In her article on ICN, Dr Astrid Lobo Gajiwala says:
My own reading of the questionnaire found two critical lacunae. As a woman functioning in an interfaith family for the past 25 years in a subcontinent where women form the anawim - or “poor ones” - vulnerable, exploited, marginalized, I felt excluded. I found no attempt to elicit information about the status of women in the family, a factor so crucial to the health of the family.
How can the family be a "domestic church" in countries like India when the birth of a girl is lamented and prevented? How can a daughter encounter Christ in the family when she is denied the same education and inheritance as her brother, and sold for a dowry? How is it possible for a mother to nurture a family when there is no food for her to eat, or her health is neglected because she is expendable?
With what integrity can one speak of responsible parenthood in a culture that makes a woman the property of her husband, to be used and abused as he pleases, bearing child after child without the resources to sustain life? What are the repercussions on a woman’s psychological and physical health when a husband demands sex irrespective of whether she wants it or not?
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