Women’s Slavery Exists in St. Mary’s Immigrant Communities
ST. MARY’S TODAY
GREAT MILLS --- “Even if I hit her, what’s wrong? She is my wife,” the 63-year-old-man from India yelled on the phone. “An Indian wife would never call police on her husband,” Rajendra C. Solomon, 63, a PhD in electrical engineering who works for the top Mitre Corporation at the navy base, declared
In the same vein, he repeatedly accused her of having phone and web sex with her boyfriend.
The wife Vinaya Solomon, 41, got tired of every day abuse and beatings and found sanctuary at the Angel’s Home in Hughesville more than two months ago. She landed on U.S. soil on May 15, 2006, but the routine beatings and abuse were too much to bear and left her husband's home three-and-half months later.
“For 15 days, he was okay. There was no problem. After that the problems started,” Vinaya said. "He started the abuse."
The estranged couple spoke with ST. MARY'S TODAY Saturday evening, the wife in person and the man yelling on the phone.
“You have slept with thousands of men, he kept on abusing me” she said. “He was having lots of suspicions that I had boyfriends.”
The husband told ST. MARY’S TODAY, “It’s not domestic abuse. She’s my wife and I love her very dearly. There was a misunderstanding. It just happened on the spur ofthe moment, abuse or whatever.”
Officers at the St. Mary’s sheriff’s department confirmed that wife beating is common among newly arrived immigrants, and the situation was specially grim among undocumented Hispanic immigrants where the females have no English language skills, neither jobs outside the homes.
“I just married her on the internet without knowing her. I love her very much.
I will make her my queen,” Solomon said.
What Vinaya had to say about her new life in the U.S. could be any queen’s nightmare, however. “He was hitting and slapping me all the time,” she said
Suspecting her of having web sex, Vinaya said Solomon blocked her emails and ordered all email by her should be copied to him.
Once previously married, Vinaya was delighted when Solomon and family came to visit her in India’s commercial capital of Mumbai, the commercial capital of India.
Vinaya confirmed she met Solomon on an Indian matchmaking web site called www.shadee.com that translates into marriage.com.
One thing was not honest from the very beginning. She said he had lied to her about his age saying he was 51, when he was actually 61. “That was a typo,” Solomon said.
Just 15 days after her arrival on May 18, 2006 her ordeal began and continued for more than three months before her tormentor was arrested and she could sanctuary at Angel’s Watch.
“He was throwing my clothes out of the apartment. One night he locked me out of the apartment and left for work by locking the door. That was the first time I called police,” she said. That happened in July.
But since the man had not violated any law, he could not be booked. “After that he was even more angry with me,” Vinaya said. “‘You came for the money’ he told me.”
She said at one point he struck her with a bottle of brandy. On the night of August 29, things went out of control as the man held her down on the bed. “He started to punch me on the head.”
She somehow escaped from the clutches of her tormentor and called the police. As she sat in the police car, the officer came and asked her “Where’s the knife?” Vinaya said the man later admitted to the police he had harmed by cutting his wrists and blaming her for the wounds. “He wanted to send me to jail and deported to India.”
The last hearing was held on 26th October. But since she could not understand the accent the judge the hearing has been put off until someone who speaks her native language “Kannada” is found.
She fears that the husband has probably destroyed her Green card.
Solomon appeared shedding crocodile tears denying he was demanding money from Vinaya’s family. “I will say they are liars,” he said he would say in case anyone charged him for being greedy.
“That was the first time in my life that happened,” he said about his attack of August 29. “It was the first and last time. I am a PhD in electrical engineering.”
“Of course I will never do it again,” he said.
He said when he first met her on the Internet she sounded to be a nice person “and she is still a nice person.” He said he was very happy. “I hopped into the airplane. I trusted her blindly.”
He insists that before he boarded the airplane, he told his wife that she was 22 years younger than him. “You are too young for me. Are sure you want to marry me?” he insists Vinaya replied, “Come along. I love you, I want to marry you.
He said it was absolutely a big mistake that he physically abused his wife. “I am very sorry about it."
He said he spent $30,000. “I bought jewelry for her for $10,000. I even supported her in Mumbai for one-and-half years.
“I gave her new life in Mumbai. She brought police on me. Shame on her,” he said “No Indian wife would do that.”
He accused Vinaya of being very strong headed.
“But still I love her. I cried for her for one month I could not eat I could not sleep. Day and night I thought about her future.”
Solomon said, “I don’t think she will ever come back. I don’t think she loves me. Maybe she just used me to come to America,” he said.
Solomon wants Vinaya to forgive him. “I know it’s hard to forgive,” he said.
When you want to come back, we will have a new life
I want her back. She’s my life. She’s my pet.
He said, “I had been brainwashed. I was told that way. I kept on refusing. I had been brainwashed that she was emailing her boyfriend in
India, which I did not believe.”
But then changes his tone, from one of apology to that of rage.
“What will you do if your wife comes and tells you she have a boyfriend with whom she exchanges triple-X sex messages. You stupid reporter tell me what you will do? You will kill her. Muslims kill their wives,”
He alleged Vinaya told him she lived with that man for two years. “She told me about her boyfriend. She told everything about him,” he said in the manner of a jilted lover.
Solomon said, “She used to show the mail exchanges to my sister. He may be a family friend, my sister might have misunderstood,” he said “But she told me ‘What kind of woman you married? She has a boyfriend in India.”
But he again repeated Vinaya was having web and phone sex with her boyfriend.
“For three months she tortured me. She abused me for three months. She used me. You are so stupid (for questioning me). She was hurting me, my feelings were destroyed. My soul was destroyed.”
He said this was going on for three months, saying Vinaya was cheating on him.
Accusing her of having triple-X sex through the web.
He said Muslims kill their wives. “You damn fool reporter. Why did you ask me about abuse.”
He said no blood came out from Vinaya. “It was just a hand scuffle. If your wife told you she was having have phone sex, what will you do? You stupid reporter
Solomon has lived in the U.S.for 35 years.
