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The legacy of plantation violence can still be seen in the high rates of femicide in Guyana and Trinidad, and in the American neighborhood where Indo-Caribbean immigrants made their homes.

Our Fallen Sisters

We do our work in memory of the Indo-Caribbean women and girls whose lives were ended by gender based violence. We share snippets of their stories here, so our community may look itself in the mirror and confront itself. We know there are many more victims, most whose names we will never learn. We continue to keep them in our minds and our hearts as we work to combat domestic violence and dismantle patriarchal norms in the Indo-Caribbean community.

Felicia Cassadean
September 3, 2012

Felicia Cassadean was a Guyanese 22-year-old mother of two who lived in Long Island. Felicia had just begun taking pharmacology classes and was about to start a new job the week she was killed. Having been kicked out of her home by her father after she became pregnant at age 15, she was working hard to provide her children a good future. Her 49-year-old husband set fire to the home they lived in with her inside, after repeatedly stabbing her. 

Donna “Rehanna” Dojoy
November 8, 2019

Donna “Rehanna” Dojoy was a 27-year-old Guyanese woman who resided in Queens, New York and worked at the Gemini Ultra Lounge in Richmond Hill. She had an order of protection against her abusive husband after he slapped and strangled her in August 2019. He was scheduled to be sentenced in January 2020. Unfortunately, her abuser stabbed her to death on Friday, November 8th 2019 in her apartment. He then committed suicide.

Rajwantie Baldeo
December 5, 2016

Rajwantie Baldeo was a Guyanese immigrant who arrived to Queens, NY with a job at a restaurant in Richmond Hill already secured. A few months later, her ex came from Guyana to New York, with the expressed intent to kill her. A few minutes after midnight, he attacked her after she had gotten off from work. She was found with multiple stab wounds to the body and neck, having been nearly decapitated.

Guiatree Hardat
May 10, 2007

Guiatree Hardat was a 22-year-old college student, who recently immigrated from Guyana. She had broken up with her ex-fiancé, a NYC transit cop. They had dinner at Kaiteur restaurant in Queens and were then seen arguing in the streets. According to news reports, she told him to get away from her while she called her dad to pick her up. Before he could arrive, her ex had shot her in the head with his department-issued gun.

Natasha Ramen
March 15, 2007

Natasha Ramen was a 20-year-old Guyanese woman from Hollis, Queens. She was a rape survivor who went to the police for help. They arrested her rapist and then released him on $5,000 bail. An order of protection was issued against him that forbade him from contacting Natasha, who had plans to testify against him in court. On her way to work on one morning, her rapist ambushed her, slashing her to death before she could testify.

Marian Singh
September 18, 2019

Marian Singh was a 35-year-old woman who worked as a visiting nurse and lived in Schenectady, New York. She was strangled to death by her boyfriend in their shared apartment, where her body was discovered by her 14-year-old daughter.  Two years previous to her murder, Marian had called the police on her boyfriend after he had threatened to kill her.

Stacy Singh
January 1, 2018

Stacy Singh was a 26-year-old mother of two who lived in Queens, New York. She immigrated from Guyana five years prior to her murder. She was stabbed to death by her 46-year-old husband. According to Stacy’s brother-in-law, her husband “was very abusive to her” but she stayed with him because they had two kids together. Her husband committed suicide hours after.

Amarita Khan
August 9, 2014

Amarita Khan was a mother of two in her twenties. She and her husband got into an argument, so they went with their two young children to a relative’s house in the Bronx to discuss their strained relationship. Her husband stabbed her in broad daylight, inside a parked car and continued to do so while she attempted to flee him, escaping into the street. Sadly, it was too late as Amarita was found on the sidewalk in a pool of her own blood.

Vanessa Zaman Leona Samlall
December 13, 2018

Vanessa Zaman and Leona Samlall were 18-year-old cousins that were murdered by Zaman’s biological father, who was also the father of Leona’s 3-month-old baby. Vanessa became concerned for her cousin’s safety and convinced her to escape back to Virginia. Their murderer followed them to Virginia and confronted them, shooting them in a fit of rage.

Diane Sharma
January 15, 2012

Oscar Novakovsky, 41, of 121st. St in South Richmond Hill attacked Diane Sharma, 32, on Jan. 15, 2012 in front of their three children, who were three, five and nine at the time.

Novakovsky left the murder weapon, a knife, protruding from Sharma’s neck.

In the previous September, Sharma had gotten an order of protection against Novakovsky after he tried to strangle her.

Felicia Cassadean
Donna “Rehanna” Dojoy
Rajwantie Baldeo
Guiatree Hardat
Natasha Ramen
Marian Singh
Stacy Singh
Amarita Khan
Vanessa Zaman Leona Samlall
Diane Sharma