Dear Editor,
In the wake of the latest murder of a young Indo-Guyanese woman, Donna Dojoy, I, quite some time ago, came across a social media post by a former minister’s daughter, who is a prominent lawyer, who posted something to the effect that domestic abuse is not confined to any ethnic group, religion or class and, more importantly, mentioned that ignorant posts are extremely harmful to those who are suffering from the scourge. It’s probably safe to say that she is implying it’s hurtful to paint all Indo-Guyanese as either being a perpetrator or victim of domestic violence. Editor, in my humble opinion, this, especially the latter part of that assertion, is the least constructive sentiment in combatting the infamous and deep-rooted issues of domestic violence and suicide that have plagued our local as well as diasporic Indo-Guyanese population. Any Guyanese living in the tri-state area such as Queens or Newark, or in Toronto or Ontario, would relate to you that police religiously make trips to Indo-Guyanese dominated areas to investigate reports of domestic abuse and worse. The failure to address the ethnic impetus in these cases will inevitably lead to a continuation of these gruesome and heartbreaking occurrences.
Coincidentally, as I was about to send this letter for publishing, I read a column in SN, penned by another attorney, Ms Aminta Kilawan-Narine (SN: 9/12/19). The said column captured my thoughts verbatim, so this might be somewhat redundant; however, I believe she did not go far enough in capturing the racial elements in cases of domestic violence, suicide and abuse among Guyanese.
It was widely reported that Dojoy’s husband had a profound jealousy of his wife’s infatuation with Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, which supposedly motivated him to act violently towards her and this had long preceded his infamous murder-suicide. It almost seems appropriate to preface, by highlighting only this week, two instances in India: Firstly, there was a 23-old-year woman in Uttar Pradesh, who was set alight on her way to testify against two men who allegedly raped her. Secondly, one of India’s most senior policemen has been forced to apologise after comparing rape to unlicensed betting, which, because it cannot be prevented, should be enjoyed. It cannot be a farfetched notion that the way in which this woman was prevented from testifying and the automatic inclination to link unlicensed
gambling to rape reflects a warped ideology of the normalisation of these cases.
Editor, considering that reputable publications such as Reuters have ranked India as the most dangerous place for women only a few years ago, their situation cannot be far removed from our local situation for obvious reasons. Just to emphasise, that means India is deemed less safe for women than Afghanistan where the Taliban actively attacks girls for trying to achieve a primary school education, or even Syria, which is embroiled in the largest civil war of this decade. The underlying point is that it’s probably undeniable that a large number of individuals in India and Guyana share these same hideous mindsets.
Unfortunately, it seems that the racial element is even more protruding in instances of suicide. While extensive statistics on these issues are few and far between, the World Health Organization, just a few years ago, proclaimed that Guyana had the highest suicide rate in the world. Furthermore, it was also found that East Indians, who made up 40 per cent of the population, accounted for over 80 per cent of Guyana’s suicides between 2010 and 2013. Editor, obviously the literal answer to that social media post is domestic abuse is not confined to any ethnic group, religion, etc. Of course, any multivariate analysis would show that other factors such as education, wealth, unemployment, alcohol consumption and other various socioeconomic factors have contributed to domestic violence.
However, when there is a much higher preponderance of domestic abuse and suicide rates within the Indo-Guyanese community versus those of every other ethnicity, then that warrants an extremely uneasy conversation as to what kind of values and traditions have allowed these societal ills to withstand the waves of decency and goodness that pervade Guyanese as whole. I would surmise that Indo-Guyanese suffer from, in addition to the aforementioned, a misunderstanding of the caste system, archaic parental practices and a culture of victim shaming.
Lastly, I would commend the good work of those that have fought the good fight on this front, from individuals like Balogun Osunyibi, Dr Richmond-Thomas, Vidyaratha Kissoon, Caitlin Vieira, Gaiutra Bahadur, Dr Mcrae and others.
Yours faithfully,
Sushil Persaud
