A sapling is Abhaya, fearless, to burst out from its cocoon of silence to the poetry of a full blown tree. This is a compilation of twenty one such expressions.

Abhaya, Breaking the Silence, is a collection of gasps and involuntary cries. It is an anthology of creative expressions by twenty one Indian women. These are recollections of repressed hurt and affronts, stories of survival, essays of perseverance, and spontaneous poetry from silenced voices. The women writers speak out about various forms and degrees of sexual harassment that they or someone they know have had to live through without assuming orbit around these indignations.

These are voices of early insights and old wisdom, of arrows of chaos jutting out of deceptive calm, and of the baffling contradictions of familiar people and places. This is a tribute to the woman’s spirit that continues being exemplary mothers, sisters, wives, friends and daughters despite the frequent indignities.

The contributors are from all walks of life: doctors, scientists, journalists, poets, management professionals, educationists, and academics. The aim of the anthology is to offer a peep into the harsh ground realities and generate awareness. Truth is, for crimes against women to stop, we must sensitise our sons, brothers, fathers, and husbands with the right stories, and nurture in our daughters, the audacity of bold defiance.