After the massive public outcry over the sexual assault of several women on Pohela Boishakh in 2015, the government imposed a cut-off time on celebrations last year in an attempt to treat the symptoms of the problem while overlooking the problem itself.
Similarly this year, a cut-off time has been declared with all programmes at Dhaka University asked to wrap-up by 5pm, as instructed by Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP).
It has been two years since the disturbing pictures of around 30 men ripping off womens' clothing in broad daylight in Suhrawardy Udyan surfaced all over social media. The perpetrators of those crimes are yet to be brought to justice, despite their photos being widely circulated.
Fine arts students recreate wall art for Pohela Boishakh in Chittagong Rabin Chowdhury/Dhaka Tribune
The memories of that incident are still very fresh in most people's minds, deterring some women from going to the Dhaka University premises for Pohela Boishakh celebrations this year.
“I will not go to see the Mongol Shobhajatra this year, I still remember the images of those men tearing up women's clothes and touching them right in front of the police and they did nothing!” said Jahan Ferdous Mim, a college student.
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The lack of initiative from law enforcement agencies especially in the case of sexual harassment and assault is a major problem in Bangladesh.
Such cases of sexual assault and harassment are usually treated with a pinch of salt and peppered with notes of victim blaming, without addressing the underlying internalised patriarchal values that our law enforcers also operate from.
UNDP had initiated a gender sensitivity orientation programme in 2008 called “Police Reform Programme Phase II” and introduced the country’s first victim support centre at Tejgaon Police Station in Dhaka.
When asked what they had learned during the programme, the participating police officials declined to comment and the Dhaka Tribune could not independently verify the extent of their capacity building training in handling victims of sexual assault and abuse.
Two women dressed in Boishakhwear on a scooter in Karwan Bazar in Dhaka on April 13, 2017 Courtesy: Sushobhan Sarker
Although CCTV coverage and police special teams will be used at Ramna Batamul, Suhrawardy Udyan, DU and adjoining areas to help prevent sexual harassment, mugging and other crimes, women are still uncomfortable going to large public gatherings as justice often eludes the victim even when the perpetrators are found.
Eti Laila Kazi, a private university lecturer, told the Dhaka Tribune she wanted to go to the Pohela Boishakh celebrations at Dhaka University but thought against it as large throngs of people gathered in one place “always results in some form of sexual harassment for women”.
“I don’t want to go because women will invariably be touched inappropriately and be sexually harassed or assaulted and this will keep on happening unless people stop viewing women as objects,” she said.
“Large public gatherings are always swamped with men touching you and some kind of verbal or physical sexual harassment is inevitable and makes public celebrations lose their appeal. I wish the police took this problem seriously and made an example of some people,” she said.
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Executive Director of Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) Salma Ali told the Dhaka Tribune that exemplary punishments are needed to deter further sexual harassment.
“If people are prosecuted under due process and punished for the crime, such things could be deterred. But more often than not we see law enforcers are unable to arrest the accused or prevent such things from happening in public places,” she said.
DU authorities and student groups blamed the on-duty law enforcers for failing to arrest or even stop the attackers on April 14, 2015.
Some people did step forward to help, including Bangladesh Students' Union’s DU chapter President Liton Nandi, who was injured while trying to rescue one woman.
On Pohela Boishakh 2015, several women were sexually assaulted on the Dhaka University campus“I saw them assaulting a young woman and she fell on the ground while the youths were trying to take off her clothes,” he said.
“As I came forward to rescue her, they started beating me and I also fell down and broke my right arm. Later, I saved the woman and covered her with my Panjabi.”
Amid a wave of condemnation on social media at the time, a meme generating page on Facebook took up the cause of finding the perpetrators of the attacks.
They published the photos of some Chhatra League leaders and demanded their arrest.
On April 21, 2015, the page claimed that the government’s high officials had asked them to stop operations, although none of the admins responded to questions regarding this to verify the allegation.
The Administrator of that page, Refayat Ahmed, was arrested on December 11, 2015 for anti-state and anti-government activities.
