By MALCOLM STRACHAN

LIKE many of you, I imagine, yesterday I spent time in church celebrating the mothers of our nation.

It is of course something we should do. Our mothers are the ones who raised us – too many times without a father figure nearby, sadly. Our mothers are the ones who kept us on the right path, sometimes making us fearful of seeing our moms as we come home when we know we have done something wrong.

So yesterday was a day to celebrate all they have done for us. Which prompts a question of whether we are doing enough for them.

I have written too many times about how we are not living up to our end of the deal. Let us take a look and see how things have advanced since those times.

Back in April this year, the country’s first domestic violence standalone unit was opened. There was much fanfare around it, ribbon cutting and all.

Bizarrely, the media was asked not to report the facility’s location due to safety concerns – which seemed an odd contrast to photographs and videos of the ceremonies.

Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said the facility is not a shelter but a short-term response centre for those in immediate danger.

Now this is a good thing to have – but it does leave open the question about that long-promised domestic violence shelter that we were told was going to be with us any time soon. Is this it? Or is that still to come?

Either way, if this is a short-term facility, it still leaves women and families without a long-term place of refuge if they are seeking to escape domestic violence. That situation too often leaves women and children at home with abusive men, because there is nowhere else for them to go.

At the opening, National Security Minister Wayne Munroe acknowledged international research showing high rates of violence against Bahamian women, including an IDB survery that found nearly a quarter of Bahamian women had experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives.

He also talked of the prevalence of emotional, psychological and economic abuse.

I would be surprised if the numbers are not significantly higher than that myself.

Back when he was in opposition, Prime Minister Philip Davis attracted ridicule for saying the government would provide complimentary whistles to women as a method of rape prevention. That never materialised of course – and a domestic violence unit is of far more use, especially if it is followed up with further shelter and protection.

Mr Munroe has attracted his own measure of ridicule lately when he suggested that tourists going on jet ski trips should consider wearing bodycams to prevent them from being raped after a spate of such attacks.

Given that the reported attacks are said to involve unlicenced operators, how about a clamp down on those for starters before leaving it to the victims to look out for themselves?

Back in 2017, a United Nations Special Rapporteur on violence against women came to visit. Dubravka Šimonovic quickly identified some of the systemic problems here in The Bahamas and our lack of political will to change.

You know these issues by now – they have been talked about at length with no sign of anything being done.

Five years ago, in 2020, I wrote about the issue of marital rape in this very column, calling it “a topic controversial enough to send even the most vociferous political firebrand into hiding”.

What has changed? Certainly not the law. Women are still given more protection if they are raped by a stranger than by their husband. Don’t get married, girls, you’re safer if you live with your partner in sin. I’m not sure that’s the outcome the churches ought to be delivering.

Then there is the issue of citizenship. We have had a Privy Council ruling when it comes to citizenship of children born out of wedlock to Bahamian men and foreign women, but when it comes to Bahamian women, there is still no further progress.

The Privy Council, in the case involving Bahamian men, tossed out the Attorney General’s argument as “faintly absurd”. When then shall we see the issues surrounding women being tested at the same level?

After that case, Mr Davis said: “As Prime Minister, I am dedicated to building a more inclusive and equitable Bahamas.”

That was 2023. What has that dedication delivered for women?

In 2023, after that case, I wrote: “Yesterday was Mother’s Day, and as I stood in church and listened to mothers being celebrated, I could not help but wonder that if this is how the first wave of people affected by a change in citizenship rulings have been treated, how will it be when changes are made to benefit women when it comes to having the same rights as men with regard to citizenship?

“There is an ingrained sexism in The Bahamas – and by that, I must be clear, that is no different to the rest of the world. How else are women’s rights so far behind?

“So if these are the barriers being presented immediately after the victory in this case, then how much worse will be the barriers put before women?

“As we approach the 50th anniversary of our independence, is it really too much to hope that our nation might finally give people full and straightforward equality. No ifs, no buts, no differences between any of us who can call themselves Bahamian.”

We have since had that 50th anniversary – and we failed to deliver on full equality. All those ifs and buts remain.

Instead, here we remain, still going to church, still singing the praises of our mothers, and still doing nothing to advance their rights.

There seems little sign that this administration is minded to move forward on any of these issues between now and the next election, whether that is an early call as FNM leader Michael Pintard suggests, or otherwise as the government sticks to its line of going full term.

So any hopes women have for advancement must lie in the hands of the next administration – be that a continuation of this one, which has failed to prioritise such issues, or a new party and prime minister in office.

When candidates come knocking on doors, women would be very much entitled to ask those hoping for their vote, “Well, what about me?”

We celebrate the power of our women on Mothering Sunday. We ought not to be surprised if they decide to use it.