By: Steven Vickerie – Last night in Linden, a woman, another mother, another daughter, another life, was murdered in cold blood. The day before, a female business owner was fatally shot during a robbery at her shop in Mocha Arcadia. And just weeks ago, a video circulated online showing a young woman being sexually assaulted in a nightclub. She was surrounded by men who chose to laugh, film, and cheer instead of helping her. The footage sparked a wave of national outrage.
How much longer are we going to pretend this is normal? Guyana is in the grip of a brutal and escalating epidemic of gender-based violence, and women are paying with their lives. The bodies are piling up. The headlines grow more horrific by the day. And the official responses, press releases, candlelight vigils, and bursts of social media outrage, are beginning to feel like background noise.
According to the Guyana Police Force, at least 21 women were murdered by intimate partners or men they knew in 2024 alone. That figure does not include the many other assaults, physical, sexual, psychological, or the groping, stalking, threats, and endless cases that go unreported because victims no longer believe anyone, police, community, or family, will take their side.
The Ministry of Human Services’ 914 hotline receives dozens of calls weekly. But those calls represent the women who find a rare moment of courage or safety. Behind them are countless others who remain silent, afraid to leave, afraid to speak, terrified they won’t survive long enough for help to arrive.
This is not about isolated incidents, bad luck, or women making poor choices. This is about men. It is about a culture that teaches too many boys that manhood is rooted in control and dominance, where “no” is taken as disrespect, and where a woman ending a relationship is seen not as her right but as betrayal, one that demands punishment. Punishment that too often ends with blood on the floor and a family shattered.
Something is happening among men in this country that we are still too afraid to name out loud: a crisis of masculinity. One that is insecure, emotionally stunted, and volatile. Many boys grow up without emotional role models, without tools for managing anger, and without understanding that vulnerability is not weakness.
They are taught that power is everything, and when that power slips, some reach for violence. The nightclub assault laid it bare. A young woman, clearly unable to defend herself, was groped, humiliated, and restrained. Some men held her down. Others filmed. None intervened. For days, the country was shocked.
Politicians condemned it. Arrests followed. Then, predictably, the moment passed. The outrage cooled, and we moved on. She won’t. She will live with that memory for the rest of her life. We live in a country where women are murdered in front of their children, where rape survivors are asked what they were wearing. Where families wait years for justice. And yet, we still avoid naming the truth: the issue is not alcohol.
It’s not jealousy. It’s not rage. It’s men. Not all men. But always men. Solving this crisis requires more than awareness campaigns and social media hashtags. It requires real action: Mandatory counseling and rehabilitation for abusers, not just jail time.
Emergency shelters and crisis centers are in every region. Comprehensive school programs that teach boys about consent, boundaries, and emotional responsibility early. A justice system that prioritizes cases of gender-based and domestic violence and enforces protection orders with real consequences.
Public messaging that challenges harmful male behavior instead of blaming women for not “staying safe.”Until these structural changes are made, every woman in Guyana remains at risk. The businesswoman in Mocha. The mother in Linden.
The young clubgoer is out for a night of fun. Ordinary women, living ordinary lives, until violence made them headlines. We say “Not one more,” but we’ve said that too many times. And still, we keep burying our women. How many more must die before we finally act like we mean it?
