Today is Orange Day. For those who may not be aware, Orange Day is observed on the 25th day of every month as a call to wear orange in support of the struggle to end violence against women and girls. Every month, there is a new focus and a fresh theme as UNiTE, the United Nations Secretary General’s campaign to End Violence Against Women seeks to engage different sectors of society and sheds light on different forms of violence against women and girls.
This month’s Orange Day theme is: “Engaging Artists in Efforts to end Violence Against Women and Girls” and it is being observed days after UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, Actress Emma Watson, gave an impassioned speech in New York, calling for gender equality and denouncing violence against women and girls. Ms Watson’s speech served as the catalyst for the launch of the “HeForShe” campaign, which aims at mobilising 1 billion men and boys over the course of 12 months to support gender equality. Up to the time of the writing of this column, 107,378 men and boys all over the world—16 of them from Guyana—had signed the online pledge, in which they committed to taking action against all forms of violence and discrimination faced by women and girls.
In her speech, Ms Watson said she had noticed that “feminism has become an unpopular word,” and that “fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop.”
While her speech was applauded by many of her peers as well by advocates of gender equality and activists against gender violence, it also unleashed what this current generation refers to as the ‘haters’. Threats were issued to the effect that nude photographs of Ms Watson would have been leaked to the public yesterday. Whether Ms Watson had taken such photos that could actually be leaked is not known, but the threat was not carried out and was subsequently dubbed a hoax and seen as a means of intimidation.
In recent weeks, nude photographs of several celebrities—all of them women—have suddenly appeared for public viewing. The suggestion is that these leaks are the work of hackers. And while that may be the case, it is perhaps not the reason the photographs of celebrity women’s naked bodies became an internet item. It has been suggested that the nonconsensual exposure of the photographs is to humiliate them – put them in their place, so to speak. A case in point is the publication of naked photographs of the first black Miss America, Vanessa L Williams in the early 1980s, which forced her to resign.
Nor is this sort of public abuse targeted only at celebrities. One recalls the local case of Babita Sarjou, whose nude photos had been posted around her place of work, allegedly by her estranged husband on August 31, 2010. The man was subsequently charged and placed before the court. However, on November 4, 2011, Ms Sarjou disappeared after having told her mother that she was going to view the Diwali Motorcade with her estranged husband and their four-year-old son. She has not been seen since and the case against her husband was dismissed in July the next year. Sarjou’s disappearance remains an unsolved mystery.
Too many other women have disappeared. The most recent case was that of St Stanislaus College teacher Nyozi Goodman, who went missing after bidding her students goodbye at the National Gymnasium on Mandela Avenue on the evening of July 6 this year. Ms Goodman had gone to a
basketball game involving her school and had reportedly told the students that someone was picking her up.
Mid-last year, Police Lance Corporal Patriena Nicholson also went missing. She was last seen at a Republic Bank ATM at the Kitty GuyOil Gas Station.
Early this week, Rajkumarie Persaud was found dead in her apartment adding to the long list of women who have been murdered this year. Her alleged killer was last said to be a patient of the public hospital, having reportedly ingested a poisonous substance and is expected to face charges.
The litany of abuse, in all forms, meted out to women and girls is long and could go on and on. But to borrow from Ms Watson, it needs to stop. It needs the joint input of both men and women, boys and girls to turn back the tide of violence and discrimination.
