Gokul Sreedhar’s Post Celebrating His Mom’s Remarriage Is A Slap To The Stigma Around Older Women Remarrying

Gokul Sreedhar’s Facebook post celebrating his mother’s second marriage is a slap to society’s taboo against older women looking for love.

India is a country where society is not very accepting of a woman remarrying. We often see cases where women are forced to stay in abusive marriages because “what will people say”. On top of this, society makes it miserable for the ones who dare to come out of an unhappy marriage.

“Iska chatira acha nahi hoga, pati ko khush nahi rakhti hogi to pati marega hi na” (Her character is not decent, it’s logical for a husband to beat up his wife if she can’t make him happy). Comments like these are pretty commonly flung at women who leave their husbands primarily because of domestic abuse.

Gokul Sreedhar, a young man from Kerala, posted recently on Facebook (in Malayalam) celebrating his mother’s remarriage. He wrote that he had been debating whether to write about it or not, especially because remarriage is still a taboo in this country.

He wrote of how his mother had faced a lot of domestic abuse in her first marriage. How she had to still stay in it because of societal pressures and for the sake of her child. Sreedhar also mentioned that the day his mother decided to move out of the abusive marriage was the day he decided that he will help her get remarried.

In his post, he urged readers not to look with at his mother remarrying with hatred or contempt because his mother is “too old to get married”. He also mentioned that even if they do, he couldn’t care less.

There is nothing wrong in remarrying

In our society marriage is a social compulsion, but remarriage is taboo! Strange, right? Gopal Sreedhar with his post has given a very inspiring and empowering message. Something that our flawed society needs to understand. Romance and marriage for older people are not quite what society approves of. Our society needs to learn that there is nothing wrong with a woman remarrying for her happiness.

Giving women the freedom to choose their life partner irrespective of their age is what we need to do as a society. There is nothing wrong with looking for a new beginning and a fresh start to a relationship.

After all if two people can find companionship, satisfaction and have fun in old age, why shouldn’t they marry? And yes, no one should have a problem with that.

Image credits Gokul Sreedhar

Nishtha Pandey

I read, I write, I dream and search for the silver lining in my life.

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