Abused woman might be evicted...cheating partner wants her out

...cheating partner wants her out

A 39-year-old woman is now on the verge of being kicked out on the street by her common law husband. Andrea Brown* told THE STAR that her 10-year relationship has no hope of reconciliation, after her partner constantly abused and cheated on her and got another woman pregnant.

He is now demanding that she (Brown) leave the house to allow room for his new family.

"This is a man that, when I met him, he didn't have anything, no car, no assets, nothing. He used to walk and take bus to come look for me, until we both 'juggle' and reach somewhere and can afford certain things," Brown recalled. After five years of living apart, Brown's partner bought a house and asked her to move in, which she gladly did. She thought they would live happily ever after but things went sour.

"The relationship was not strong anymore, in terms of sex. He wanted sex every day and sometimes, because of my work, we only did it once per week. Sometimes it neva 'tun up' but I thought that was something we could easily fix. He didn't see it that way, and he went outside," she said. Soon, the emotional and physical abuse started.

similar reality

"One night I tried to prevent him from going out with the other woman and he fought me, tump me up in my back. I've never seen him like that," Brown shared. "Every time I tried to talk he would belittle me and make me feel stupid. It's like I wasn't a person." She wants to use her situation to help other women facing a similar reality.

"The moment you realise that a man wants to move on, allow him to go. Don't sit there and take the abuse. Right now I'm about to be evicted from my home with nowhere to go. Don't let that happen to you," she advised. But gender specialist and social activist, Glenda Simms, says that persons in common law unions are allotted certain rights similar to married couples, which Brown could explore to keep her home.

"No woman must put up with that kind of abuse, she is not the man's property," Simms said, adding, "We have been socialised to think that women were put in the world merely to produce children and to be at the beck and call of men. Until we realise that we have the ability to be whoever we want to be, with or without a man, then we will never overcome."

*name changed on request