THROUGHOUT the corridors of history, records of mankind’s sojourn on Planet Earth have always shown a predisposition of global societies to favour men over women. In some countries women have few rights and subsist in life-long servitude to the domineering males within their families and communities.

In some cases, they are even cruelly killed for the most minor infractions – real, imagined, or concocted — without being allowed the opportunity to defend themselves.
Numerous episodes of brutality against women are recorded daily worldwide, and just recently a news report coming out of Ghana related that a woman who stole plantains to feed her hungry babies was stoned to death and dumped in a plantain farm at Aboaso in the Kwabre East Municipal of the Ashanti Region. It was reported that Ghanaian police couldn’t locate the children.

In Guyana, Anitha Qualis, a 35-year-old mother of four who was found with 503 grammes of marijuana in her possession, was sentenced to two years imprisonment and fined $754,000.
The magistrate disagreed with her lawyer Dhurjon’s impassioned submissions that the accused should be given no sentence of imprisonment on compassionate grounds. He revealed that Qualis was deprived of having opportunities in life to advance herself and explained that she did not attend secondary school and was a victim of sexual abuse, as a result of which she had her first child, who is now 16, when she (Qualis) was 15-years-old.

Qualis also bore three other children, ages 10, 14 and 15, during the course of an abusive six-year relationship; as a woman, Qualis was belittled and abused and kept down by her long-time partner who eventually abandoned her and their children.
Attorney Dhurjon added that after his client lost her job at a snackette, she felt an “irresistible compulsion” to do all things necessary to feed her starving children, and also explained that Qualis has had no criminal involvement save for this incident.
For all of these reasons when the magistrate handed down the sentence, Dhurjon applied for suspension of the sentence under the Criminal Law Reform Act, Cap.11:05, which would have meant that Qualis would be released and if she re-offended, then she would be re-incarcerated. The magistrate, a woman, refused the application.

During her court appearance on September 22, Qualis told the court that: “I accepted the weed, I am a mother of four… I decided to try a thing to provide for my children.”
How does a jobless mother, abandoned by the children’s father, feed her children? Only a mother with starving children would understand the compulsions that drive these women to break the laws of society: and do the guardians of the law, like this magistrate and the people who stoned the Ghanaian mother to death, take into consideration the fate of the children who are consequently abandoned to the mercy of an uncaring, ruthless society, may themselves be forced to themselves break the law to survive?

In 1995 at the World Conference on Women in Beijing, countries unanimously adopted the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action – the most progressive blueprint ever for advancing the rights of not only women, but girls. According to a UN release, on December 19, 2011, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 66/170 to declare October 11 as the International Day of the Girl Child, to recognise girls’ rights and the unique challenges girls face around the world.

It further states, in part: “The International Day of the Girl Child focuses attention on the need to address the challenges girls face and to promote girls’ empowerment and the fulfilment of their human rights.”

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by world leaders in 2015, embody a roadmap for progress that is sustainable and leaves no one behind.

Guyanese have stopped being our brother’s (and sister’s) keepers because in many communities, neighbours witnessing a continuum of, and escalating instances of abuse refuse to become involved.  They prefer to enjoy the unfolding tragedy, even adding to it with malicious rumour-mongering and strife-making, because the titillation of feuds and wars within families find a corresponding resonance in the dark nuances resident in every soul, and the average person refuses to rise above their more decadent equivalencies to achieve a higher plane of thoughts and actions, enough to maybe intercede – and probably save — a family from ultimate destruction.

Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall, has promised to revamp the sentencing guidelines in Guyana’s legal system; mayhap, women like Qualis would be dealt with mercifully, with the Ministry of   social Services providing empowerment and job-creation opportunities for such women.