[Wamvan] Editorial - Assault on Rumana, on women everywhere

[E J]

Great article, Natalie. This is so, so sad.

Elyse


On Fri, Jun 24, 2011 at 8:01 PM, Natalie Hill <nhill10 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
>
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/rumana-monzurs-classmate-on-global-effort-to-end-violence-against-women/article2075566/
>
> Please read, comment, distribute widely.  Rally is Sunday, June 26 3PM at
> the Van Art Gallery.
> Rumana Monzur’s classmate on global effort to end violence against women
>  Natalie Hill  Special to Globe and Mail Update Published Friday, Jun. 24,
> 2011 10:25PM EDT Last updated Friday, Jun. 24, 2011 10:51PM EDT
>
> I first met Rumana Monzur in the fall of last year. We were in the same
> graduate-level political science course focused on, in the most tragic of
> ironies, gender and violence.
>
> My first impression was that she is incredibly kind. Unlike the rest of us
> – loquacious, often aggressively so – Rumana is soft-spoken, thoughtful and
> contemplative. When she does share them, her observations are particularly
> insightful. Rumana has a knack for picking up on the nuances, the unexplored
> details. A skill that eludes me, it would seem.
>
> <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/asia-pacific/blinded-ubc-student-rumana-monzur-on-her-condition/article2073206/?from=2075566>
>
> I saw the news stories. A woman brutally attacked, allegedly by her
> husband, in Dhaka, Bangladesh. With each new story it got closer to home: a
> graduate student, at the University of British Columbia no less. But each
> time the story was accompanied by a photo of a battered, bruised, blinded
> woman, unrecognizable to me. Another woman victimized at the hands of her
> male partner, I’m ashamed to say I remember thinking.
>
> It wasn’t until her name was printed that I realized it was Rumana. Kind,
> soft-spoken, insightful Rumana.
>
> I can only imagine the pain my fellow classmate is in, both literally, as
> she endures the results of a vicious attack on her person, and emotionally,
> as she grapples with the fact that she may never see her five-year-old
> daughter grow up.
>
> The pain I know all too well, however, is the feeling I share with Rumana’s
> friends and colleagues here in Vancouver, and with anyone who dedicates her
> life’s work to ending violence against women: the sinking feeling that this
> assault, while heartbreakingly personal, is a part of the global crisis that
> is systemic violence against women.
>
> Reports will likely continue to cloak the assault in racist moral hand
> wringing and cultural stereotyping. “She got a taste of the good life when
> she came to Canada to study,” reporters dance around saying, “but back in
> Bangladesh, it was back to terror as usual.” It’s true that the nature of
> her assault and how it is treated by authorities must be analyzed within the
> context of South Asian gender relations. But terror as usual, as so many in
> great power and privilege are loath to admit, is the norm for millions of
> women around the world, including those living in Canada. It’s the same
> day-to-day cruelty endured by women trapped in abusive relationships with
> power-obsessed husbands, just like Rumana’s.
>
> It’s the everyday brutality inflicted upon First Nations women across this
> country, hundreds of whom have gone murdered and missing for decades.
>
> It’s the widely-accepted, commonplace anxiety that leaves female students
> like myself afraid to conduct research on campus, lest we end up staying
> there after dark and putting ourselves in danger of being groped, or worse.
> And yes, this is the same campus Rumana called her academic home here in
> Vancouver. In wonderful, “that-never-happens-here” Canada.
>
> As Doug Saunders so articulately phrased it last week,
> <http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/india-is-no-exception-the-subjection-of-women-is-its-own-religion/article2065859/>violence
> against women does not stem from one nation, one culture, or one religion.
> Rather, “it is something that emerges in its own right, a poison that takes
> over and paralyzes nations.”
>
> Fortunately this paralysis is not permanent, as long as we continue to
> stand, side by side, and fight against the powerful force bent on resisting
> gender equality and a world free from gender-based violence. That’s exactly
> what Rumana’s friends in Vancouver are asking us to do on Sunday, when they
> host a rally at the Vancouver Art Gallery for anyone who wants justice for
> Rumana and peace for women and girls everywhere.
>
> I will be there. Will you?
>
> The rally for Rumana – “No More Violence Against Women: Justice for Rumana
> Monzur” will be held on Sunday, June 26 at 3 p.m., on the steps of the
> Vancouver Art Gallery.
>
> *Natalie Hill is a graduate student at the Centre for Women’s and Gender
> Studies at the University of British Columbia, and member of the We Can End
> All Violence Against Women B.C. campaign.*
>  More related to this story
>
>    - Women's-education advocates rally behind UBC scholar blinded in
>    Bangladesh<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/womens-education-advocates-rally-behind-ubc-scholar-blinded-in-bangladesh/article2071948/>
>    - Vicious attack in Bangladesh leaves UBC student blind; husband
>    arrested<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/vicious-attack-in-bangladesh-leaves-ubc-student-blind-husband-arrested/article2070667/>
>    - India is no exception: The subjection of women is its own religion<http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/india-is-no-exception-the-subjection-of-women-is-its-own-religion/article2065859/>
>
>
>
> http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/opinion/rumana-monzurs-classmate-on-global-effort-to-end-violence-against-women/article2075566/
>
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-- 
Elyse Jacobson, Violinist
http://facebook.com/TheAdventurousViolinist
http://myspace.com/HorsehairAndWire
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