by Chloe Nazra Lee, MD, MPH, AMWA Medical Chair of the Gun Violence Solutions Working Group
Dr. Lee is writing a series of OpEds for MedPage Today to draw attention to tragic loss of life and lack of press coverage of these types of incidents in the US media. Indian women physicians, such as myself, feel the need to acknowledge the violence and to call out the stereotypes that we face in medicine.
About her first OpEd in MedPage Today.
OpEd 1: An Indian Doctor Was Just Raped and Killed. This Is Not an Isolated Incident
An examination of what’s driving sexual violence against women in medicine
Dr. Lee tells AMWA:
“Violence against women is unacceptable and evading an honest conversation about it for men’s comfort is disrespectful. My community shows how failure to acknowledge sexual violence allows it to become a reality around which women must shape their lives,” says Dr. Chloe Lee, a psychiatric resident at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. “We should neither be expected to endure it nor vilified for resisting it at work. Cultural patriarchy and shame in India, indignant opposition in America, and institutional betrayal in both countries collectively silence Indian women in medicine and perpetuate sexual violence in the hospital. We cannot sincerely confront this issue if we’re not honest about it.”
In a Second Article for MedPage Today:
OpEd 2: Reclaiming the Night in the Wake of “Abhaya’s” Murder
To everyone in medicine: don’t underestimate the gentleness of Indian women as weakness
About this article, Dr. Lee tells AMWA:
“Indian women in medicine are screaming to the world: We have had enough, and now, we will force you to hear us. We write and advocate because our stories will otherwise die in silence — and without speaking out, there cannot be change. Don’t underestimate our gentleness as weakness. Sexual violence and medical corruption persist, but so do we.”
Reclaiming the Night in the Wake of “Abhaya’s” Murder
To everyone in medicine: don’t underestimate the gentleness of Indian women as weakness