How many more?

Last weekend, yet another Barbadian woman lost her life to domestic violence.

According to news reports, last Saturday 32 year old Sophia Phillips of Silver Hill Landing Scheme in Christ Church received injuries to her throat during an altercation with her estranged boyfriend and died as a result.

Police say Phillips' assailant subsequently tried to slash his own throat but was reportedly found in an unconscious state and taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

He remains at the QEH under police guard where he is being treated for the injury.

I have lost count of the number of women who have died in the last five to 10 years at the hands of their husbands or boyfriends. One beat his wife to death with a piece of wood in front of their children; another abducted his girlfriend from her workplace and killed her. Yet another stalked his ex-girlfriend mercilessly all over the island, finally catching up to her and murdering her near the home she was secretly staying.

How many more women are going to die before the authorities and all of us take this issue of domestic violence seriously? Almost daily many of us see and hear women being brutalised by their partners, yet we're reluctant to get involved because "we don't want to get involved in oher peoples' business". Since when do Bajans don't want to get involved in other peoples' business? Only when it matters, it seems.

One survivor of domestic violence, Liesl Daisley, is saying enough is enough and is doing something about it, and we all need to follow suit.

As tired as I am of the Rihanna/Chris Brown saga, the upside of that sad chapter is that the seriousness of domestic violence is being discussed worldwide. But we have to back up the talk with action as well - the courts, police and we citizens have to ban together and fight this social scourge. Ladies, today it's someone else, but tomorrow it may be your mother, sister, best friend or you.

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