Silence Is Violence: Domestic Abuse Cannot Be Ignored at Home

592 GUARDIAN♦ACCOUNTABILITY♦INTEGRITY IN JOURNALISM♦GUYANA

Silence Is Violence: Domestic Abuse Cannot Be Ignored at Home

OPINION BY : Hem Kumar October 2026

Women are battered in homes, silenced by fear and often failed by systems meant to protect them. Digital violence deserves urgent attention, but it cannot become a convenient, globally fashionable subject through which officials avoid confronting the violence occurring closer to home.

If minister Vindhya Persaud believes that women should not be forced to retreat from public life because of online abuse, then she must also speak clearly when women face violence, coercion, intimidation or injustice within their homes and communities. Domestic violence does not become less serious because it is not trending online or being debated before an international audience.

There is a troubling pattern in which public officials find strong language for foreign forums but offer limited public engagement when difficult cases arise locally—especially where political sensitivities, influential persons or uncomfortable associations may be involved. That disparity undermines confidence in the sincerity of official commitments.

Guyana does not need international applause for laws on paper alone. It needs transparent enforcement, prompt police action, accessible shelters, dependable psychosocial support, public reporting on outcomes and a government willing to speak consistently for victims—regardless of who is implicated.

Guyana’s call for stronger international action against digital violence targeting women is welcome. The threat is real: online harassment, manipulated sexual images, anonymous abuse and coordinated attacks can intimidate women, damage reputations and drive them from public life.

But speeches on international platforms must be matched by courage and consistency at home.

October is observed as Domestic Violence Awareness Month—a time intended not for ceremonial statements or convenient displays of concern, but for honest national reflection and meaningful action.

It is therefore difficult to reconcile the Government of Guyana’s strong international messaging on violence against women with the conspicuous silence that can greet serious cases of domestic abuse at home. At the 153rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union in Tanzania, Minister of Human Services and Social Security Dr Vindhya Persaud rightly called for stronger international accountability for digital violence against women. She warned about online harassment, manipulated sexual images, artificial intelligence-generated abuse and attacks intended to frighten women out of public life.

These are urgent concerns. Digital violence is violence. It can humiliate, isolate, damage livelihoods and restrict a woman’s freedom to participate fully in society.

But domestic violence is also violence—often immediate, physical, repeated and potentially fatal. Women across Guyana continue to endure beatings, threats, coercive control, sexual abuse, financial deprivation and psychological torment behind closed doors. For too many, the home is not a refuge. It is where the danger lives.

The public is entitled to ask why an official entrusted with the Human Services and Social Security portfolio, including responsibility for responding to domestic violence, appears more willing to speak forcefully on international platforms than to publicly engage difficult local cases.

The Seeram matter—already adjudicated by the courts—has raised questions and generated public concern. Yet there has been no comparable visible intervention, reassurance or sustained public advocacy from the ministerial office responsible for supporting survivors of abuse.

This is not an argument against addressing digital violence. It is an argument against selective outrage.

A government cannot credibly urge the world to protect women online while appearing reluctant to confront violence against women in their homes, communities and intimate relationships. Nor can it claim leadership on gender justice while public silence is allowed to create the impression that political connections, workplace loyalties or social standing influence who receives official attention.

Every victim deserves to know that the system will respond without fear or favor. Every woman deserves to believe that her safety matters whether her abuse is recorded on a phone, spread through social media, hidden behind a bedroom door or brought before a court.

The laws cited by Minister Persaud—including the Family Violence Act 2024 and cybercrime legislation—must be more than achievements recited at global meetings. Their worth must be measured in real-world protection: police officers who act promptly, protection orders that are accessible and enforced, shelters with adequate capacity, reliable legal assistance, trauma-informed counselling and public institutions willing to speak when silence could further endanger victims.

October must not become another month of slogans, purple ribbons and carefully prepared speeches. It must be a reminder that domestic violence is a national emergency requiring consistency, compassion and courage.

Silence is not neutrality. Silence can shield abusers, isolate survivors and weaken public trust. Silence, in the face of domestic violence, is violence.

Guyana’s leaders must stop treating advocacy for women’s safety as an issue best delivered abroad. The strongest message they can send the world is not another speech in an international forum. It is the willingness to stand publicly, firmly and consistently with women facing violence here at home.