Women in Carnival group demands laws to protect women

In a strong message to legislators, the Women in Carnival Committee called for laws to protect women, a review of the criminal justice system, laws to monitor public transportation and justice for murdered women.

The group was formed almost two weeks ago by activist Sheena Tang Nian and five others after the kidnapping and murder of 23-year-old Andrea Bharatt. Its aim is to assist in the call for laws to protect women.

Its members hosted a silent anti-gender-based violence march on Monday afternoon at the Queen’s Park Savannah to remember women who have gone missing, were murdered, or abused over the last 20 years.

Head of the committee Keisha Als said the absence of Carnival celebrations has opened an opportunity for reflection. Around 200 women and a few men marched from the Savannah’s entrance to White Hall and back.

Als said, “We all know Carnival is woman, and woman is Carnival. We know the women in Carnival are the frontline creators, contributors, producers, and of course we are the inspiration around and behind Carnival.

“What we love about Carnival is the freedom that is the string of our Carnival celebrations. However, there is no freedom if we live in a country where we – our women, our sisters our daughters and mothers and our friends are in constant fear of violence against us. Today we are here for awareness.”

A few women, dressed in traditional mas characters, carried signs which called for an end to gender-based violence.

Over the last two weeks, committee member Renuka Anajit said the murders of 18-year-old Ashanti Riley in December, and Bharatt, have amplified the committee’s gender-based violence projects.

“A lot of this is about women's freedom, women's bodies. We really want to stress the importance that a lot of us live under a shadow where there is a war on women and a war on our bodies. We are not free to live the lives that we want and the lives that we deserve and are entitled to.”

Anajit urged organisations not to wait until issues of gender-based violence hit home.

“Things like this don't have to be close to home for you to understand the importance of women's lives, women's rights. So what we've been doing in the last week is we've launched a Write your MP campaign.”

And though protesting and hosting vigils have been used over the last two weeks as the vehicle to demand change, Anajit said the campaign can be seen as another tangible action to highlight the call for improvement.

The campaign consists of letter templates available on the committee’s website that has the email address, mailing addresses and contact numbers of each MP to assist those willing to reach out to their MP on issues facing women in various communities.

The event came to an end after one minute of silence as a list of over 70 names of women who are still missing and those who were murdered were read out.

Soca stars Patrice Roberts, Ricardo Drue, Nessa Preppy, Preddy, Olatunji, gospel singer Denyse Plummer and comedienne Nikki Crosby also participated in the march.