The killing of our women has reached crisis proportions

Oct 20, 2018 Letters

Dear Editor,
Please permit me to speak out about the rise in domestic violence in our country Guyana. As I opened the Monday Kaieteur News dated Oct 15, 2018, I saw that another woman was murdered by her partner. Between the months of January and September 2018, eighteen women were murdered by the hands of their spouses/partners.
It’s so sad. It seems like our women mean nothing to their male counterparts who feel that women are objects or properties and do not deserve to live comfortable lives free of violence and control.
It is hard being a woman and having to live up to society on a daily basis. Women are the foundation builders of this economy and yet we can’t seem to enjoy it. In this day and age, women are still bombarded by society and the saddest part is that most of the time; it is other women who are doing this.
A woman is raped, beaten or killed, ‘is she cause it’. On social media, especially Facebook, women are being bombarded by other women: when they are killed by their spouses/partners, you would hear things like, “She giving he blow”; “She like stray with other friends”; “She don’t hear about the clothes she is wearing”; “He right to kill she”; “She ears hard”; and “He working hard and she doing ‘stupidness”.
Nothing about why he did what he did, and that he had no right to kill her. They make those men feel good about what they do. It is as though, they have to find justification for the men’s actions rather than calling them out.
According to information shared by the documentation centre within the Ministry of Social Protection, domestic violence is on the rise in our communities especially in East Berbice, Demerara/Mahaica and other parts of our country.
Recently released statistics point to Region Four (Demerara /Mahaica) as having the second highest number of deaths as a result of domestic violence.
Tovonnie Simmons, a mother of four, was murdered by her reputed husband due to a matter between him and her brother. Reona Payne was shot multiple times by her reputed husband, an ex-army officer, in broad daylight. Sabita Shamnarine died from gastro intestinal bleeding, shock and haemorrhage due to severe beating at the hands of her husband.
Many more have suffered at the hands of their spouses/partners. These are just a few. Did those women deserve to die like that? NO!
The maiming and killing of our women, the cries of women in agony, the trauma our children face, the pain of our families, the loss of our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, nieces, daughters, friends and other relatives! This has to stop now.
We have to find non- violent ways to address conflicts and it has to start with the individual: parents towards children, children towards peers, teachers towards students, etc. We have to teach our children from a very tender age how to respect each other.
We have to move away from teaching our boy child that to be a man, he has to be tough or be violent.
As parents, we have to practise reasoning with our children and teach them how to reason with each other. As adults, we have to lead by example.
Yours sincerely,
Susan Collymore,
Red Thread Grassroots Women Across Race

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