A Chinese court has denied a divorce request by a mother of 6. All of her children—baby girls.
The woman referred to as Xiong, was accused of shirking her maternal duties and “not being a good mother.”
She explained that her husband and his family placed great importance on having a son to continue the family line— a strong social custom in China because of the one-child policy. While daughters will one day marry into other families, sons will support their parents as they age.
Xiong said she came to realize she was merely viewed as a child-bearing vessel.
The mother of six said she couldn’t bear more pregnancies so she fled back to her parents’ home in 2019, but the Hunan province judge sided against the mother’s divorce claiming that Xiong couldn’t prove her marriage had broken down.
As the Chinese regime faces down an impending population crisis some fear Beijing may be wielding its court system to combat plummeting birth rates.