Women face discrimination, violence on street, at home

A photograph taken during the anti-discrimination student movement has gone viral on social media Facebook recently. Two women, one wearing burqa and the other wearing T-shirt with pants were standing side by side wielding sticks in their hands in that photo.

Questions such as ‘If questions were not raised during the movement, then why now?’, ‘Why does a woman have to face harassment for ‘not wearing a scarf’ in this time?’, and ‘Why does a harasser gets ‘welcomed’ with garlands?’ are circulating on the social media.

An interview featuring a young woman has gone viral also. She was asked, “What would you like to do if all the men in the world had vanished for 24 hours?” In response the woman had said, “I would have walked on streets at night. I would walk the streets at 3:00 am and see how it feels.”

Every woman in this country can feel how ‘big of a wish’ it is for a woman to want to walk the streets alone at night. Women here have to think about their safety even during the day.

The incidents of suppression, repression, and harassment of women and girl child on streets, in public spaces, on university campuses, in playgrounds, and at home have added to women’s fear. An intolerable and unsafe environment is disrupting women’s usual movement.

On 1 March, two women were beaten and injured creating a mob on the issue of smoking in public place in Mohammadpur area of Dhaka. On 5 March, allegations were raised against a man named Mostafa Asif Arnob of harassing a female student for ‘fixing the scarf’ on Dhaka University campus. The man works as an assistant binder at the central library of Dhaka University.

The man was arrested when the woman had filed a case. The incident did not end there as a group became active in support of the accused man and against that woman. People supported by that community welcomed the man with garlands of flowers and a turban after he was freed on bail the next day.

Earlier, there have also been incidents of women being sexually harassed during a bus robbery, repression and rape inside and outside of the home, as well as women football matches being barred in two places of the country. Cyber-attacks on women leading the movement during July mass uprising are there as well.

Rights activists are being noticed to express anger against this sort of incidents in the past few months after the change in political power.

New incidents keep occurring amidst the continuance of mass march towards the home ministry, protest procession, torchlight procession, and protest rally since mid-February against rape and repression.

Rights activist Marzia Prova has been actively participating in these protest and movements. She told Prothom Alo, “There are various patriarchal attitudes prevalent in our current society that keeps the tendency of women repression going.”

“Considering that, I want to say that the interim government has not taken any initiative neither to control the recent incidents of harassment against women in public places, starting from harassment propaganda online against protesting women immediately after the mass uprising, nor to improve the law and order system. Rather, their silence reveals their unfaltering support for the religious political parties.”

Prothom Alo tried to contact the harassment victim women from the incidents on Dhaka University campus and in Lalmatia area through people acquainted to them. Those women said that they are so devastated mentally that they do not want to talk about the matter.

Although the victim from the incident on Dhaka University campus had filed a case, she does not wish to continue it any longer. Meanwhile, no case has been filed in connection to the incident of two women being beaten centering the issue of smoking in public. 

Student Federation of Bangladesh’s Dhaka University unit member Seema Akhter was present with the victims at the police station in both of those cases. Speaking on the incident involving scarf, Seema Akhter told Prothom Alo that the victim woman is mentally devastated. She wants to withdraw the case for safety reasons.

However, the way accused Mostafa Asif Arnob has been greeted with garlands of flowers after being released from custody will have a terribly negative impact on the society.

Women will be scared to get out of the home. She said a group of people are trying not to allow any space to women. They are highly active against women online. They are trying to hold the mass-uprising questionable.

In the incident of a mob beating two women centering the matter of smoking in public, Jahangirnagar University student Riddho Anindya Ganguly was present at the police station. One of the two women is a junior of his campus.

While describing the incident Riddho said, “There was a mob of 100 to 150 people outside of Mohammadpur Police Station. The victims wanted to file a case. One of those women had flung a teacup at the attacker in self-defense. Making an issue of that, the man wanted to file a counter-case against them. Later, none of the parties filed a case once they had reached an agreement.”

Many must remember Mongoli Bagchi, a local football player of Batiaghata Upazila in Khulna. A year and a half ago, she was beaten and her head was cracked over a football game.

She was teased saying, “Why a girl of this age is playing in shorts?” Three other teenage players were injured in the beating. A case filed over this incident against three locals is still in proceeding.

However, the scary part is that Mongoli is now under pressure again. She has left the mess she used to live at and has returned home in fear as a group has become active against women’s football again.

On 29 January, a women’s friendly football match was canceled after the tin-built fence was of Tilakpur High School ground in Akkelpur upazila of Joypurhat was vandalised by a mob. Later on 5 February, the upazila administration invited a women’s football team from Dhaka and organised another match on the same field in the presence of thousands of spectators.

Then on 6 February, a match between the Joypurhat women’s football team and Rajshahi women’s football team was canceled due to threats of demonstration in Taraganj upazila of Rangpur.

The sections of women and children repression prevention act remain more or less the same as before. Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Bangladesh published ‘2024 Violence against Women Survey’ report on this 27 February.

According to that report, intimate partner violence (IPV) is so widespread for women in Bangladesh, that about 70 per cent women have experienced at least one form of it – physical, sexual, emotional, and economic violence as well as controlling behaviours – in their lifetime. For 41 per cent of women, this violence occurred in the past 12 months.

When looked at the statistics from the Police Headquarters, the number of cases filed under women and children repression prevention act is lower in 2024 compared to 2023.

However, quite a few incidents of violence against women and girl children have left a deep mark on people’s minds, especially the incident of women being sexually harassed during a bus robbery. Robbers sexually harassed women passengers while robbing the bus travelling from Dhaka to Rajshahi on 17 February.

According Police Headquarters data, there have been 17,571 cases registered on allegation of violence against women and children. Of them, 6,867 cases have been filed between August and December. Meanwhile, there were 18,941 cases registered in 2023. And, there have been 1,440 cases filed in January 2025.

Despite repeated calls from the civil society to improve the law and order situation, there has been no promising response from the government levels. Especially, the comment home affairs adviser Lieutenant General (retd) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury made on the Lalmatia incident have caused negative reactions.

He had said, “As far as I know, they (the two young girls) were reportedly smoking cigarettes and some people were going to the mosque for prayers from there. When they (group of people) intervened, tea was thrown at them.” He added, “Smoking in public is an offence for both men and women. Therefore, I request all that no one smokes in public spaces.”

The public expect some visible action from the government to strictly crack down on women abusers instead of such irresponsible comments. Otherwise, the family of the child from Magura who after being abused is fighting for her life in the hospital will not be able to consider this country their own.

Citing the case of the child from Magura district, Bangladesh Mahila Parishad president Fauzia Moslem told Prothom Alo, “If we avoid the responsibility, we will become guilty to the child.”

Speaking on the recent incidents she said, “The criminals are being sheltered indirectly. The government’s stand is extremely feeble and unacceptable. We are hurt that no comments are coming from the ministry of women and children affairs. In this situation it’s difficult for the women movement to accomplish something alone. The students and civil society have to protest together with the women movement.”