Walton-Desir says the Government and State institutions have allowed a culture of contempt and impunity towards women to flourish, declaring that the police treatment of Hana Mohamed is not an isolated incident but part of a troubling pattern of harassment, humiliation and abuse that has gone unchecked across Guyana.
Walton-Desir condemned the treatment of Mohamed in unequivocal terms but said the public response must extend beyond one incident to address the harassment, humiliation and violence women have faced both inside and outside the National Assembly.
“What was done to Hana Mohamed this week was wrong. It was wrong without qualification, and I condemn it unequivocally. No woman taking part in a peaceful process should be roughed up by the police of her own country.”
In a statement published on the Forward Guyana Movement’s Facebook page, Walton-Desir cited several incidents involving women in Parliament, including a Government minister allegedly telling Opposition MP Natasha Singh-Lewis that she needed a dildo.
She also recalled the insults directed at Juretha Fernandes during a budget debate, when she was reportedly called a “whore”, “stripper” and “stink woman”; Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo’s description of Cathy Hughes as a “low life”; and an incident in which Minister Kwame McCoy struck Opposition MP Tabitha Sarabo-Halley in the face with a mobile phone.
Walton-Desir said the mistreatment extends beyond Parliament, pointing to the arrest of Schevon Eastman after she resisted the demolition of her home and business by State bulldozers. Eastman, she said, was arrested and shoved face down in the mud by police.
She also raised the case of a female police inspector who has alleged that she was raped by Deputy Commissioner of Police Fizal Karimbaksh. Walton-Desir questioned the pace of the investigation and the fact that Karimbaksh remains in his position while the complainant awaits its conclusion.
“In a country where women are killed by men with frightening regularity, a national posture of contempt towards our women is not a question of manners, it has become a question of life and death.”
The allegations against Karimbaksh remain unproven and must be determined through the appropriate investigative and legal processes.
Walton-Desir accused political leaders and institutions of failing to respond consistently to the abuse of women. She criticised the Speaker of the National Assembly for suspending Opposition members who protested offensive remarks rather than sanctioning those responsible. She also condemned the silence of Government women parliamentarians and the Ministry responsible for women’s advancement.
“Too many people decided that the dignity of a woman depended on which side of the House she sat.”
However, she said political hypocrisy was not confined to the Government, pointing to the fat-shaming of First Lady Arya Ali and the laughter it attracted from some people on her own political side.
“That is the same contempt, pointed in a different direction.”
Walton-Desir warned that excusing abuse when it targets political opponents helps normalise the mistreatment of women throughout society.
“What is excused in Parliament becomes permission in the street. What is tolerated when it is done to one woman will be done to the next, and the next woman may not be a politician at all. She may be your sister, your daughter or your mother.”
She called on women in public life, across political divides, and men who profess to respect women to condemn harassment and abuse consistently.
“The dignity of a Guyanese woman is not a partisan question. Not only when it is convenient. Not only when she is one of ours. Every time.”
