Development activists at a press conference mentioned that protecting legitimate rights of the women together with freeing them from all sorts of violence could be the effective means of overall development of the society and the nation as well.
They also emphasised the need for freeing the society from gender discriminations in the greater interest of establishing a non-discriminatory and equitable society for taking the nation forward successfully.
Association for Community Development (ACD), a rights-based non-government organization, hosted the press conference at its office in Rajshahi on Sunday ahead of International woman’s Day scheduled to be observed on March 8.
Executive Director of ACD Salima Sarwar, local unit president of Bangladesh Mohila Parishad Kolpona Roy and Executive Director of Lady’s Organization for Social Welfare Shahnaz Parveen spoke on the occasion.
During her concept paper presentation, Bilkish Ara Chowdhury, Programme Officer of ACD, portrayed different forms of violence and repression against women. She termed the violence against women as a major violation of human rights and said the society must be freed from this curse.
Salima Sarwar said violence including the domestic ones against women is not only a loss to the victim but also to society and the nation as well. Stopping violence against women has become an urgent need for freeing the society from the great loss together with achieving peace and prosperity in the society and nation.
To this end, she viewed importance should be given on women empowerment both socially and politically and prevention of early marriage, sexual harassment and other violence against women.
Collective efforts to end all sorts of disparity and violence against women especially girls is very much important for restoring gender parity based society.
