Annul the evidence act

An article of the flawed Evidence Act needs to be amended immediately to contain the rise of incidents of violence against women. This is a black law itself, an insult to women. It lets the victim's character to be questioned and in a society that is accustomed to accepting violence against women without complaint. It has been used for character assassination.

It is very sad that we could not change such a clause although fellow continental neighbours India and Pakistan have done so. We cannot deny the fact that violence against women has a political aspect. We cannot deny that the law plays a significant role in formulating the perspective about women. This is not the only clause that belittles women. There are many more that need amendment, too.

The two-finger test to testify a rape is never 100 per cent correct and this cannot lead us to any conclusion. The experts have long been aware of this fact, but they did not consider a woman as a human being. As a result, Bangladesh had to wait for decades to amend this. Only the organisations that work to establish women rights raised their voice. But our lawmakers never said anything about this law. They never discussed this in parliament and so committee took the initiative to look into it.
This two finger test was declared void in 2018, on the ground that this has no scientific base. Human rights activists ask - why does the rape victim always have prove that she has been raped and why does the rapist not have to prove that he did not rape the victim? But to take such things forward, we need sensitive people in the parliament, which sadly is not the case here.
The lawmakers should look in the mirror. In the last decade they hardly did anything that ensures better security for the women. It is totally unacceptable that the parliament will be indifferent when scores of such incidents are being reported every month. A few days back, a number of MPs demanded 'crossfire' for the rapists, which the women know, will never ensure their security, rather will only weaken their chances of getting justice.
We want to believe that many of our lawmakers are worried about the increasing number of incidents of violence against women. Especially those who wanted the rapists to be killed in 'crossfire' should raise their voice to annul the debatable Article 155(4). We need to amend a few laws learning from the experience of our neighbours. We believe that the situation will improve if they act immediately.