Readers write: February 4, 2019 issue
CM, Miriam Toews criticized for exploiting Bolivian rape case Re: “Moderns ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal,” Oct. 8, Oct. 22, Nov. 5, Nov. 26, 2018, issues. I feel that Miriam Toews’s book Women Talking exploits the sad situation in the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia and is obviously written by a person who has never been…
Mennonites talking
Mennonites are talking about Women Talking, Miriam Toews’s latest novel. What are your thoughts? Feel free to comment below or send letters to letters@canadianmennonite.org. Though I am still trying to figure out why the book troubled me—despite my admiration of Toews—some of my thoughts on the book are contained in Part 4 of “Modern ghosts…
Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal, Part 4
Eight men went to prison, the media gaze moved on, and colony life resumed. But the saga of mass rape in the Bolivian corner of our family of faith is far from over. It’s hard not to talk about something as sensational and consequential as a mass rape case on an intensely conservative colony in…
Online extras: Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal, Part 4
Eight men went to prison, the media gaze moved on, and colony life resumed. But the saga of mass rape in the Bolivian corner of the Mennonite family of faith is far from over. This supplement accompanies Part 4 of “Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal,” a four-part series on the ongoing legacy of the…
Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal, Part 3
Eight men went to prison, the media gaze moved on, and colony life resumed. But the saga of mass rape in the Bolivian corner of our family of faith is far from over. When word of a serial rape crisis on the Manitoba Colony in Bolivia emerged in 2005, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) faced pressure…
Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal, Part 2
Eight men went to prison, the media gaze moved on, and colony life resumed. But the saga of mass rape in the Bolivian corner of our family of faith is far from over. According to the official version, seven Mennonite men drugged and raped more than 130 women and girls on the Manitoba Colony in…
Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal, Part 1
Eight men went to prison, the media gaze moved on and colony life resumed. But the saga of mass rape in the Bolivian corner of our family of faith is far from over. The crime could not have been more salacious, nor the scandal more sensational. And the truth of it all could not trace…
Online extras: Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal, Part 1
Eight men went to prison, the media gaze moved on, and colony life resumed. But the saga of mass rape in the Bolivian corner of the Mennonite family of faith is far from over. This supplement accompanies Part 1 of “Modern ghosts of a horse-drawn scandal,” a four-part series on the ongoing legacy of the…
The Ghost Rapes of Bolivia
For a while, the residents of Manitoba Colony thought demons were raping the town’s women. There was no other explanation. No way of explaining how a woman could wake up with blood and semen stains smeared across her sheets and no memory of the previous night. No way of explaining how another went to sleep…
Bolivian Mennonite rape trial ends in convictions
Eight members of the Manitoba and Riva Palacios Mennonite colonies accused of raping more than a hundred women and girls were found guilty on Aug. 25 after a two-month trial. A ninth, Jacob Neudorf Enns, escaped from the Palmasola Prison in Santa Cruz some time ago and remains a fugitive. Seven of the accused were…
