“Women Are Meant for Sleeping With Their Husbands”: This Is Not Politics, This Is Patriarchal Violence

After winning the Thennela Panchayat ward by a wafer-thin margin of 47 votes, Saed Ali Majeed stood before his supporters and said this — publicly, unapologetically, and with power behind him:

“Women who come into families through marriage are not meant to be presented before strangers for a mere vote… They are meant for sleeping with their husbands.”

This is not political speech.
This is verbal violence.

In one sentence, Majeed reduced women to sexual objects, erased their political agency, and declared democracy a male-only arena. This was not said in anger or defeat. It was said in victory — which makes it infinitely more dangerous.

He went further. Targeting women who participate in politics, he issued a blunt ultimatum:

“Only those who have the guts to listen may enter this field. Otherwise, they should stay home as housewives.”

Read that again.
Politics, according to him, is a space where women must accept humiliation as the cost of entry. If they cannot endure being dragged, shamed, and sexually spoken about, they should lock themselves inside homes.

That is not free speech.
That is intimidation.

This is how patriarchy asserts control when it feels threatened — by normalising abuse, sexualising women’s presence, and framing dignity as weakness. It is a warning to every woman watching: enter politics and we will strip you publicly.

What makes this episode chilling is not just the content, but the confidence. A man who won with 666 votes spoke as if electoral victory gave him ownership over women’s bodies, choices, and roles. As if democracy is nothing more than a permission slip for men to dominate.

Do not be fooled by technicalities.
Yes, he resigned as CPM local secretary before contesting as an independent. That does not erase the ecosystem that shaped him. Political parties do not manufacture misogyny overnight; they tolerate it, excuse it, and deploy it when convenient. Disowning the individual after the damage is done is cowardice.

This incident is not isolated. It reflects a wider, uglier truth:
Women are welcomed in politics as vote banks, symbols, and foot soldiers — but the moment they assert equality, the knives come out. Women’s wings exist, but women’s autonomy remains conditional.

Silence now is complicity.
Moral ambiguity is surrender.

If such statements pass without consequences, the message is loud and clear: women may vote, but they must not lead; they may campaign, but they must not speak; they may exist, but only on male terms.

No election — not by 47 votes, not by 47,000 — gives anyone the right to tell women where they belong.

This is not democracy under strain.
This is misogyny celebrating a win.