Online violence against women in Bangladesh
Any sort of hostile presentation of women or antagonistic description and display that can sensibly be felt as a motivated or distorted version is to be definitely treated
as a form of violence
Sakib Hasan
In the gender-bias cultural context of Bangladesh, violence against women or their humiliating or subservient presentation are the operational motivations of the patriarchal procedural set-up of all institutions-social, economic, educational, cultural, medical, and all other core areas making up the life of Bangladeshi people. Online violence against women is not, at all, an isolated phenomenon unaffected and uninfluenced by the venom and vapor of the existing women-unfriendly process. In fact, online violence against women is the digitalized version of the hackneyed legacy being handed down from generation to generation. Offline or ground violence is taken as the severely coarsest form of visible violence while the online violence is taken to be a coated and elusive form of anti-women humiliating propaganda operated through electro-magnetic channel.
According to the statistical data of research findings conducted by a number of social organizations and NGOs, presently more than 75% women using online communication facilities in some way or the other are succumbing to the risks and hazards of becoming the victims of online violence. One distinctive point of difference between domestic or ground violence and online violence is the nature and extent of losses slapped on the victims. In domestic violence the victims have to bear both life-threatening risks as well as to carry the social stigma whereas online violence is a morbid form of psychological torture that traumatize the victims to the point of life-in-death condition. Any sort of prolonged torturing process is usually considered to be more excruciating than even death and it is really so. On that count I will always put the issue of online violence against women above domestic violence once considered the real tangible losses.
In Bangladesh, online violence against women is now quite a rampant practice occurring almost in a free-wheeling fashion. Specifically speaking, violence against women mostly occurs in the social networking channels. Most readily available instance is the blatantly gross misuse of Facebook where women especially Bangladeshi women which is our particular case in point are presented and displayed in the way that clearly degrade and degenerate their status and honor. Intrusion into the innermost privacies and intimacies of women is a recurrent manifestation in which exclusive privacies and secrecies of women which are coded to be preserved universally are shared through the posts of the users of this social networking media. More than 60% such posts by both implicit and explicit implications and hints humiliate women which are obviously a form of violence. To make our key word violence crystal clear, that is, what we really understand by violence and specifically online violence, we need to redefine it in the changed situation and circumstances.
Any sort of hostile presentation of women or antagonistic description and display that can sensibly be felt as a motivated or distorted version is to be definitely treated as a form of violence so far as the sense and sensibility of the 21st century are concerned. When secret footages and audios concerning some women are posted and shared in the social media like the most popular Face book, these trashes instantly turn to be the weapons of torture for the women concerned. Around 40% social posts are clearly insulting posts targeting women.
YouTube is not an exception to honor and imaging tarnishing process of women as we find in the use of Face book. And, to speak statistically, deviations and distortions aimed at undermining women occur in higher degrees and proportions. Unquestionably, videos leave more lasting impact and impressions on the viewers than the audio tapes and scripts. According to several survey reports conducted in this field, it has seen that more than 70% You Tube videos are made up ones and among these around 40% videos are targeted against women. Why do women constitute the higher percentage among the victims of online violence? More researches will be required to make a conclusive decision. However, it can be said prima facie that it is patriarchal attitude and outlook to treat women as a marketable product to earn money. These sorts of embarrassing cooked up videos are clear violence against the victims and 75% women victims happen to be women.
Installation of a woman in the highest executive seat of the country can hardly assure a sure-fire defense against violence and torture carried out against women. As long as the women as a participatory and complementary force of the society will not be organized among themselves and will be rigidly conscious of their potentials, no real breakthrough can be made to improve the status and social dignity of the women of Bangladesh. It is really an unfortunate experience that even after achieving the highest degree from the university, 755 women can hardly shake off the conventional legacy of treating themselves as women instead of treating themselves as human beings and competent counterparts of their male colleagues.
Legal reforms are urgently needed to address te changing realities and circumstances in which todays women are working. Since the working field of women have been expanded and are being expanding day by day their exposure in the online and especially increasing proportionately. To effectively reduce and control the rate and number of online violence against women it is essential not only to formulate new laws and rules but it is also necessary to ensure the proper execution of these laws. In fact, execution is more important than mere formulation.
The writer is Assistant Professor of English, Bogura Cantonment Public School College.
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