With the global 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence already underway, now is the time for us to take a collective moment as a nation and come to terms with the fact that gender-based violence is still an unfortunate reality in our society.
Indeed, gender-based violence -- carried out inordinately against women in our country -- is a societal issue. Violence against women has been a prevalent phenomenon in Bangladesh with astounding numbers of cases recorded: About 50% of the female populace in Bangladesh has reportedly, at some time or another, been subjected to physical and/or sexual abuse at least once from their male partners.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, Bangladesh witnessed a steep rise in instances of violence against women according to data gathered by Dhaka Metropolitan Police as a total of 56 rape cases and 132 cases of other forms of violence against women were filed in March 2020 in the capital, while it was 45 and 120, respectively, in February of that year. Given that practically the entire nation was complying with quarantine rules, it stands to reason that most of the violence women were subjected to during that period was domestic.
While the root cause of our gender-based violence issues lies in retrograde societal attitudes towards women and womanhood in general, murky laws when it comes to rape and sexual assault exacerbate these issues. A good example would be our legal system’s incredibly troubling stance when it comes to marital rape, which says, unless the wife is under 13 years of age, marital rape is not considered an offense.
In addition to vigorous awareness campaigns our country also needs sweeping policy-level changes, changes that would ensure women are not held back from being able to charge their assaulters.
Gender-based violence is not an issue we can simply sweep under the rug.
