The Editor, Sir:

We are very disturbed by recent reports in the news about violent assaults against women. We do not know the victims personally or the counter allegations of those accused. All we know is that tomorrow, the day after and many more to come, countless women across Jamaica will be battered and bruised by abusive hands.

One of them will be your daughter, your sister, your mother, your friend. One of them might be you. It will be said that some of these women 'deserve' it. No woman - and for that matter, no man or child - has ever earned the cruelty of being so mercilessly violated by another human.

Too often, the perpetrators are protected by the complicit silence of family, friends and a far too lenient legal system, leaving the serial abuse of women undocumented and unpunished. How many more victims have to come so close to death for this injustice to finally end?

At the very least, we must continue to publicly expose cases of abuse. We must dispense with the notion that women's rights are negotiable. We must seek treatment for those who beat women. And we must work to ensure that victims of violence are never denied a voice, a fair trial, a life of peace.

The impact of abuse goes much further than its physical or emotional effect on women; it slows our progress as a nation by eroding the values of our children, fuelling our crime rates and affecting our productivity. Our silence on this issue, our continued tolerance of abuse and our failure to act in the face of injustice hurt us all.

We are, etc.,

Allison Hickling, Anna-Kay Magnus Watson,

Kerry-Jo Lyn, Racquel Bremmer

veryconcernedwomen@gmail.com

Kingston 6