A 15-year-old schoolgirl committed suicide being harassed by a stalker in Pirojpur’s Bhandaria upazila on Saturday. Only duty the police have done — they detained the alleged stalker. The 10th Grader Rukaiya Rupa of Bandar Government Girls’ High School was being stalked on her way to and from school on a regular basis. The youth proposed her several times, but the girl turned it down every time.
Recently, the youth allegedly circulated a fake photo of the victim through some social media accounts using a messaging app. On Friday afternoon, the stalker stopped her while she was returning home after attending coaching classes and gave her the same proposal, which she outright rejected again. At this stage, the youth threatened her that he would spread the photo to other social media users.
Coming home, Rupa told her mother about the incident and later went to her room. The girl took her life after that. The stories of ill-fated girls are all the same whatever their names are. All are the victims of the so-called patriarchal social customs, disrespect to women, moral degradation, and obviously poor law and order.
The pathetic end of Rupa’s life again proved that the authorities concerned have failed to ensure security of women, who are half of the total population. Most of the families who have young girls probably got the experience how the stalkers can create a troublesome situation in their social life. Three years ago, Khadiza Akter Nargis, was attacked by her stalker Badrul at MC College in Sylhet. It was a miracle that she was able to survive such a vicious attack on her life. But there are many others who are not as fortunate as her.
The High Court in January 2011 declared stalking of girls and women illegal and directed the government to consider the offence as sexual harassment. The ruling came amid growing incidents of stalking that led many victims to commit suicide. As per the Act, the maximum sentence for sexual harassment was ten years of imprisonment while the minimum three years. But nothing much has changed in the eight years since the ruling.
Except conducting occasional drives against sexual harassment, the law enforcement agencies have apparently failed to prevent the unsocial activities.
