Talking About Sexual Violence Against Women In Bangladesh, One Blog At A Time
Students protest the failure of police to prevent sexual harassment of a number of women during the Pahela Baishakh celebrations.
Sexual violence against women is not new in Bangladesh as bloggers came forward and opened up about their experiences.
On April 14, several women were sexually assaulted at University of Dhaka during the Bengali New Year celebrations. This had been widely discussed and deplored throughout Bangladesh, but the police haven't arrested anyone anyone in connection.
Sexual violence against women is not new in Bangladesh. According to Ain-O-Shalishi Kendra, an organization working on women rights, during the period January-March 2015 40 women were subject to sexual harassment and two other women took their own lives. There were also 123 documented cases of rape, resulting in the death of 15 women. Twenty-one of the women raped were minors between 7 and 12 years old.
But a case such as this (a group of 30 to 40 young men assaulted and sexually harassed around 20 women at the celebrations) is new for the country. After the incident, Bangla blogging platform Sachalayatan arranged a Week of Blogging and asked for entries related to harassment and domestic abuse. Many bloggers came forward and opened up about their experiences.
Sexual violence against women can happen at a young age and come from family members. Blogger Nandini Tilottoma explained what happened to her with an uncle:
One guest writer also wrote that she was sexually molested by a family member:
Many girls face harassment in the school environment, too. Blogger Ferrywalla wrote about one such experience:
Afroz discussed how her mother was verbally harassed at her workplace:
Guest writer Dossi described how a colleague filmed her secretly:
Blogger Bunohas explained how female employees can't continue with their jobs bearing the burden of motherhood.
Anika Alam quit a lucrative teaching job at a university and started a business venture. She shared what challenges female entrepreneurs face inBangladesh:
There were also male bloggers contributing to this campaign. Blogger Hasib pointed out the gender discrimination in recruitment. He analysed data from the most popular job website in Bangladesh “BDJobs”: