Violence against women breaks all records
Murder of Sohagi Jahan Tanu, Suraiya Akter Risha, Mahmuda Akter Mitu (wife of a Police Superintendent) etc. and brutal attack on Khadiza raised storms of protest all over the country
Saiful Islam Azad
Violence against women in different ways has been common affairs in our country. The country has been experiencing a series of sexual abuse, rape and other forms of violence against women and children for few years and from the year 2016 it shoots up rapidly. According to a data released by the One-Stop Crisis Cell (OCC), violence against women and children (Jan-Oct, 2016) were more awful than those of the previous three consecutive years. Only this year from January to October there took place a total of 8022 cases (including physical assault (6282), sexual assault (681), burn (47), acid burn (59), mentally abuse (715) and others 238. But in 2015, 2014 and 2013 total violations were recorded as 6016, 7440 and 4391 respectively. It proves that the trends of violation against women are increasing rapidly throwing the one-half of the total population into most vulnerable situation.
When a society lacks the sense of ethics and humanitarian values, then all sorts of cruel acts take place. According to a data released by the Bangladesh Mohila Parishad in 2015 more than 362 women and children became victims of indecent assaults, of which 22 committed suicides. While in 2016 at least 4526 women have fallen victims to different types of violence such as rape, torture,
sexual assault, eve-teasing, acid
throwing, etc.
More than 870 women and girls were raped. A total of 187 have fallen victims of eve-teasing and sexual assault of which five committed suicides. Another source says that over 300 hundred women have been killed from January to September in 450 incidents. This is a partial scene of the reality. In most cases these are unreported or unnoticed due to fear of even more harassment from law enforcers or local influential persons. Again in most brutal cases, we see that the gravity of the respective crime is not taken seriously and the culprits can get away with the help of influence and money.
It makes us think of our society, to what level the moral degeneration has descended. We are astonished to see that a helpless father on the headline of a leading national daily on 22 November, 2016. He has lost his both legs for protesting the stalking of his daughter. The stalker with his collaborators beat the man on his legs so severely that the physicians could not but amputated both his legs. The unfortunate man was a poor farmer named Shahanur Biswas of the village Naldanga in Kaliganj Upajila of Jhenidah. But when he was struggling with his life and to get justice as well then his family had fallen under the threat of being driven out of their home by the criminals. In that year a man was brutally killed in Manikgonj for protesting the teasing of his school-going daughter by a miscreant. In Savar a garment worker was stabbed to death for not responding to his ill proposal. Two girls student of a nursing institute were raped by their classmates. Murder of Sohagi Jahan Tanu, Suraiya Akter Risha, Mahmuda Akter Mitu (wife of a Police Superintendent) etc. and brutal attack on Khadiza raised storms of protest all over the country.
There are hundreds of such evidences where people had to lose their lives for protesting the stalking of their daughters, sisters or relatives. Sometimes the higher court issues orders spontaneously to the police to arrest the main criminals, though it is not possible for the court to pass orders in every instance. But we see that the victims do not get justice in maximum cases and the criminals move open under the strong shed of some powerful persons having political background. We see that even law enforcers often hesitate to intervene in those incidents.
But there are strong laws. According to the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, the maximum sentence for sexual harassment is 10 years of imprisonment, and the minimum is three years. Yet sexual assaults are increasing rapidly. In this regard Salma Ali, executive director of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association said that incidents of violence against women are on the rise as offenders are going unpunished. She further said, Had the government ensured punishment of perpetrators through speedy trial in at least the sensational cases, the cases of rape and violence would have been reduced.
Now the situation is so alarming that any female irrespective of young, aged, minor, even infants are becoming victims of rape, assaults, or other types of violence. I think the total attitude towards women is changing day by day. Now the males, remarkably the youths are losing respect towards females. They are thinking women to be an object of pleasure only, not as a human being. So, today women are secured nowhere. They are not safe in roads, at schools, colleges, universities, coaching centers, public transports, launches, hotels and restaurants, in offices and anywhere. Even they are not safe in their families and relatives house.
Some teachers of schools, colleges or universities are involved in some heinous activities like sexual harassment. They are stigmatizing the traditional sacred relations between teachers and students. The female students are being harassed even by their classmates, boyfriends or some other students. There are hundreds of examples or incidents of harassing the female students. But the scene behind the screen is more dangerous. In maximum cases the authorities are reluctant to take any administrative or legal actions against the notorious teachers. Rather they try to conceal the cases terming it as baseless. The working women of different government or non-government offices have to face the same tragedies. The bosses or colleagues take opportunity of some delicate moments such as-- promotion, transfer, posting, salary, increment, appointment letters, dismissal, etc.
But in the past days sexual assaults or stalks were not so pervading like the present days. There existed other types of violence, such as mental or physical torture demanding dowry, failing to give birth of male child, divorce, etc. These are still prevalent in our society. A new dimension has added to the violence during the last two decades when the internet facilities have become open to all. The western countries having free-sex culture are spreading pornography through the internet. By means of smart phones, laptops and tablets people of all ages have come in touch of pornography, particularly the young boys and girls. It can undoubtedly be assumed that exposure to pornography threatens to make children victims of sexual violence. Now the internet (facebook, you tube, etc.) is distributing child pornography so widely that the sexual predators are being influenced to acting out what they see, including sexual assault, rape, and child molestation. The more pornography these individuals access, the higher the risk of their acting out what they see.
According to one study, early exposure (under 14 years of age) to pornography is related to greater involvement in deviant sexual practice, particularly rape. Slightly more than one-third of the child molesters and rapists in this study claimed to have at least occasionally been incited to commit an offense by exposure to pornography. Among the child molesters incited, the study reported that 53 percent of them deliberately used the stimuli of pornography as they prepared to offend (Source--internet). However, since pornography has a new door to the home, school, college, and library through the internet, it is important for us to look at the many ways that pornography can potentially harm our children as well as the youths of our society. Its awful that most of the people of our society are being addicted to pornography and thus we see that the women of our country are becoming victims of different kinds of sexual harassments.
Pornography encourages over-sexuality which persuades the adult persons to get involved in adultery, fornication, etc. Its effects on human character are manifold. Pornography destroys the sacred sense towards women. They think women not as human being, but as enjoyable things only.
Del. Robert G. Marshall, a Virginia lawmaker has proposed a resolution to the General Assembly to do something to address the pornography epidemic that is harming the people of the Commonwealth and the nation as pornography leads to many social problems. The legislation frames pornography not just as a moral scourge that leads to infidelity, the hypersexualization of teenagers and deviant sexual arousal, but as a weapon against women. The measure blames pornography for low self-esteem and body image disorders and devotes a lot of attention to the objectification of women and girls....pornography treats women as objects and commodities for the viewers use, it teaches girls that they are to be used and teaches boys to be users; and whereas, pornography normalizes violence and abuse of women and children.
Of late Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (BTRC) has blocked more than 500 pornography websites as part of major morality drive. They said, Were blocking the porn sites in a bid to protect our children and youths from the harmful impact of pornography. Now more than a third of Bangladeshs 160 millions of under-aged teenagers who browse with smart phones, laptops and tablets. They marked it as part of a major effort to promote our culture and moral values. Its indeed a wise decision. Though we cannot remove the prevailing violence against women overnight, yet the government must take some major initiatives to address the problem.
The writer is a freelance journalist
