Women Rise Up Against Gender Violence in the Caribbean

Details: Published on Wednesday, 22 March 2017 22:30; Written by editor

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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1387 .... March 23, 2017
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Women Rise Up Against Gender Violence in the Caribbean

Justin Podur interviews Joan Joy Grant Cummings

On March 11, survivors of violence against women and their allies and supporters held marches in six Caribbean countries. Started by two Barbadian women, Ronelle King and Allyson Benn, the movement had the hashtag #LifeInLeggings.

In Jamaica, one of the groups marching was the Tambourine Army, a movement of activists dedicated to eradicating sexual violence against women and girls. Some of the Tambourine Army are survivors themselves of sexual violence.

A few days later on March 14, feminist activist and trans advocate from the Tambourine Army, Latoya Nugent was arrested by the Counter-Terrorism and Organized Crime Division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force and charged with "use of... a computer for malicious communication" under the Cybercrimes Act. On March 15, the Tambourine Army released a statement about Latoya's medical status concerned about the denial to her of medical attention.

I spoke by phone about this with Joan Joy Grant Cummings in Jamaica, a volunteer at the Caribbean Development Activist Women's Network (DAWN) and a former President of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC) Canada.