Rape victims, families face endless suffering

Dhaka University campus erupted in protests over the rape of one of its students, with demands made for severe punishment of the rapist Photo: Abdus Salam
Dhaka University campus erupted in protests over the rape of one of its students, with demands made for severe punishment of the rapist Photo: Abdus Salam

The victims of rape, women and children as well as their families, are harassed at every step. Their sufferings simply go on endlessly.

Families of the victims say the sufferings begin immediately after the incident. They go through a nightmare, having to face the police, hospitals and people all around them. They are humiliated. If the trial was carried out speedily, perhaps this suffering would be assuaged somewhat.

The Dhaka University student who was raped, made her statement in court. The accused rapist was arrested. A relative of the victims, on condition of anonymity, said the victim has her family by her side. The hospital, police and everyone is cooperating. But she is having to face a constant volley of questions. Teachers, women activist leaders and many called upon her at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) One-Stop Crisis Centre and she had to repeat the details of the incident to them again and again. It’s like the trauma has just begun.

Back in May 2015, a 22-year-old young woman of the Garo community had been gang raped in Dhaka city, on her way home from work. She was forcefully pulled into a microbus that night at the Kuril bus stand and raped by a group of men. The police delayed in filing her initial complaint and so five human rights organisations intervened. They filed a writ with the High Court and the High Court bench issued three rules and two directives.

But has the suffering of the young woman and her family lessened at all? Her lawyer Niparson Azim said, the statements of 17 witnesses have been recorded. Only one witness of the investigating officer (IO) is left and that has been left hanging interminably.

Speaking over cell phone, the Garo girl’s father said that his daughter was studying MA. He said, “It has been so many years, but justice has not been done. If we received justice, the suffering would lessen somewhat. Still, I tell my daughter, this was an accident. You must continue your studies and go ahead.”

In 2016, a five-year-old girl was raped and her genitals were cut with a blade. There were marks of injury made with a sharp implement on her head, neck, arms and legs. The child is having to regularly to go to the DMCH One Stop Crisis Centre, the Medical College burn unit and other units for treatment. Since the incident, she has not been able to control her urine.

Expressing her anger while talking over the cell phone, the girl’s mother said, “Where is justice? I take witnesses and simply have to come back. After the incident, they only recorded the statements of my daughter, my husband and myself. They haven’t taken the statement of any other witness or brought them to court. We are just spending money on bringing the witnesses back and forth. I think we would have got justice if we took up arbitration in the village.”

The victim child studies in Class 1. Her mother said she is losing her memory gradually. She panics when she sees any man outside of the house. The skin of her inner thighs has become dark as she cannot control her urine. They cannot afford diapers.

A young girl was raped on 2 January in Savar this year. Her birthday was on 3 January when she would be 11. Her mother said over cell phone, “It wasn’t a problem filing the case and the accused was even caught. But my daughter is so scared that she can’t stop crying. The accused had told her that if she told anyone about the incident, he would bury her under the sand and kill her mother and father.”

The mother works as a housemaid and father is a rickshaw-puller. The girl would live in the village with her grandmother and had come on a visit to Savar. She is now with her grandmother in the safe home of an NGO in the capital city. They have not informed the people back in the village about the incident out of shame.

Saima Kalam of Jhalkathi would study at Eden College in the capital city. She committed suicide in April when her lover Mahibi Hasan refused to marry her. Her mother Rubina Begum addressed a press conference, demanding justice for her daughter’s killing.

Coming to the Prothom Alo office, she handed over a CD marked ‘important file’ to this correspondent. It contained information about her daughter. The mother showed pictures of the girl and her lover in a physical relationship and said, “He had promised to marry her and raped her. Then he refused to marry her.”

The mother said, “Being a mother, I am going around with this video of my daughter having physical relations with a boy. What could be more traumatic than this?”

Executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra Sheepa Hafiz has emphatically stated that it is possible to lessen the sufferings of the victims of sexual abuse and rape as well as that of their families. First is to ensure that such incidents do not take place. And if such an incident does take place, a big question arises as to where the victims and the family are to go. The government has the mechanism and the institutional infrastructure to deal with this, but there is no coordination.

The local government has women and children protection committees at a union level. If these committees were active, then they could tell the victim where to go immediately after the incident. The national level committees must also be active. It must be monitored whether the victim gets service where they go. If not, then the responsible person must be held accountable. By involving the people in the process, it is not difficult to ensure such accountability. But the government’s political commitment is essential to ensure this.