Abstract
Benedetta Faedi Duramy’s Gender and Violence in Haiti: Women’s Path from Victims to Agents is an account of the embodied intersection of poverty and patriarchy as manifest in sexual violence against girls and women in Haiti and the different ways they respond to said violence. Specifically, she focusses on women and girls living in three Haitian slum communities and “investigates the incentives, conditions, and decision-making processes that motivate victims of rape and sexual abuse to join armed groups and to become active affiliates and perpetrators of violence” (p. 1). Ultimately, Duramy concludes that Haitian girls and women join armed gangs for varied reasons: Adult women do so in hopes of protecting themselves and their families from further violence, motivated in part by “their rage against state negligence and ineffective law enforcement” (p. 151). Girls choose this path to “attain social status and respect within their own communities and to retaliate against their past of sexual abuse and stigmatization” (p. 151).
Gender and Violence in Haiti is based on solid, qualitative, physically dangerous, and emotionally taxing research (pp. 9; 10-14). Duramy spent 12 months in Haiti conducting interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. She does an excellent job using her legal training to translate international law jargon to nonspecialists. Duramy envisions using the findings from her study to “design . . . effective measures to free women from violence, to dispel their anger and resentment toward ineffective forms of community reconciliation, and to improve their reintegration into society” (p. 2).
One of the greatest strengths of the book is Duramy’s ability to contextualize and historicize the pandemic levels of violence against Haitian girls and women while not justifying it. In chapter one, “Gender-Based Violence and Women’s Violence in Context,” she situates contemporary violence against women in Haiti in the nation’s history of colonialism and slavery. These historical legacies are compounded by poverty and structural violence, further catalysts for violence against girls and women. In chapter two, “Gender-Based Violence in Haiti,” Duramy transnationally situates violence against Haitian girls and women. That is, readers are reminded that the epic levels and normalization of violence against women we learn about, and the seemingly unthinkable impunity in which the violence occurs are, sadly, not restricted to Haiti.
Despite my praise for the book, I am also somewhat critical of Duramy’s assertive language when offering suggestions for how to address this pandemic of unchecked violence against Haitian girls and women. Her empirical findings, training as a legal scholar, and emotional immersion in a reality that is simultaneously heartbreaking and preventable, led her to offer recommendations like the following: “Immediate action should be taken to end the widespread climate of impunity across the enforcement and justice systems; such impunity is a considerable disincentive for victims to report assaults. In addition, adequate training should be provided to police and justice officers responsible for addressing sexual violence and assisting rape survivors. Finally, women and girls, and particularly grassroots organizations, should be guaranteed full participation in the relief efforts, especially in addressing gender-based violence and women’s struggles in the displacement camps” (p. 150). After being carefully led through Duramy’s research, I am in full support of these and her many other recommendations. However, implicit in her language is that Haitian and international activists have not considered these suggestions, thus positioning the outside scholar as the expert and the on-the-ground Haitians in need of rescue. I am confident this is not Duramy’s intention. Rather, she is a legal scholar who knows Haitian and international law should and can be on the side of the girls and women survivors of sexual violence. She also spent enough time in Haiti and witnessed enough suffering and even personal loss that the urgency of the situation leads to a formula motivated to bring about justice, peace, and personal security as rapidly as possible; thus concrete recommendations. That said, I think Gender and Violence in Haiti, and particularly Duramy’s recommendations, would have been strengthened had she more consistently and thoroughly integrated the voices of the activists we know she interviewed (pp. 12-14).
In sum, Gender and Violence in Haiti is a very powerful and, due to the content, disturbing read. I recommend it to social scientists of armed conflict and violence against women, legal scholars, especially those focused on human rights law, as well as disaster studies scholars, because of her analysis of the 2010 earthquake. I also urge those of us who teach this book, and it should be taught, to proactively come up with strategies to counter the response that some students will inevitably have; that is, feeling empowered to “rescue” Haitian women rather than follow the lead of the activists already addressing this crisis. Finally, I thank Professor Duramy for researching and writing about a topic as urgent yet overlooked as this one.