Human rights activist Sultana Kamal has said the society’s prevailing attitudes towards women have been holding back gender equality despite the significant progress.
“Bangladesh has set an example in the area of women’s emancipation. Women have become conscious about their rights, they are constantly fighting to protect these rights, they have become prominent in different sectors – in business, service industry, in education,” she said.
“However, we still have a long way to go. The biggest challenge is to change the attitudes towards women,” the executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK) said in a conversation with the Dhaka Tribune.
“Today’s women are becoming economically solvent. On the other hand, they are facing exploitation in many ways. This is a contradiction,” she said.
Sultana Kamal has been working on gender and civil rights issues in Bangladesh for over three decades. She said she would define women’s empowerment as a woman’s opportunity to live an independent life, making her own decisions and having control over her life.
She believes economic solvency alone will not help liberate women.
“The sociocultural atmosphere needs to change. Women should not be subjected to negative reactions for their attire. If they fear being harassed at home and outside, in their mind they will never be independent,” she said.
“The rate of child marriage is not yet under control. The perception about early marriage is that married status ensures women a safe and secured life,” she said.
“Violence against women has in fact gone up. The manifestations of these incidents are unprecedented,” she added.
On gender equality, Sultana Kamal said: “We are in a paradoxical situation. Safety policies have been taken to protect women but sufficient measures have not been taken to implement those policies.”
She said the society had placed a glass ceiling above which no women could go.
“No political party talks about women’s rights in a straightforward manner. It is as if they fear inciting the anger of men and losing votes,” she said.
Education should be given top priority among the steps required to achieve women’s independence, she said, adding that higher enrolment rate of girls in primary education was an encouraging situation.
“At the same time, the dropout rate for girls is also quite significant, which is disturbing in many ways,” she pointed out.
Girls from rural areas are still struggling to come forward as they have to bow down to the pressure of poverty, insecurity, lack of access to information and facilities – which weakens them.
“Otherwise, they would have had the chance to stand up as independent women in the society,” Sultana Kamal observed.