In 2008, Manjula Datta O’Connor was working as a psychiatrist in private practice in Melbourne’s CBD, generally seeing lots of corporate clients, when one day a “highly distressed” Indian student arrived for an appointment. The woman told O’Connor she had a “dowry problem”: her husband and his sister-in-law were denigrating her for not giving enough dowry, wanting more cash and to control her income. When she refused, “this led to violence, verbal abuse, and castigation”.
Soon, O’Connor had a run of Indian women – possibly reflecting increased numbers of overseas students arriving in Australia – presenting with similar stories.
