Mrs. Z you are either a woman of very loose character or a lunatic. If I grant you this divorce, where you going to get the money from to take care of these seven children?
The sneering magistrate, a determined Mrs. Z, her seven children, and a few interested lookers-on were in a courtroom in Georgetown, Guyana sometime in the early 1950s. Mrs. Z was determined to get the papers that would finally say she was no longer the wife of Peter Z, and was therefore no longer entitled to the beatings, the curses...no longer entitled to his maulings in the bedroom.
So she stood, 5' 2'' erect, head held high, and took the magistrate's scolding. She vowed it was the last time she would take anything she didn't want from a man.
But of course it didn't end there. Peter Z spat on the divorce papers and continued to treat her (though she and her children had left the home he'd built and moved in with kind neighbors) as if she were still his wife. He sat on the neighbor's bridge every evening and cursed her, and twice he accosted her in the market and beat her bloody.
When he finally threatened to kill the neighbor and his entire family, Mrs. Z knew she had to do something else. So under the cover of night, she and her children fled to relatives on the East Coast of Demerara, and then eventually to Canada.
Mrs Z told that story to her granddaughter shortly before she died several years ago. She had read that women in Guyana were going to be protected against domestic violence. Laws against such abuses were finally in the works. And she said (even though she'd lived outside of Guyana for much longer than she had been married to Mr. Z) it was the first time in her life she felt truly free to tell her story of abuse in Guyana.
Some amazing stuff that.
I wonder what she would think had she lived to read the confusing language uttered these days by those who profess to be caretakers of the initial laws against domestic violence in Guyana? I wonder what would have happened to her and her children if that neighbor had refused to take her in, and instead told her to go "make up back" with her husband?
Every now and then (usually when a woman is killed or on the occasion of some international attention to women's issues) Guyana's Human Services Minister, Priya Manickchand will give lip service to issues concerning domestic violence. Her most recent was the following: Human Services Minister Priya Manickchand says that domestic violence will continue to be a major issue in Guyana and is not likely to go away if women fail to report threats or “the slightest attack against them” because of how dire the consequences could be. The entire issue of violence against women will remain a tremendous challenge if women do not adopt a pro-active approach, Manickchand said, underscoring the need for greater awareness and to some extent, personal responsibility. Manickchand spoke of a lack of reporting in the attacks suffered by women during an interview with Stabroek News on Saturday and called for survivors of violent attacks to approach the police. She noted that men are attacking women and reports are not being made referring to it as “a serious issue and one which must be addressed”. The minister made no specific reference about attacks that have gone unreported, but prior to the brutal murder allegedly at the hands of her former reputed husband, Savitrie Arjune of Herstelling had been attacked by the man but failed to report the incident. According to relatives, she was slashed in the side but no police report was made. Full article here. Big questions for Manickchand: What have you (as Minister of Human Services) done to make it easier and safe for women to come forward and report incidents of abuse? Where are the follow-up statistics and reports on any program or initiatives you created to encourage police officers and entire communities to take strong actions against domestic violence? What specifically constitutes domestic violence? And what specific punishment would be meted out to domestic violence offenders?
