EP 70 Manjula O'Connor - Daughters of Durga

Professor Manjula O’Connor is a psychiatrist with special interest in migrant women’s mental health, complex trauma and family violence. She is Hon Clinical Associate Professor at the Department of Psychiatry University of Melbourne. She was conferred Adjunct Professor University of New South Wales Department of Social Sciences in 2021. Manjula Chairs Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists Family Violence Psychiatry Network. 

In the early 2010s a spate of domestic violence-related murders in the Victorian Indian community compelled Manjula to investigate the causes of patriarchal abuse in South Asian families.

As a practitioner with many decades experience in the field, Manjula questioned whether a better understanding of history and culture could help these communities implement measures to prevent family violence.

But the most powerful lessons came from those she met through her practice - survivors of transnational abuse and of sexual and dowry exploitation.

This is an important conversation to have with Manjula.  

In Australia one woman a week is killed, sadly despite all the work that has been done in this space the impact is not being seen.

As the number of migrants from India increase in Australia we will start to see an increase in issues such as dowry abuse.

An important conversation and Manjula has committed so much of her life to fighting the battle of behalf of many women. 

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