Coverage of the country of Haiti has steadily declined since the tragic earthquake on January 12, 2010. What has continued and been exacerbated since that world tragedy are the unspoken herstories of Haiti’s women. Historically, women have had little to no rights in the country of Haiti. It is a male-dominated culture with strong and conservative religious views. According to the National Organization for Women, 46% of the households in Haiti are managed by women; yet, these women are continuously mistreated, abused, and silenced. As our Women’s Herstory Month continues, I will look at the complex history of Haiti and how that still shatters herstories in the present day.
A breaking story on CNN exposed the extreme risk women in Haiti are facing in the aftermath of the January 12 earthquake. According to the report, women are forced to stay in makeshift “shelters” of sheets and bedding. With very little security, an already sexually violent culture, and chaos created by the earthquake, the risk of sexual violence and assault for women in the country is at an all time high. The CNN report includes accounts from a young woman in one of the tent cities who fears her safety daily. Men are beating their girlfriends at night, making lewd comments to women who are forced to bathe with their children in open pools, as well as becoming increasingly aggressive to defenseless women in these camps.
Sexual violence against women is unfortunately not a new problem in Haiti. Before the earthquake, the United Nations Population Foundation had instituted a five year plan to address the problem of violence against women in an effort to change the culture of Haiti. A report for the National Organization of Women entitled: Women of Haiti a Violent History and Uncertain Future, details of the use of rape as a weapon of political aggression, lack of maternal health rights and institutions, as well as other factors contributing to the problems faced by Haiti’s women. The report states that after President Aristide was ousted in 1991, “the new regime employed systematic rape of women and girls as a tool of political aggression…” Rape has been an unfortunate and prevalent reality for young Haitian women and girls. A report from the Lancet Medical Review stated that between February 2004 and December of 2005, 19,000 per 100,000 girls were raped in the capital of Port-au-Prince. That number is absolutely jarring.
Rape continues to be a pervasive problem in Haiti. Because of the social stigma attached to women who have been raped, the fear of reporting such a crime, as well as the poor policies set in place to convict attackers, many rapes go unreported and unaddressed. The NOW report continued to state that until 2005, rape was considered a crime of “passion” in Haiti which speaks to the patriarchal system and complete lack of respect for women and their bodies. Up until then, victims of rape were given a monetary compensation which probably wasn’t awarded to them because of the dire state of economic affairs in Haiti. The alternative to this monetary compensation was the women being married to the rapist which was probably a weak attempt at preserving what little dignity she would have after undergoing such a violation of her body.
Since the earthquake, the risk to the safety of women in Haiti has multiplied exponentially. Orphans also are put at greater risk. Children in Haiti have been orphaned in large part due to the HIV epidemic, and now even more are orphaned due to the loss in the earthquake. Because of the strong religious beliefs of Haitian citizens, women are not given access to birth control. As a result, women who are already destitute and unable to provide for their families are forced to either give their children over to orphanages to temporarily care for them or sell their children into the labor market. Children that are sold into the labor market are victimized tenfold because they are forced to perform arduous manual labor while potentially also forced into sexual slavery as well. With tent cities providing no protection from criminal gangs, children are at an incredible risk for rape, assault, and being sold on the black market as child laborers and child prostitutes.
According to a report of the Public Health Ministry, there are currently 60,000 women pregnant in Haiti and 7,000 of them will give birth within the next month. With conditions being what they are in Haiti now in terms of poor sanitation, qualified OBGYN’s, and medical supplies, it is an unfortunate possibility that maternal and infant mortality will peak post-earthquake. Before the earthquake, pregnant women were not given proper care by medical physicians either. In fact, only a quarter of births in Haiti were assisted by a qualified physician prior to the earthquake. Because abortions are illegal and also stigmatized, women were performing back-alley abortions which led to an 80% maternal mortality rate in Haiti prior to the earthquake.
Dwa Fanm
Haiti needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. During this process of reconstruction, there should be an emphasis on improving the livelihood of women and expanding their rights. For more information on Haiti and how to get involved, specifically with women’s rights, please visit the website of Dwa Fanm which translates to “Women’s Rights.”
Related Posts:
Cuban Contributions: Medics or Military?
Please stay involved in our Herstory Month Series!
What it takes to make a modern woman
Is it still a man’s job to approach a woman?
Women complimenting other women
My life was so boring til’ I started whoring-NA
Rewriting Madams back into Herstory
Violence Against Women on College Campuses
Womanly Affairs: Understanding the women sleeping with married men
The Herstory of Lillian Bassman
Other Posts by Eryn:
Human Trafficking Domestic and Abroad
Black History’s Leading Literary Lady
The Black Panther Party For Self Defense
Intelligence of Interference? COINTELPRO and the Black Panther Party
“How they sold Marcus Garvey for rice”-LH
Yes you’re a woman…just a different kind
Vote to Discontinue Black History Month
Where’s my Forty Acres and a Mule
Too black to be white, too white to be black
I don’t date outside my species!
Eryn is a Bostonian native who currently resides in the Metro New York area. She completed her B.A. in Psychology from St. John’s University where she also studied Mandarin, Chinese. Eryn has conducted psycho-social, medical, and environmental research. When she’s off the clock, Eryn spends time learning about world cultures, languages, and the best restaurants in town. She is currently working on her first novel A Beautiful Autymn. You can find more of Eryn’s work ranging from free-writes, poetry, and social analysis at http://autymn.wordpress.com
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