A recent study has found that 53% of Bangladeshi people think that rape victims and sexual harassment victims are to be blamed for bringing violence upon them.
The findings from the study, titled “Impact of easy accessibility of pornography on the internet and its relevance with violence against women and girls in Bangladesh”, were revealed in a press conference at the National Press Club on Thursday.
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The study, conducted by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) and Dnet, covered 518 people from various areas. Of them, 47% were female and 53% male.
About 73% of the participants think that a woman's life is successful when she is married off to a suitable man.
A total of 68% opined that the women who are independent, do not follow social norms, and behave like a man deserve derogatory comments.
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The study also revealed that 52% of people think women should not work in the media and the entertainment industries, late shifts at night, and travel with men.
While presenting the findings, Sirajul Hossain, Dnet’s chief innovation officer, said that the good girl bad girl archetype leads people to think that a supposedly bad girl can be attacked and abused.
“Our research found that a significant percentage of people think women who wear western clothes, stay out at night, hang out with men, and post videos on social media deserve the hostile and misogynistic attitude,” he said.
The study found that 32% of female respondents and 42% of male respondents think “bad girls” are worse than “bad boys”.
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Sirajul Hossain also said that, although the government banned many international porn sites, there was a huge number of people using social media sites to promote soft pornographic content such as erotica, phone sex, and IMO video sex.
Shaheen Anam, executive director of MJF, said that the people in Bangladesh were getting wrong ideas about sex due to easy access to the internet and pornography.
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“A wholesome sex education is the key to educating people about sex. They are getting unrealistic and misleading ideas from pornographic contents,” she said.
The researchers think that religious extremism and radical propaganda increase misogyny and sexism – both of which are the key reason for violence against women associating progressive women as “bad” women.
They recommended that the mainstream media include natural and healthy sexuality so that it does not become synonymous to pornography.
