Mourning the loss of Haitian Women’s Rights Leaders

[theHandpuppet]

http://blog.amnestyusa.org/women/mourning-the-loss-of-haitian-womens-rights-leaders/
Mourning the loss of Haitian Women’s Rights Leaders
Americas, Economic, Social & Cultural Rights, Refugees, Violence Against Women
Posted by: Daphne Jayasinghe, January 20, 2010 at 3:30 PM

The reports from Haiti are more tragic everyday. The loss, the devastation, the aftershock, the grief and the suffering. Today, there are reports of losses to the women’s human rights movement- Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan are Haitian women’s human rights defenders who were victims of the earthquake. This tragic loss will be mourned throughout the global women’s rights community but the impact will be felt deeply as Haiti rebuilds.

Women’s rights and gender equality must be promoted during the humanitarian relief process but also during the rebuilding process. On the Dianne Rehm show yesterday, academics and relief organizations spoke about the importance of recognizing the risk of gender based violence in refugee camps and the threat of violence against displaced women.

Amnesty recently reported on sexual violence against school girls in Haiti. The women’s rights leaders who lost their lives spoke out against the issue of gender violence in Haiti before the earthquake. The people of Haiti, and all of us, relied on human rights defenders like these to take a stand. My thoughts go out to the families of them and all of the victims of this disaster.

:cry:

[theHandpuppet]

1. Haitian Feminist Leader Myriam Merlet (1953-2010)

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/1/19/haitian_feminist_leader_myriam_merlet_1953
Haitian Feminist Leader Myriam Merlet (1953-2010)

We end today’s show with the sad news of the passing of Haitian political activist Myriam Merlet. She died under the rubble of her home after it collapsed on her last week. Myriam Merlet was the Chief of Staff of the Haitian Ministry of Women and an outspoken feminist who helped draw international attention to the use of rape as a political weapon. We speak with playwright and activist Eve Ensler, who knew Myriam very well, and air video of Myriam speaking in 2008 at V-Day.

[theHandpuppet]

2. Myriam Merlet

January 20, 2010

(Excerpt)

Merlet, an author as well as an activist, fled Haiti in the 1970s. She studied in Canada, steeping herself in economics, women's issues, feminist theory and political sociology.
In the mid-1980s, she returned to her homeland. In "Walking on Fire: Haitian Women's Stories of Survival and Resistance," published in 2001, she contributed an essay, "The More People Dream," in which she described what brought her back.
"While I was abroad I felt the need to find out who I was and where my soul was. I chose to be a Haitian woman," she wrote. "We're a country in which three-fourths of the people can't read and don't eat properly. I'm an integral part of the situation. I am not in Canada in a black ghetto, or an extraterrestrial from outer space. I am a Haitian woman. I don't mean to say that I am responsible for the problems. But still, as a Haitian woman, I must make an effort so that all together we can extricate ourselves from them."
She was a founder of Enfofamn, an organization that raises awareness about women through media, collects stories and works to honor their names. Among her efforts, she set out to get streets named after Haitian women who came before her, Charles said.

RIP, Myriam

"I felt the need to find out who I was and where my soul was. I chose to be a Haitian woman."
--Myriam Merlet, in her essay "The More People Dream"

[theHandpuppet]

3. Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan

http://vitalvoicesonline.org/blog/

(Excerpt)

Magalie Marcelin was an actress and lawyer who founded Kay Famn, a women’s rights organization that provides shelter and offers microloan services to survivors of domestic violence. Marcelin was passionate in her work as an advocate, calling attention to the inequality and prejudice that women face daily in her community. In public awareness-raising campaigns, stickers are marked with the image of a drum, which Marcelin once explained:

“It’s very symbolic in the Haitian cultural imagination. The sound of the drum is the sound of freedom, it’s the sound of slaves breaking with slavery.”

Ann Marie Coriolan served as a top advisor to Haiti’s Ministry for Gender and the Rights of Women and founded advocacy organization Solidarite Fanm Ayisyen (Solidarity with Haitian Women SOFA). As a political organizer, Coriolan was a leader in a movement that “helped bring rape…to the forefront of Haitian courts,” according to CNN. Before her efforts, and those of fellow women’s activists, rape was regarded only as a “crime of passion” in Haiti. Coriolan’s daughter, Wani Thelusmon Coriolan, said of her mother:

“She loved her country. She never stopped believing in Haiti. She said that when you have a dream you have to fight for it. She wanted women to have equal rights. She wanted women to hold their heads high.”

[scarletwoman]

4. Awful, just awful. Haiti can ill afford to lose such women.

Thank you for bringing this news, attention must be paid.

:cry:
sw

[niyad]

5. I posted about myriam's death the other day, but it is good to keep reminding us. she was truly

an amazing woman.

[niyad]

6. ....