Education
In the 1970s, Merlet left Haiti and fled to Montreal, Canada where she studied feminist theory, sociology and economics.
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Myriam Merlet
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One of the particular focuses of her work was on rape culture. However, six months after the end of the Jean-Claude Duvalier dictatorship in 1986, she returned to Haiti because she felt that as a Haitian woman she needed to make an effort to solve the nation"s problems. She worked to raise the profile of women in Haiti and abroad, founding Enfofanm, an organization that raises awareness about the challenges facing women in Haiti, and campaining for several Haitian streets to be named after women.
In 2001 she was instrumental in bringing The Vagina Monologues to the island.
The monologue describes how Eve called her friend"s cellphone, "believing the ring would find you and wake you, your cell gripped in your buried hand."
Merlet participated in the creation and was a longtime spokeswoman for the Coordination Nationale pour le Plaidoyer des Femmes (CONAP), for which she famously battled against sexism in the publicity industry, especially on billboards. Until a new law was pass in 2005, rape was not considered a crime in Haiti, but a public decency offence.
She died in Portuguese-au-Prince in the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Achievements
Membership
Merlet also played a key role, with other haitian feminists and members of the government, in helping change the haitian legal status of rape.
