Why Didn't She Just Leave?

I found this reposted on a social media site and liked it.

Related: If you choose to be homeless, it means your choices in the situation were terrible.

Anonymous:

“Why we should never say "But why don't you just leave?" to women in toxic, highly problematic marriages.

🌟 She was taught to fight for her marriage. 🌟 She can't support herself or her children. !🌟 She sees herself as a contributor to the problems; she's hoping he will improve as she improves. 🌟 She's doesn't have anywhere to go. 🌟 She's too overwhelmed to think clearly about her next step. 🌟 She believes God hates divorce. 🌟 Her spouse has promised to complicate her life if she leaves. 🌟 She doesn't want to fail. 🌟 She's heard, "marriage is hard, divorce is hard, choose your hard." She's chosen her hard.

🌟 Her church doesn't allow divorce other than for infidelity (and even then, they would first have to try and reconcile.) 🌟 Her spiritual sounding board, her church, is silent on abuse and consequences of unrepentant harmful sin in marriage. She's in the dark. 🌟 Other people have gone through worse, and they stayed put. 🌟 She wants her children to have both parents. 🌟 She's heard testimonies where people stayed and prayed, and their spouses changed after a long time. 🌟 She's dependent on her husband for documentation as an immigrant. 🌟 He's never hit her. 🌟 Sometimes she thinks the marriage problems are not that bad. 🌟 He's a man of God, and she doesn't want to ruin his ministry. 🌟 She loves him.

👉🏾 You see, there are bazillion reasons why a wife won't "just leave." It's more complicated than we think.”