Rape in Bangladesh: 3 incidents logged daily in 2021
Staff Correspondent: Incidents of rape cases in recent months have raised serious concerns over the safety of women in Bangladesh with the country witnessing an average of three rape cases daily in the first eleven months of 2021. At least 1,247 women were raped in the January-November period, while 286 faced attempts at rape, Ain O Salish Kendra revealed on Thursday.
Forty-six of them died following rape while nine committed suicides. The data, compiled from ten reputed newspapers, also showed that another 121 women were victims of different forms of sexual harassment as well. The statistics revealing such horrifying pictures come a day after a woman tourist was allegedly kidnapped and gang-raped by three men when she went to Cox’s Bazar with her family on a trip on Wednesday. Despite an alarming number in the ASK statistics, human rights defenders say the real number would be much higher as the figures only come from selected media reports, while many cases go unreported.
Many victims avoid filing a case in fear of social stigma, and harassment from offenders because offenders roam free in the absence of exemplary punishment in this society, they added. The perpetrators do this again and again in the absence of exemplary punishment, and they also set themselves free easily from prison by using political power and economic power, said Maleka Banu, general secretary of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad.
“In this society, we do not throw blame at the rapists; instead we are obsessed with attacking the rape survivors,” she said. The rights defender called upon the authorities to introduce sex education from an early age as the only way to solve this problem. Sheepa Hafiza, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra, said the legislators did not believe at all that rape is a serious crime as well as a violation of human rights.
“That is why a (former) state minister is still roaming free without facing any kind of punishment even after humiliating women,” she said. “Everyone knows how easy it is to rape a woman in this country. Rapists are well aware that they will not face any consequences at the end of the day. Unfortunately, we still don’t have strong legislation that will work as a safeguard against rape,” she added. Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said the government should listen to women’s rights activists and legal experts who for years had been calling for serious reform to address Bangladesh’s rape problem and to ensure that the justice system was a safe place for survivors of sexual violence.
