Cumilla witnesses alarming number of rapes in 2020

Illustration of violence against women

Cumilla saw an alarming number of sexual assaults on women, children to the elderly last year. A total of 367 victims put a strain on the locals of Cumilla, reports news agency UNB.

The rape victims included women across all age groups, from four years of age to over 70, according to data from Cumilla Medical College Hospital’s medicine wing. The statistics from the Forensic Medicine Department confirmed the matter.

Urging for generating awareness in both women and men, Saifun Nahar Mita, a woman leader and president of Cumilla Metropolitan Awami League, said, “Our men must be respectful of women. Women are men’s carers. Our mothers are insulted if men treat women poorly.”

She further said the sexual violence has now turned into a great pestilence and to escape from such a situation we need to awaken our morality.

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In this context, Sharmin Sultana Baren, head of the forensic medicine department at Cumilla Medical College Hospital pointed to social degradation as a reason for sexual harassment.

“Due to the coronavirus pandemic more women have been facing sexual violence. With the closure of schools and colleges, the moral decay of the youth is in decadence,” she said.

In some cases, results in the forensic department show the allegations are being fabricated. Some women aged 60 to 70 complain of being assaulted and exaggerate to frame the adversary, she added.