Anonymous Testimony: The Exile of Fathers
I don’t know if I’ll ever find justice, but let my voice reach someone. Even just one person.
My name is M. – I prefer not to share my full name. I’ve decided to tell you my story because I have nothing left to lose. Except my children. My two young children. And maybe not even them anymore.
I was an ordinary man. I worked every day, from morning to evening, to support my family. A physical, exhausting job, but honest. I never let my loved ones lack anything. In the evening, I came home exhausted, with one thought in mind: to hug my children, hear their voices, be there for them. I was the only one providing for the household, and I never complained.
But at home, the atmosphere had changed. My wife was often distant, absorbed by her phone or something else. The house was messy, the children left on their own. One day, without raising my voice, I told her it couldn’t go on like that. That I needed help, that I couldn’t handle everything alone. I only asked her to be more present. For me, for our children. Nothing more.
And then, a few days later, my life collapsed.
I was arrested. Accused. Treated as a threat. There was no investigation, no chance to explain. Just the accusation. Just her word. No evidence. No listening.
I was removed from my home. Separated from my children. I am not even allowed near the house. I lost everything. My dignity, my sleep, my hope. And yet, I never harmed anyone. Never. I only asked for respect. I only asked not to be left alone in a home I still believed was ours.
And then, months later, came the acquittal. The judge acknowledged that I had committed no criminal offense. But it was too late.
Because no one gave me my life back.
I’m still far from home. I no longer see my children. I have no place to return to. And I continue to pay, alone, the mortgage for a house I was expelled from like a stranger. Like a criminal. Not by the justice system, which eventually acquitted me, but by society, which doesn’t even forgive suspicion.
This is the exile of fathers.
— M.
Editor’s Note
This testimony was shared with us orally during a phone conversation with the author, who gave us permission to transcribe and publish it. He chose to remain anonymous, but confirmed that he was definitively acquitted in the criminal proceedings against him. And yet, to this day, he remains excluded from his home and his children’s lives. While we cannot verify every detail, we believe that giving voice to those broken by mere suspicion is a moral obligation. Justice has taken its course. Life, instead, remains suspended.