The ongoing spate of violence against women and children has reached a new height with rape incidents taking some unprecedented barbaric forms in some parts of the country. Abduction, murder and physical torture are also rampant. Incidents of dowry, dowry related violence such as physical torture and murder for dowry were common phenomenon, particularly in the rural areas. As a whole the year’s recorded facts and figures unearth a sad episode of the state of women in Bangladesh.
Women’s rights to equality and affirmative action in respect to equality are guaranteed in the Constitution. According to the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, all citizens are equal before the law and are entitled to equal protection of the law; the state shall not discriminate against any citizen on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth; women have equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and public life; nothing shall prevent the state from making special provisions in favor of women or for the advancement of any backward section of the population. The situation for girls and women in Bangladesh is changing for the better, especially in terms of economic participation. The past decades have brought in significant improvements, including in terms of labor force participation or access to better sexual and reproductive health care, as evidenced by a drop in maternal mortality ratios. However for women from poor, marginalized communities, and those living in remote locations, reproductive health related morbidity and mortality remains a serious challenge.
Nutritional status of women and girls is marked by sharp differences with that of men and boys. Health care for women is often restricted to their reproductive health. General health of women at all ages is often neglected. Women are married at a much lower age than men; mean age at marriage of women is 20.0 while that of men is 27.6. Early marriage, repeated pregnancy, and long child bearing spans have serious implications for women’s low nutritional status and high maternal mortality rate (4.4 per 1000 live births). As a whole, Bangladesh offers a society unfriendly towards women, to a great extent.
Undoubtedly, rape is a very depressing picture. This is the most heinous form of crime against women. Women have, for long, been being victimized thorough rape for, in cases, mere illicit erotic lust of men, or, in some other, as a means to express and expose masculine superiority over femininity. But the difference between rape in other countries and that in Bangladesh lies there that here the rapists go with impunity in most of the cases. A few convictions are reported, but that seems tiny in front of the massive scale of rape. It has twofold impacts on the society — firstly, it breaks down women’s mental and physiological strength, and, secondly, it poses the most serious threat to women’s economic as well as social empowerment. But bring an end result of national underdevelopment.
In most cases women are deprived of participation in any decision-making process in the family. Their opinion carries little weight in family matter, children’s education, marriage, divorce and guardianship of child, their own reproductive rights and even in case of choosing a job. Apart from these deprivations, women are also treated unequally regarding property. However, through a Muslim woman can claim half of the share from her ancestral property according to Islamic Sharia, she would rather get at least a part of it, lest her relation with her own family is severed. Hindu women get only limited share in the paternal property.
This actually makes the Hindu women deprived of their inherent and constitutionally guaranteed rights. There is no system of divorce in Hindu law, which again tells badly upon the rights of Hindu women. The situation is unspeakable for a Hindu Widow in that she can’t remarry under the existing laws of Bangladesh, although legislative changes to this effect have been brought about in India. Recently, it has been changed in Bangladesh also. In case of women belonging to Christian community, the same problem occurs while seeking divorce. It is because, there is no divorce allowed in Christian law.
Although it is a criminal offence, domestic violence is not exposed to the social attention in Bangladesh. An inherent barrier between domestic violence and other forms of violence has developed in this society. Very few cases are reported and number of cases filed on most of the issues (expect for murder and grievous physical assault) is almost nil.
(Dr. Forqan is former Deputy Director General, Bangladesh Ansar & VDP)
