propaganda press! state sponsored, people powered.

I would like to point out to everyone–especially those of you criticizing Ramen–that this woman was a victim of abuse any way you look at it. Even in the event that she was not raped by Hemant, she still died from a brutal murder. Even if it was her husband and not Hemant who killed her, as some of you are suggesting, she died because a man thought resorting to barbaric violence was an appropriate way to express his jealousy.

Instead of blaming the victim, why don’t we look at the social norms our community has instilled in us and how they hurt and even take our lives? First, some of you are calling Ramen a “whore” and implying she deserved to die because of it. I am sure that you same folks are the ones that breed “whorish” behavior in our community–that is, drinking excessively in bars and clubs, participating in “dutty-whine” contests and being promiscuous. I also have a hunch that you are the same people that do not value women and make them feel like they are only worth the size of their ass or how many times they can whine a minute. Second, note that Ramen’s husband cited “shame” as a reason for not pressing authorities on the death-threat issue. It is ironic that although Guyanese culture can be called sexually driven, we are also a people that do not talk about rape and violence against women because of “shame.” Consequently, women live entire lives in abusive situations and some, like Ramen, even lose their lives. I think our community needs to seriously reflect on what we are doing to our women with our actions and beliefs .