Alicia Afshar

Brooks Institute

During an argument one night, Maria's ex-husband started beating and choking her. Elizabeth, Maria's daughter, who was 4 years old at the time, walked into the room while her mother was being choked. Maria told her daughter to leave. "He was telling me, 'Oh, it's good that you tell her to go away, because she doesn’t want to see how I'm gonna kill you.' My daughter ran to the woman renting the room next door and said, 'My dad is gonna kill my ma.' Then the lady called the police, and the police came and took him," she says. A hole was left in hte wall where Maria's husband slammed her head, and that was enough evidence for the police to take him away. "People alone cannot change. If they don’t get help, they're going to do the same thing again and again," Maria says. His mother paid his bail the next day, and he was released from jail. A few month later, Maria got back together with her husband because her children cried, saying they missed their dad. She has chosen to let her voice be heard in an effort to prevent innocent women and children from sharing her pain. "When you have hope and when you believe in yourself, life is going to change, and you're going to have a better future," Maria says. This piece explores the question as to why these women return to their abusers, and why we care for those that hurt us.