Tomorrow will mark the 102nd celebration of International Women’s Day. One hundred and two years of a struggle for women’s rights, for an end to discrimination, for an end to violence and yet this year’s UN theme “Elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls,” comes over as repetitive, pleading and even placatory. This ought to fill us with outrage, and yet there is cause for celebration in the fact women are still rising even though 102 years, and counting, of struggle must be recognised as the longest war in history.
Between last year’s celebration and tomorrow’s there have been atrocities committed against women and girls that in some instances point to deliberate attempts to revert to what obtained 102 years ago. Among the worst of them was the attempted murder of a schoolgirl in Pakistan by the Taliban because she embraced the human right to be educated. It was on October 9 last year, while 15-year-old Malala Yousafzai was on her way home from school that she was shot in the head and neck by a masked gunman. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, calling Malala “the symbol of the infidels and obscenity”. She survived, is recovering and has become the youngest person ever to be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. In shooting Malala in the head, the Taliban shot themselves in the foot. This one girl, who could easily have been a martyr, has instead become for many a symbol of hope.
A second horrific attack that has caused outrage around the world was the December 16 gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old paramedical student in New Delhi on board a bus. The young woman was with a male friend who was badly beaten while she was brutally raped by six males, including a juvenile. They were subsequently dumped in a lonely area and the young woman succumbed to her injuries about 2 weeks later. The international outrage sparked by the brutality meted out to this young woman empowered Indian women and men to protest and forced the Indian government to take action as regards women’s safety. The six males are currently on trial.
In Guyana, violence against women has reached epidemic proportions, rape cases are rarely successfully prosecuted and for this reason many do not even reach the courts. Women are often murdered by their husbands/domestic partners, usually after they have endured years of violence at the hands of these very same men.
Early this year, Bhanmattie Devi ‘Patricia’ Bacchus, 28, was chopped to death at Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, Berbice after she attempted to reconcile with her partner of seven years following overtures from him. The man later killed himself. In October last year, Allison Bowen, 42, of Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara was stabbed some 14 times by her partner who had been unsuccessful in forcing her to eat rat poison. She was one of 20-something women murdered last year.
In January, in yet another instalment of a disturbing recent trend, a 70-year-old woman was found bound, gagged and dead in her home at Guava Bush, Albion, Corentyne. Murders of elderly women who live alone have also been on the increase.
The past year also saw an increase in underage girls—12, 13 and 14 years old—giving birth to babies with virtually no attempts being made to prosecute the men who would have criminally impregnated them.
As these injustices continue, sometimes without even a peep from members of the government, one might want to question whether their feel-good statements, which no doubt will be issued tomorrow, are not in fact attempts at subterfuge. Do they really care?
When will the realisation hit home that one woman hit, slapped, punched, cursed or refused promotion is one too many? That one woman sexually harassed, raped, maimed, murdered is also one too many. One woman ‘allowed’ on a board of directors of a company is one too few and one third of women ‘allowed’ in government or in Parliament can never be enough.
After one hundred and two years of agitation, women the world over deserve the right to peace, security, justice and equal rights.
