Why on earth would she reveal that secret to a stranger?

Earlier: Arranged marriages in India are not so much about love — they are more like financial transactions, an associate sociology professor with the University of Texas testified Friday.
Families encourage their children into them, and young people tend to acquiesce because they do not believe their parents would work against their interests, Sharmila Rudrappa told a Travis County jury of 11 women and one man on the last day of testimony in the capital murder trial of Shriya Patel.
On the stand as the first and sole witness for the defense, Rudrappa said she was testifying only as an educational expert to provide jurors with context on gender roles and family issues in Southeast Asian culture, as they weigh the fate of Shriya Patel, who prosecutors charge doused her husband with gasoline and set him on fire.
Shriya Patel, 27, faces life in prison without parole if convicted in the death of her 29-year-old husband, Bimal Patel, an aspiring screenwriter raised just outside Amarillo. She also stands charged with aggravated assault and arson with intent to cause bodily injury or death.
In Travis County court this week, state prosecutors have argued that Shriya Patel had been unhappy in her arranged marriage to Bimal Patel, and ignited an explosion at their North Austin apartment that left him so severely injured, he died nearly four months later.
Defense lawyers contend he committed suicide and forced his subservient wife to help.
In court Friday morning, Shriya Patel nodded and smiled as Rudrappa explained that young women from traditional Southeast Asian families are encouraged to marry at a young age and take on suitable suitors. Families tend to tell them they will be okay — the man is wealthy, “The boy likes you,” and “Please don’t miss the bus,” Rudrappa said.
In marriage, women are expected to be quiet and obedient, while the men are supposed to be financially stable suitors who must support their wives and children, Rudrappa said. There are intense pressures on young men to choose prosperous careers and become doctors and software engineers, the professor said.

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:that's your question?! not what compelled to her to deep fry her husband?

Rishi wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:that's your question?! not what compelled to her to deep fry her husband?

Testifying in the capital murder trial of an Austin, Texas woman accused of burning her husband to death, a key witness alleged Mar. 5 that the bride had confided to her during wedding ceremonies in India that she had lost her virginity to another man, and hoped to make him jealous by marrying her soon-to-be husband.

>>>That tells everything about her.

I guess she wanted to marry that guy who broke her hymen, That fellow refused. She must have felt she was used by her first 'lover'. Her Indian conditioning kicked in. She felt impure, cheated and guilty about the fact that her husband has been thinking he married a virgin. All these tsunami of emotions must have been eating her up all these years since she got married and one day it culminated in violence.  

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:

Rishi wrote:

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:that's your question?! not what compelled to her to deep fry her husband?

Testifying in the capital murder trial of an Austin, Texas woman accused of burning her husband to death, a key witness alleged Mar. 5 that the bride had confided to her during wedding ceremonies in India that she had lost her virginity to another man, and hoped to make him jealous by marrying her soon-to-be husband.

>>>That tells everything about her.

I guess she wanted to marry that guy who broke her hymen, That fellow refused. She must have felt she was used by her first 'lover'. Her Indian conditioning kicked in. She felt impure, cheated and guilty about the fact that her husband has been thinking he married a virgin. All these tsunami of emotions must have been eating her up all these years since she got married and one day it culminated in violence.  

and that led to an urge to crisp her husband? still doesn't make sense. she may be all of these things, but why kill him and that too in such horrible fashion?

MaxEntropy_Man wrote:interesting case.

http://www.statesman.com/news/news/crime-law/both-sides-rest-in-the-capital-murder-trial-of-shr/nd7rc/

Earlier: Arranged marriages in India are not so much about love — they are more like financial transactions, an associate sociology professor with the University of Texas testified Friday.
Families encourage their children into them, and young people tend to acquiesce because they do not believe their parents would work against their interests, Sharmila Rudrappa told a Travis County jury of 11 women and one man on the last day of testimony in the capital murder trial of Shriya Patel.
On the stand as the first and sole witness for the defense, Rudrappa said she was testifying only as an educational expert to provide jurors with context on gender roles and family issues in Southeast Asian culture, as they weigh the fate of Shriya Patel, who prosecutors charge doused her husband with gasoline and set him on fire.
Shriya Patel, 27, faces life in prison without parole if convicted in the death of her 29-year-old husband, Bimal Patel, an aspiring screenwriter raised just outside Amarillo. She also stands charged with aggravated assault and arson with intent to cause bodily injury or death.
In Travis County court this week, state prosecutors have argued that Shriya Patel had been unhappy in her arranged marriage to Bimal Patel, and ignited an explosion at their North Austin apartment that left him so severely injured, he died nearly four months later.
Defense lawyers contend he committed suicide and forced his subservient wife to help.
In court Friday morning, Shriya Patel nodded and smiled as Rudrappa explained that young women from traditional Southeast Asian families are encouraged to marry at a young age and take on suitable suitors. Families tend to tell them they will be okay — the man is wealthy, “The boy likes you,” and “Please don’t miss the bus,” Rudrappa said.
In marriage, women are expected to be quiet and obedient, while the men are supposed to be financially stable suitors who must support their wives and children, Rudrappa said. There are intense pressures on young men to choose prosperous careers and become doctors and software engineers, the professor said.

what will we do without academic sociologists!

Kris wrote:
>>Ah, but Ms. Rudrappa's vast wisdom shall provide the foundation for the defense's story, which shall likely unfold thusly:

Mrs. Patel had been in love with another man, but the parents pretty much forced her into this unhappy marriage. Separately Mr. Patel, not being a software engineer or a doctor, felt he was a huge disappointment to his parents and was fighting his own demons. The story reaches a fork here. It could go in the direction of Mr. P finding out about his wife's lack of purity, which adds to his sense of failure which then leads to his  tormenting his wife and terrorizing her with a possible divorce (disclosing the shame to the world in the process). Desperate times call for desperate measures and ergo, Mrs. P's final solution. Alternatively, it could go in the direction of Mr. P wanting to off himself due to his personal failure (to wit, no MD/ no proficiency in C++) and lets his wife in on this, seeking her cooperation. When she protests, as any dutiful Indian wife would, he strongly suggests that it would be either that or him disclosing her premarital indiscretion to the wider community, which then  leaves her no choice but to go along with his program.