Everything that is wrong with our society's approach to women is reflected in the recent rape of an eight-year-old in Magura. As revealed by reports, the alleged perpetrators and abettors of this abominable crime are the child's relatives—her sister's in-laws. They not only tried to cover it up by denying the victim immediate medical attention, but the sister was also physically assaulted by her husband to prevent her from speaking out. Even the sister's mother-in-law tried to mislead doctors about the child's injuries after taking her to hospital. Meanwhile, the sister herself previously faced sexual violence threats from the alleged rapist—she had returned to her parents' home in fear of being attacked only to be sent back to her in-laws, this time with her younger sister. Every aspect of this crime or its build-up reeks of the toxic patriarchy entrenched in our society.

Read more

Fear on the streets: a gift for women, from men

Even on International Women's Day, as protests swept across the country demanding punishment for the perpetrators of the above case, five more rape allegations involving girls aged between 4 and 10 emerged from four districts. It is deeply alarming and shameful that not a single day passes without the fear that a girl/woman, regardless of how young or old, will fall victim to sexual and physical violence in this country. According to the Human Rights Support Society, at least 6,305 women and girls were raped in the past five years—an average of more than three rapes per day. A separate analysis by this newspaper, based on Ain o Salish Kendra's data, found that one woman is raped every nine hours, and three out of every five victims of sexual violence are children or adolescents. Even the most recent Violence Against Women Survey Bangladesh 2024 has revealed that adolescent girls are more vulnerable to both intimate and non-intimate partner violence than older age groups.

Read more

Our democracy needs women

Against this backdrop, simply arresting perpetrators is not enough—they must be punished, too. As per a report by this daily, convictions occurred in only 1.48 percent of the 20,914 violence against women and children cases filed through 14 One-Stop Crisis Centres between 2001 and July 2024. Clearly, without overhauling the judicial process, perpetrators will continue to commit crimes with impunity. Moreover, there must be robust education and awareness programmes to teach boys and men about respect and proper behaviour toward women. The government's initiative to set up 130 camps across the country to ensure women's and children's safety sounds promising, but it must not become just another underutilised programme like the helplines. It must deliver results.