“Violence against women in Bangladesh� Tarikul Islam BSS (Hons) 2nd Year Roll No. 004 Session : 2006-2007 Department of Peace and Conflict Studies University of Dhaka. Abstract: Violence against women is an ultimate curse for the women in all over the world. But in Bangladesh this is more over curse for the women from their very beginning to death. So, as a assignment in the discipline of state and violence this topic would be more fruitful than any other one. In my assignment papers I will make a structure and within my structure I will show an introductory aspect of violence against women in Bangladesh and its definition types like- domestic violence, tortured by husband/wife beating, dowry related violence, tortured by in-laws, polygamy, marital rape, high risk pregnancy, suicide tortured by family members, incest and rape by intimate male relations, public violence, violence in educational institute, kidnapping and abduction, eve teasing, child a bush, rape, trafficking in women and children, acid throwing, victimization by illegal fatwa, work place violence, its consequence on our economical, social, political, cultural life, conclusion and sources/ referencaes.
Introduction: Violence against women, the most pervasive human rights violation, regardless of any distinction as to geography, culture or wealth, is a great concern for the present time. It is quite difficult to mention the accurate number of survivors or victims of violence all over the world but it can be said that the numbers of survivors, including reported and unreported are innumerous. In Bangladesh, with the blessing of modern medical science this is now possible to know the sex of the infant by ultra sonogram. Generally an expected baby creates a new hope for the whole family but it is a common picture that when the family members know that the
expected baby will be a female, suddenly all the hope of the family seems to disappear. The mother of a baby girl gets comparatively less importance, care, food even medical care. Sometimes the mother of the expected baby is induced to abort. Since the betterment of that expected baby is totally dependent on her mother, so these maltreatments directly affect her growth. The women in Bangladesh facing several types of violence frequently .Such as •
Domestic violence •
Tortured by husband
•
Dowry related violence
•
Tortured by in-laws
•
Polygamy
•
Marital rape
•
High risk pregnancy
•
Suicide
•
Tortured by family members
•
Incest and rape by intimate male relation
•
Public violence
•
Violence in educational institutes
•
Kidnapping and abduction
•
Eve teasing
•
Child abuse
•
Rape
•
Trafficking in women and children
•
Acid throwing
•
Victimization by illegal fatwa
•
Work place violence
Definition:
At the outset we should understand the concept of Violence against women'-clearly for a better understanding of this report. The word Violence' means exertion of physical force so as to injure or abuse another, while the
phrase "violence against women" refers to many types of harmful behavior directed at women and girls because of their sex. In 1993, the United Nations offered the first official definition of such violence when the General Assembly adopted the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 1993. According to Article 1 of the Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women, 1993 violence against women includes: Any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in. physical", sexual12 or psychological'3 harm or 'suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or private life. From the above definition, we can get the reference of three types of violence i.e. physical, sexual and psychological violence. It is important to note here that this definition includes threat also i.e. actual act of violence is not necessary, mere threat of such acts will be enough to constitute violence.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE A home, a family should be a place of support, should be a peaceful placenot a place of cruelty and brutality. Literarily, domestic violence is that kind of violence which is committed against a woman by her near and dear male relations. All over the world, one of the most common forms of violence against women is abuse by their husbands or other intimate male partners and in-laws. Partner violence occurs in all countries and transcends social, economic, religions, and cultural groups. This is common and in most of the societies and it is often said that women should tolerate that.
Torture by Husband/Wife Beating:
The most frequently occurred and common from of domestic violence against woman in Bangladesh is torture by the husband. It is certain that actual incidents of family violence will never be quantified as victims are unprepared to complain about her situation. Under the prevalent socioeconomic cultural conditions women are compelled to be submissive, dwelling in the margins of a patriarchal society. A further factor therefore contributing to wife abuse in Bangladesh is women’s own submissiveness. She submits and accepts the violent home because of the prevailing norms and values that emphasis the marital home as the only place for a woman. The reinforces the growing feeling that here is no way out to free herself from a violent home. Dowry Related Violence It is not possible to find out when and where the custom of dowry was first started. Though in this Indo-Pak subcontinent this custom is very common but historically 'Kulin Kul Sarbaswa', a play, in 1854, sparked off social awareness regarding the dowry issue. It was an indictment against dowry system. In 1904, Begum Rokeya Shakhawat Hossain, pioneer of female education in Bangladesh strongly condemned men who demanded dowry. Torture by In-Laws In Bangladesh, after the marriage, literarily a woman leaves) her own natural family forever. When a young bride moves into her in-laws house after marriage, she arrives with very little status. She is expected to adjust very quickly to her husband's household where is placed under severe restrictions of her mother in -law. Often the mother and sister in-law torture the new bride for different reasons. One of the main reasons of torture is dowry. Sometimes the poor economic condition of her marital family, trifling matters tike failure to provide hot food or sleeping at odd time, her independence attitude tally up the list.
Polygamy Polygamy is a practice where a married man wants to marry for another time even after the existence of his wife or wives in the house. The practice of polygamy is permitted in a certain limit in Bangladesh. One Muslim male has to take free consent i.e. permission of his existing wife if he wants to marry for another time. Though the law provides that the husband has to take the consent of his existing wife but in most of the times this provision of law becomes meaningless as a woman is forced physically and mentally to give her consent. To obtain the consent of his wife, a man can also blackmail her emotionally. Often he threatened to divorce her if she does not give the consent. Marital Rape Marital rape is "just one extension of domestic violence�. It can be defined as any unwanted intercourse or penetration with the wife obtained by force, threat of force, or when the life is unable to give consent. Women who are raped by their husbands are likely to be raped many times. Marital rape can of three types, i.e. force only rape, battering rape, sadistic /obsessive rape. High Risk Pregnancy It has been believed from the very beginning of world history that one healthy mother means a healthy nation. So, women who are going to be mother deserve special, care, and attention. It is. also found that in societies where the women enjoy higher status, toere the rate of maternal morality is comparatively
low
Bangladesh
still
has
one
of
the
highest
maternal*mortality rates in the world. To ensure such a society and to make people aware 28m May of every year has been observed in Bangladesh as the "Safe Maternity Day". Suicide
The most shocking victim of suicide in the year 2003 young girl named Rumi of Khulna. This was very unfortunate that the accused of Rumi's suicide case, the police of Dawlatpur Police Station for another offence arrested Uony Molla, Mizan and Babu and they were enlarged on bail ' five days of their arrest and committed the crime just after days from getting their bail. Besides, the death of a schoolgirl, Alpina of Kishoregonj, who committed suicide to save from eve teasing of local street boys, also touched nations
Incest and Rape by Intimate Male Relations The concept incest is used to mean and include a sexual "experience by a family member or by an extended family member46 that damaged the women or female child. This is a scary .experience for the women or female child that they are abused by the persons who are very near and dear arid respected persons to them. This type of violence is going o turn into epidemic but they are not sufficiently published since everybody fears or hates to share the experience of these types of incidents with others.
Violence in Educational Institute In the year 2003, the news containing the information of violence against female students
in
the all levels
of educational institutes were very
frequent and broke all the previous records. Most of the time, the teachers were the perpetrators of this type of violence. Sometimes, the hostel Super"8 and sometime officials of management were also responsible. Serious
incidents
that were happened
in Schools49, Medical College50,
University 51 were reported. In Dhaka City, writing of a book that contained immoral, unethical and unfair lines by the head of a College gave rise to a scandalous event. After the publication of the books, before public protest and reaction the teacher was resign from his workplace.
Kidnapping and Abduction 537 women and children were reported to be kidnapped and abducted in 2003. Once again, the main targets were the teenagers and children. 361 children were kidnapped whereas 176 women were reported to be abducted. On the evening of 17th April, 2003, Shamsunnahar (17) of Feni was abducted from her home by three young men and was raped and committed suicide.
Child Abuse Children are the flowers from heaven. They need special care for the growth of their tender age. But due to the-socio-economic condition they have to sell their labour for money But most of the cases they are tortured for trifling matters I hey are treated like slaves. This is shocking to mention here that the perpetrators of this type of violence are mainly the most learned group of the society. This can be a debate whether these perpetrators can be called "White Collar Criminal�.
Rape The word 'rape' has not been defined in the Penal Code, Ixf860. But section 375 of the Penal Code, 1860 mention few circumstances the presence of which will be consider Ss rape. Rape is one of the serious forms of offence committed against the person of n woman. The consequence of rape is so severe that the law permits, under section 100 of the Penal Code, 1860 the victim of rape to cause death of the assailant. Even after this provision of law, when the law considers this offence very serious, the number of rape cases are not limiting but increasing.
Trafficking in Women and Children
The business of trafficking is very profitable to run the modern ‘slave industry’. The women and children trafficked are used in many immoral activities
including
prostitution,
pornography,
organ
transplantation.
Women and children trafficked and used for such purposes are called 'white slave' in modern sense.
According to a survey by South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in every year, at least 12 thousand Bangladesh women and children are trafficked to India. With the promise to give the job of domestic worker, with tourist visa, in every month almost 200 Bangladeshi women are trafficked in the Middle Eastern Asian countries.
Acid Throwing After the groundbreaking judgment of the High Court Division67, 'the general citizens of Bangladesh becoming more aware about Fatwa and as a result the number of illegal Fatwa is comparatively few in recent years. In 2003, 46 cases were reported in relation to Fatwa. The main grounds where the Fatwa were given were oral divorce, premarital pregnancy, rape, allegation of illegal relationship, allegation of illegal work, male entry into house, refused sexual relationship, kidnapping, love, case file on rape etc. The consequences of Fatwa were hilla" marriage, lashes, social boycott, 'deserted in village, physical/mental torture, abortion etc. The following table graph present the glimpse of Fatwa related issues in 2003.
Sources and references 01, Ameen, Nusrat: Wife Abuse in Bangladesh, june 2004, published by BNWLA 02, Committee on the Elimination of discrimination against women. May 19999, recommendations for government action regarding article 12, paragraph 31, twentieth session.
03, siddique,dr.dina m, globalization, sexual harassment and workers’ rights in Bangladesh, a study of center for policy dialogue, quoted by farid hossain in the daily news today, may11,2003. 04, liri l heise, “violence against women: an integrated, ecological model” published in violence against women, issue4, pp.262-290. 05, naher, kamrun, ‘maternal mortality is high in bangladesh’ published in “the independent”, dated December 05, 2003. Conclusion: The overview of the scope and nature of violence against women in Bangladesh leads one to conclude that there are certain critical gaps in our knowledge and police .One of the main reason is that the police makers either do not feel it is necessity ,or do not want to make public its failure to provide necessary protection to women .As has been mentioned earlier ,that there is no systematic documentation of women’s status due to a lack of proper survey or research methods and the tendency to concentrate data collection in some areas at the cost of others .It is necessary to turn ones attention to the creation of a systematic database .The purpose of a database on violence against women , whether gathered officially or unofficially , is to assist planning interventions to combat and prevent violence . once a systematic database is built ,it can be used to determine women friendly policies ,proper budget allocation ,enact or amend legislation ,along with identifying funding priorities and evaluation of existing measures ,steps , interventions and laws .besides law and order and criminal justice administration ,data on violence against women could also be used by a range of other agencies and academic disciplines committed to improving the position of women in Bangladeshi society .