By Iana Seales
Shaneiza Khan who was found murdered in her former home at Enmore, East Coast Demerara nearly two weeks ago had little luck in love and life, and also with the police according to relatives.
She survived an abusive marriage; struggled after the death of a child; walked away from another abusive relationship and made reports at the police station every day for seven days before she was brutally killed. Prior to those reports, she frequented the station for four years complaining about her abusive reputed husband.
Her life was a battlefield, her mother Bibi Hamid said, in an interview with Stabroek News on Tuesday. She explained that the young mother of 22 years was always under attack in her own home and pointed out that no matter how much her daughter showed up at the station the police were never too concerned.
Khan was found with her throat slit at the home she once shared with her reputed husband. The police are still looking for the man, who went into hiding since the discovery was made.
“I can’t blame the police fuh she murder, but I could blame them fuh ignoring we all the time we running there and complaining. Is not yesterday or a month ago, I talking years of running to the station,” Hamid related in a frustrated tone.
Hamid’s irritation with law enforcement echoes that of countless other women and families who have criticized the police force’s domestic violence response and arrest record. Though stretched for resources, the force has had sustained training and sensitization in the area of domestic violence. Still, the level of gravity with which reports of domestic violence are handled remains a sore point.
In a Stabroek News article earlier this year the stories of three women highlighted the lack of action from the police in following up on complaints of domestic violence.
The three were Shreemattie Vivekanand, Bibi Alli and Vabita Arjoon. Vivekenand was hacked within inches of her life at her Chateau Margot, East Coast Demerara home in a bloody episode that ended with her husband taking his life; Alli fled her Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara home with her son after a domestic squabble that culminated with the house going up in flames and Arjoon survived life-threatening stab wounds after she was attacked by her reputed husband at her Philadelphia, East Bank Essequibo home.
To date, the police have said nothing with respect to the women’s complaints and attempts by this newspaper to have an interview with the Guyana Police Force on its record in this area has proved futile.
The most recent police training session was late last year when the United States Embassy in Guyana held a workshop with the force on domestic violence. Police constables, subordinate officers, inspectors and other top tier ranks were trained by Vivian Huelgo, Director of the Community Law Project of Sanctuary For Families Center for Battered Women’s Legal Services, USA.
Hamid told Stabroek News that Khan married at an early age and regretted it soon after because of the repeated abuse she suffered. She said the family intervened on numerous occasions but for some strange reason her daughter decided to stay in her marriage.
Eventually her husband packed his things and left the home without saying a word. According to Hamid, he just walked out on Khan and never looked back until recently. Now the man is fighting Hamid for the child he had with her daughter but the woman said she is not about to give up the child she has reared from birth.
She related that some time after the split Khan met her reputed husband and was carrying on a secret relationship with him for some time before she found out.
“She use to come home late and every time she telling me how is work keeping she but I get to find out that she was going around with the man and he family used to hide she in the house,” the mother related.
She said it was only after she complained to the man’s family that her daughter revealed what was going on. Hamid said she was not happy at all and warned Khan not to get involved with the man. Khan continued the relationship and some time after left home to start a life with him.
But it was no life, according to the mother. She said Khan was beaten publicly and at home so many times she now gets confused when recalling which incident happened when. She said the man even attempted to beat her daughter in her yard one day and she had no choice but to scold them both.
The mother said she encouraged her daughter to leave the relationship but Khan decided to report him to the police instead with the hope that his behaviour would change.
The woman said her daughter was doused with hot food; beaten and bruised and threatened over the years but she remained in the relationship until recently when she had enough and moved out of the home. Khan returned home and even then, the man would meet her in the streets and make threats. In the days leading up to Khan’s death, Hamid said, she accompanied her daughter to the station but the police simply ignored them.
Four days before she was killed, she said, a police officer showed up at the home and enquired about the man. Hamid said the policeman appeared interested in the couple and later found the man but he was not held.
“They got a lot ah things when I remember it does hurt now Shaneiza gone. I try but my daughter had to get help from other places not just me,” Hamid added.
