Glenda Simms

In 2007, the local media reported the brutal slaying and serious wounding of two University of Technology female students near to their residence in Papine as just another incident in the continuing war on women and girls in the Jamaican society.

On November 25, each year, individuals, groups representing both the governmental and non-governmental sectors and institutions in most societies get together to exhale communal sighs of pain and have discussions and training sessions on the root causes of violence against women and girls.

The activities related to this day each year are quite predictable. They may include soul-searching circles in which the victims of such violence give testimonials and join in sisterly weeping rituals; training sessions to clarify the role of socialisation on the patriarchal underpinnings of such violence; feel-good sessions in which popular female artistes chant poems and songs that declare: 'We are not victims, we are survivors'.

Obviously, from these activities, one can argue that some things are being done. But what are these things? How effective are they? And have they made even a tiny dot in the war zone?

'will this war end?'

Oh no! The war is raging, the battles are pitched and the dead and the wounded are put in body bags. Daily, families weep for women and grind their teeth. "When, Oh God, will this war end?" they shout.

Among the moans and groans, the apologies for the violence that is directed at women because they were born girls, continue without any break or any solutions in sight. The so-called advocates for the cause continue to produce pamphlets that end up in garbage bins and get funding to design another T-shirt that cries out, 'Stop the Violence', 'Enough is Enough' and other such benign phrases. In fact, these T-shirts are hardly worn except by a few brave souls who are no longer concerned about satin and silk for sleepwear.

In general, most of these T-shirts end up as rags to shine up the SUV or clean shoes, the stove, or other areas that could use a cotton duster.

The sad truth is that those of us who see the debilitating effects of this war against women are either too tired or preoccupied with livelihood issues to be effective in the battle zone.

It is this reality of the extent and impact of gender-based violence globally that Canadian, Brian Vallee, shared with his readers in his latest publication, The War on Women.

Brian Vallee is the Canadian author who documented the circumstances that drove Elly Armour of Calgary, in 1951, to shoot and kill the husband who had brutally abused her throughout the lifespan of their marriage.

'battered woman syndrome'

It is this sad event that established the legal basis of the 'battered woman syndrome' which is frequently used when battered and sexually violated women murder their brutal spouses.

Vallee thought that he could close the curtain on the issue of violence against women and girls when he chronicled the tragedy of Elly Armour in his best-seller, Life with Billy, but he has been unable to do so because of the realisation that more and more women continue to face a unique form of violence in all societies.

In 2007, Vallee published a deeply disturbing book entitled The War on Women. In this well-researched book, readers are forced to pay attention to the database on which this dramatic title is based.

Vallee has pointed out that we live on a "planet beset by war" - the wars against drugs, terror, crime; the wars in the Gulf, in Afghanistan and Iraq. He also argues that between 2000 and 2006, "2,697 Americans were killed by hostile forces, 716 died in non-hostile incidents, while at home 611 American law enforcement officers were killed in the line of duty."

In Canada, Vallee points to the same pattern, even though the numbers in each category are dramatically lower than those in the U.S.A.

While we might not all agree with the strategies and accomplishments of the global military initiatives, we salute the men and women who lay down their lives for the many causes that generate wars and military interventions in a number of societies.

It is against this background that Vallee forces us to recognise a largely overlooked deadly war. It is a war with more victims and the battles are pitched in every country of the world. In Vallee's words, this is a war "with far more victims killed by 'hostiles'." Their dead are not called heroes and they are not taken to their graves in flag-draped coffins among the pomp and pride and ceremonials rooted in long traditions.

comparative data

This conclusion was reached when the 4,588 U.S. soldiers and police who were killed by 'hostiles' or in accidents were compared with the 8,000 women who in the same time frame were "shot, stalked, strangled or beaten to death by intimate males in their lives". The comparative data in Canada reflect a similar pattern.

After reading Brian Vallee's work, I am left to wonder when the war against women and girls in Jamaica will be seen as a national crisis.

At the moment we are at a lost to find solutions to the high murder rate in the nation. Everyone and his/her dog has an explanation and a solution.

According to Dr. Peter Phillips in his article, 'Building the Jamaican Nation', which was carried in the January 6, 2008 edition of The Sunday Gleaner, "Some speak of various job creation schemes ... for the mainly urban youths who are at the centre of the current crime wave both as victim and perpetrator." He further stated that "Others are calling for a transformation of our education system in order to produce more people able to participate in the job market."

Dr. Phillips stated in clear terms that most of the prescriptors of these solutions ignore "the central role and responsibilities of our political system and political leadership over the years both in helping to create the problem and in leading the search for solutions".

In the same vein, I use this opportunity to propose that the Jamaican society will have to deal effectively to stop the war against women in order to solve the social problems of the high murder rate, the deterioration of human values and attitudes, the resurgence of an unprecedented level of barbarism, and the breakdown of civility in the homes, schools, churches and other public institutions, including the boardrooms of the nation.

Indeed, the undeclared war against women and girls is the root cause of the social ills besetting the society!

Members of the Sistren Theatre Collective perform during a ceremony, hosted by the Bureau of Women's Afffairs and held at the Jamaica Conference Centre, downtown Kingston, on March 7, 2007, to celebrate International Women's Day under the theme 'Violence Against Women: It's a Serious Thing, Stop it!' - file

Dr. Glenda Simms is a gender expert and consultant.