The world’s most hypocritical women groups are in Guyana

Mar 10, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

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Kaieteur News – Human rights exist on several horizons. The rights of women, LGBT people, minority groups, children, police victims, refugees, prisoners. It is not possible for freedom and justice in a society to thrive if these rights are bifurcated or separated.
The rights of people are intricately linked in a philosophical matrix. That poetic saying from Nazi Germany will live on forever. It was composed by the German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemöller.
“First they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.”
If you are going to safeguard the rights of LGBT people to be who they want to be, then those rights have to be protected within an overarching framework of other rights that other sections of society are entitled to. Monday was International Women’s Day. I chose not to write on the relevance of the topic because I am disgusted for several decades now on the flawed nature of Guyana’s women rights groups.
First, I think they are shamelessly elitist and show open contempt for violations where poor women are the victims. And they have no intention of changing. I was at the day of appreciation on the death of Andaiye held at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC). I was standing on top of one of Guyana’s most mysterious ironies in the history of this country. Here was a woman who was supposed to belong to a revolutionary party, named the Working People’s Alliance, but not one representative from that class was a speaker.
Speaker after speaker wore their high, middle-class emblems on their shirt sleeve. The list included the daughter of President Burnham’s long serving foreign minister, Rashleigh Jackson, and one of President Burnham’s daughter, Ulele. Both women are residents of other countries. There was no guest speaker who was East Indian.
Secondly, these women groups select which situation to expatiate on depending on the media coverage they will get. They are driven by publicity and in fact are publicity-crazy. Once the victim’s situation will not bring adequate media coverage, they are not interested. If women rights entities in Guyana are concerned with gender protection then it is sociological fraud on their part if they couldn’t see that the bulk of sufferers when the APNU+AFC closed down the sugar estates without financial compensation were women and children.
Here is a quote from a column of mine, “Every Guyanese should protest this decision of Magistrate, Sherdel Isaacs,” done six years, six months ago on October 22, 2014, “Where is Red Thread? This girl is a teenager. She didn’t rob or shoot anyone. She didn’t harm anyone.” The magistrate jailed a teenager, Ariana Peters, for six months for going to Suriname without going through Guyanese immigration.
Here is a quote from a column on yet another incident of judicial abuse of women. This was done five years after the column referred to above. It is titled, “What a Guyanese judge said about a murdered Mahaica woman,” of Monday, December 13, 2019.
“Justice Barlow then offered another reason for her 15-year sentence (a year is 9 months in judicial terms). She said she took into consideration that he was younger than the woman and therefore the woman would be more aggressive. Justice Barlow has turned Niccolò Machiavelli on his head. The famous 15th century Italian philosopher wrote that older women prefer younger men because younger men are more aggressive. Barlow concluded the opposite. Barlow concluded that since Rohoman was older than Harrinarine, she was the more aggressive partner.”
In Barbados where I spent some time, this judge would have felt the wrath of some women groups. In places like India, the US, Canada, that judge would have been under intense pressure to resign. So why you think our women groups were silent on what happened to Ariana Peters and that poor soul that was killed in Mahaica, Hafeeza Rohoman?
The answer is obvious to those who study this society and those who are familiar with how elitist class groups operate in this country. Ariana Peters and Hafeeza Rohoman were unknown souls. The women groups couldn’t get publicity over their tragedies. Why up to now the women groups have not denounced the police over the Venezuelan woman who was battered, sodomized and raped? She is a sexual worker. I love my pets more than some humans.

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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