Dear Editor,
In a letter in Stabroek News on Monday, November 19, Mr Rakesh Rampersaud responded to Swami Aksharananda’s Diwali Day affirmation that “Worship of the Goddess will remain hollow and dry until we break out of our double standard,“ in which he asks Hindus to think about violence against women and girls.
The view in the response to Swami Aksharananda is that the talk is cheap, and that preaching over and over again should be followed up by action which will end the scourge.
One of the important calls from activists to faith-based leaders like Swami Aksharananda is that they should speak out on the issue of violence against women and girls. This ‘talk‘ is an important action in itself, as faith-based leaders then become part of the movement to break the silence around the issues which Swami Aksharananda addressed. Swami Aksharananda also advocated clearly that the worship should be grounded in combating the violence which many women and girls have to deal with.
Faith-based leaders who speak out also open themselves to being accountable in terms of how they continue that advocacy to ensure that justice is done and that religious narratives are not used to further oppress victims. The advocacy – talk – is an important project, as much as any of the other projects which deal with gender-based violence.
The period between 25 November and 10 December 2012 will be commemorated as 16 days of activism against gender-based violence.
Faith-based leaders who are interested in working against gender-based violence should, as Bishop Alleyne did in March of this year and Swami Aksharananda has done on Diwali, speak out against the violence and advocate justice for the victims.
Yours faithfully,
Vidyaratha Kissoon
