Jail for taunting wife to suicide
Bruce Loudon; 7/4/08
In a judgment that goes to the heart of India’s preoccupation with skin colour, the Supreme Court has sent a husband to jail for taunting his wife so much over her “dark complexion” she committed suicide. Syed Fathima got so distressed that, two months after her marriage to Farook Batcha, she drenched herself in kerosene and set herself alight, the court wastold. In a dying declaration as doctors fought to save her, she said that because of her dark complexion her husband did not like her and there were frequent fights over the issue. The court, in its historic ruling, held that ridiculing a wife by calling her “black” amounted to severe mental torture, and said such derogatory remarks in a marriage were worse than physical torture.
See; http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23494357-25837,00.html