “The woman’s mother claims that her husband had hidden his earlier marriage from her when they married.”Over time, the counsellor said, the man became violent. “He began to accuse his wife of having an extramarital affair,” the counsellor said.The daughter also became a victim of his violence. “He beat his daughter when he learned about her relationship,” the counsellor said. “The woman says she has no intention of marrying as she wants to build her career first. But she said that the father’s behaviour compelled her to rebel.”The helpline counsellors intervened before the ‘condolence’ meeting could be held. Abhayam personnel counselled the father, mother, and daughter. “The woman has refused to be with her father, saying that if he could do what he did, he ceases to be her father. She has decided to stay at her maternal uncle’s home with her mother and pursue studies.”
