In developing countries like India, until very recently, infidelity was mainly seen as a prerogrative of the husband. There have been innumerable instances of adultery where a virtuous wife silently tolerated a straying husband, hoping and praying he would return to her. Great epics and legends like the ‘Silappadhikaram’ in Tamil, in South India, glorified the virtues of patience and chastity of women who waited for their straying husbands to return to the fold. According to the legend, Kannagi waited patiently while her husband Kovalan romanced the dancer Madhavi and later welcomed him with open arms when he returned to his senses and his wife.

With changing social mores, education and emancipation of women to a certain extent, some women in India are now beginning to question the rationale behind glorifying the silently suffering wife who endures her husband’s infidelity and accepts it as a matter of his right. Especially in the wake of more and more innocent and ignorant wives getting infected with AIDS by their HIV positive husbands who contract the infection from sex workers and pass on the infection to their offspring. Moreover, going by media reports, some women are now more aware of their sexuality and their right to express themselves and have their needs fulfilled, so the gender gap is beginning to narrow as far as infidelity is concerned.