BY SIMONE MORGAN-LINDO—
The dancehall community has come out against the recent spate of deadly attacks on women.
More than 10 women have been victims of domestic violence in the past two weeks.
Speaking with the Jamaica Observer, singer Kevin Blair of Voicemail is outraged by the tragic incidents.
“I’m extremely disgusted by the recent killings of females due to domestic violence. I’m not for its and will never be for it. There is no justification for it. If a man and a woman have a misunderstanding, and they can’t see eye to eye, it means it’s time to call it quits and go your separate ways,” he said.
The latest incident was the fatal stabbing of a wife by her husband last Friday in Hanover.
“No man should put their hand on a woman unless you’re showing them love and affection. I think any man that resorts to killing or physically harming a woman because of cheating or any other reason is a weak and insecure person. To add to that, I think the police need to pay more attention to when a person makes these reports of domestic abuse and take it more serious than they do presently,” Blair added.
He encouraged women in life-threatening situations to report the matter to relevant authorities.
Female singjay Macka Diamond uttered similar sentiments. She recorded a single called Hooligan addressing the rise in attacks.
“It is really scary to be a woman living in Jamaica in these times. A lot of these killings are triggered by jealousy. These men can’t take what they dish out. Another thing is a lot of women are independent and not every man is comfortable with that, so that too will spark some form of jealousy. We need to pray harder,” she said.
University lecturer Dr Donna Hope also expressed concern on social media.
“There will never be enough words… but we must begin. These incidents took place during the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.. And most of these incidents are domestic. My work on gender over more than two decades suggests that there is a correlation between the deep levels of male rage displayed in many of these incidents and the transitions towards higher levels of female independence and empowerment at all socio-economic levels,” she said in a Facebook post.
The police report that 24 women have been killed to date in 2016 in domestic incidents.
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