Eunice Osayande

Last updated
Eunice Osayande
DiedJune 2018 (aged 23)
Gare du Nord district, Brussels
Nationality Nigerian
OccupationSex worker

Eunice Osayande was a Nigerian sex worker in Belgium, where she was murdered in June 2018. The city of Brussels is set to name a new street after her to promote a campaign that recognizes women in Belgium. [1] The new street named after Osayande connects the Quai des Peniches and Quai de Willebroeck. This would be the first time a street is named after a sex worker. [2] This is in recognition of sexual violence, female victims, and femicide. [3] [4] Osayande came to Europe in 2016, hoping for a brighter future in the film industry. [1]

Contents

Life in Belgium

Her ordeals started with a difficult journey, which included crossing over to Italy on a rubber boat and being raped multiple times. She arrived in Belgium, thinking she would start a career as an actress. The men who had invited her gave her the impression that they were film agents. However, when Osayande got to Brussels, she realized that the men were human traffickers. Her life of forced prostitution started after she was informed that she owed $52,000, which the syndicate claimed was money for transit, pimps, and rent. Too scared to make a formal police report because she was undocumented, Eunice contacted a sex worker charity and reported the violence and intimidation she faced. [5] [2]

Death

In June 2018, a 17-year-old client stabbed the 23-year-old Osayande 17 times in the head and chest. [6] He was arrested two weeks after her murder. [7] Osayande's death led to organized protests by the migrant sex worker communities in Brussels, led by Maxime Maes the director of the UTSOPI sex workers union. [8]

Justice

The young man who stabbed Osayande has been jailed for 25 years. The perpetrator, who was 17 years old when he committed this crime, was only identified by his initials SG. The crime took on Rue de Linne, Schaerbeek, near Brussels- North station. The judges described his action as senseless and an 'intolerable violation of respect for human life.' [3]

Her four smugglers were arrested and sentenced to 33 months and four years imprisonment. [7]

Advocates have also come together to demand the protection of women in the city, especially undocumented migrants. The area where Osayande was killed has seen increasing violence, and those targeted the most are marginalized women. [9]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femicides in Ciudad Juárez</span> Murder of females in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico

It was estimated that more than 370 women were killed between 1993 and 2005 in Ciudad Juárez, a city in northern Mexico. The murders of women and girls received international attention primarily due to perceived government inaction in preventing the violence and bringing perpetrators to justice. The issue has featured in many dramas, songs, books, and so on.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femicide</span> Murder of women or girls because of their gender

Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female", with definitions varying based on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russell first defined the term as "the killing of females by males because they are female." A spouse or partner is responsible in almost 40% of homicides involving a female victim. Additionally, femicide may be underreported. Femicide often includes domestic violence and forced or sex-selective abortions.

Diana E. H. Russell was a feminist writer and activist. Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she moved to England in 1957, and then to the United States in 1961. For the past 45 years she was engaged in research on sexual violence against women and girls. She wrote numerous books and articles on rape, including marital rape, femicide, incest, misogynist murders of women, and pornography. For The Secret Trauma, she was co-recipient of the 1986 C. Wright Mills Award. She was also the recipient of the 2001 Humanist Heroine Award from the American Humanist Association. She was also an organizer of the First International Tribunal on Crimes against Women, in Brussels in March 1976.

Gendercide is the systematic killing of members of a specific gender. The term is related to the general concepts of assault and murder against victims due to their gender, with violence against women and men being problems dealt with by human rights efforts. Gendercide shares similarities with the term 'genocide' in inflicting mass murders; however, gendercide targets solely one gender, being men or women. Politico-military frameworks have historically inflicted militant-governed divisions between femicide and androcide; gender-selective policies increase violence on gendered populations due to their socioeconomic significance. Certain cultural and religious sentiments have also contributed to multiple instances of gendercide across the globe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margo St. James</span> American activist (1937–2021)

Margaret Jean "Margo" St. James was an American prostitute and sex-positive feminist. In San Francisco, she founded COYOTE, an organization advocating decriminalization of prostitution, and co-founded the St. James Infirmary Clinic, a medical and social service organization serving sex workers in the Tenderloin.

Human Rights in Mexico refers to moral principles or norms that describe certain standards of human behaviour in Mexico, and are regularly protected as legal rights in municipal and international law. The problems include torture, extrajudicial killings and summary executions, police repression, sexual murder, and, more recently, news reporter assassinations.

<i>Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles</i> 1975 film by Chantal Akerman

Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is a 1975 film written and directed by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman. It was filmed over five weeks on location in Brussels, and financed through a $120,000 grant awarded by the Belgian government. Distinguished by its restrained pace, long takes, and static camerawork, the film is a slice of life depiction of a widowed housewife over the course of three days.

Rates of crime in Guatemala are very high. An average of 101 murders per week were reported in 2018. The countries with the highest crime and violence rates in Central America are El Salvador and Honduras. In the 1990s Guatemala had four cities feature in Latin America's top ten cities by murder rate: Escuintla, Izabal (127), Santa Rosa Cuilapa (111) and Guatemala City (101). According to New Yorker magazine, in 2009, "fewer civilians were reported killed in the war zone of Iraq than were shot, stabbed, or beaten to death in Guatemala," and 97% of homicides "remain unsolved." Much of the violent nature of Guatemalan society stems back to a 36-year-long civil war However, not only has violence maintained its presence in the post-war context of the country following the Guatemalan Civil War, but it has extended to broader social and economic forms of violence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Violence against women in Guatemala</span> Public health issue of violent acts against women

Violence against women in Guatemala reached severe levels during the long-running Guatemalan Civil War (1960-1996), and the continuing impact of that conflict has contributed to the present high levels of violence against women in that nation. During the armed conflict, rape was used as a weapon of war.

Violence against women in Mexico includes different forms of gender-based violence. It may consist of emotional, physical, sexual, and/or mental abuse. The United Nations (UN) has rated Mexico as one of the most violent countries for women in the world. According to the National Institute of Statistics and Geography in Mexico (INEGI), 66.1 percent of all women ages 15 and older have experienced some kind of violence in their lives. Forty-nine percent have suffered from emotional violence; 29 percent have suffered from emotional-patrimonial violence or discrimination; 34 percent from physical violence; and 41.3 percent of women have suffered from sexual violence. Of the women who were assaulted in some form from 2015 to 2018, 93.7 percent of them did not seek help or report their attacks to authorities.

Eunice Olawale was a Nigerian Christian female preacher who was murdered by suspected Muslim extremists in the early hours of July 9, 2016 while evangelizing in the Federal capital city of Abuja.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eunice Yung</span> Hong Kong barrister and politician

Eunice Yung Hoi-yan is a Hong Kong barrister and pro-Beijing politician. She is a member of the New People's Party (NPP) and the Civil Force (CF). She became member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong for New Territories East in 2016 and for Election Committee in 2021.

This is a list of sex workers who were murdered in the United Kingdom.

Although prostitution in Morocco has been illegal since the 1970s it is widespread. In 2015 the Moroccan Health Ministry estimated there were 50,000 prostitutes in Morocco, the majority in the Marrakech area. Prostitutes tend to be Moroccan women from lower socioeconomic backgrounds as well as migrants from sub Saharan Africa, many of whom are victims of human trafficking UNAIDS estimated the figure at 75,000 in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Pamela Mastropietro</span> 2018 crime in Macerata, Italy

Pamela Mastropietro was an 18-year-old Italian woman who was last seen on 29 January 2018. She was murdered soon after in Macerata, Italy. Her murderer, a Nigerian migrant drug dealer named Innocent Oseghale, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison with 18 months of isolation in May 2019. The sentence was confirmed on appeal in October 2020. The murder caused public outrage, anger, as well as anti-immigrant sentiment in Macerata.

Maid abuse is the maltreatment or neglect of a person hired as a domestic worker, especially by the employer or by a household member of the employer. It is any act or failure to act that results in harm to that employee. It takes on numerous forms, including physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse. The majority of perpetrators tend to be female employers and their children. These acts may be committed for a variety of reasons, including to instil fear in the victim, discipline them, or act in a way desired by the abuser.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Femicide in Latin America</span>

Femicide, broadly defined as the murder of a woman motivated by gender, is a prevalent issue in Latin America. In 2016, 14 of the top 25 nations with the highest global femicide rates were Latin American or Caribbean states. 4,445 women were recorded victims of femicide in the region in 2021, translating to the gender-based murder of about one woman every two hours in Latin America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brenda Odimba</span> Belgian activist

Brenda Odimba is a Belgian engineer and decolonial activist. Odimba was one of the activists supporting the spokespeople of the 2021 hunger strike of undocumented migrants in Belgium. Odimba founded the association Mwasi asbl (NewSisterhood).

References

  1. 1 2 "Brussels to name street after murdered sex worker Eunice Osayande". BBC News. 2021-09-16. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  2. 1 2 S, Indhulekha K. (2021-09-17). "Brussels will name a new street after Eunice Osayande, a murdered Nigerian sex worker". East Coast Daily English. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  3. 1 2 McNally, Paul (2022-01-28). "25 years' jail for man who murdered sex worker Eunice Osayande". The Bulletin. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  4. "Brussels names street after murdered sex worker to draw attention to femicide". The Brussels Times. 14 September 2021. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  5. Odunsi, Wale (2021-09-18). "Brussels to name street after murdered Nigerian sex worker, Eunice Osayande". Daily Post Nigeria. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  6. "Brussels to Name Street after Eunice Osayande, Nigerian Prostitute Stabbed to Death in 2018". reportafrique.com. 2021-09-18. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  7. 1 2 Adegbe, Lucy (2021-09-17). "Nigerian sex worker, Eunice Osayande gets Brussels street named after her". The Street Journal. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  8. Luckson, Cara Gift (2021-09-19). "Why Brussels plans to name street after murdered Nigerian s3x worker, Eunice Osayande". Neptune Prime. Retrieved 2023-03-01.
  9. Kassahun, Tomas. "Brussels To Name Street After Sex Worker, Eunice Osayande, Who Was Killed By One Of Her Customers - Blavity". Blavity News & Politics. Retrieved 2023-03-01.