“But Thanks to God, I Learned to Forgive Them and Work on Myself and Things That I Love”: Revenge Fantasies of Indian Muslim Women through Drawings and Narratives

This study explores how women make sense of injustice and express revenge fantasies through both visual and narrative forms of expression. Using an interpretative phenomenological approach, the study examines drawings and accompanying narratives from fourteen Muslim women in Kerala, India, an under-researched population within the literature on revenge and coping. The analysis identified four superordinate themes: emotional validation through relational reversal, restoration of moral order through indirect or inevitable justice, reclaiming power through aggression and achievement, and withdrawal, moral reflection, and transformation of response. Findings suggest that revenge fantasies are not uniform or solely driven by aggression. Rather, they reflect a range of psychological processes aimed at restoring balance, agency, and meaning following unjust experiences. Across themes, participants were often not positioned as direct agents of revenge but instead engaged in imagined, symbolic, or internally oriented responses. The integration of drawings and narratives revealed important distinctions in expression: Drawings captured more immediate and affective dimensions, while narratives reflected more structured and socially mediated interpretations. Convergences between modalities indicated clarity in meaning-making, whereas divergences highlighted internal conflict and evolving interpretations. The study contributes to the existing literature by demonstrating the value of combining visual and verbal methods for understanding complex emotional experiences. It also offers preliminary insights into how socio-cultural and religious contexts may shape responses to injustice. Overall, revenge fantasies emerge as dynamic and multifaceted processes that function less as intentions to harm and more as ways of negotiating emotional pain, identity, and psychological balance.