Dhaka city eve teasing and its distorted views

Dhaka city eve teasing has become the burning issue for the country because of its adverse effects on women, especially for the teenage girls.

The fact that eve teasing in Dhaka city, the capital of Bangladesh, has become a massive issue in the last few years is a matter of concern. The practice of eve teasing is a form of sexual assault that ranges from brushing in public places to making sexual evocative remarks in public. Recent survey show, this type of actions has spread to mobile phone and mobile tracking.

Eve teasing in Dhaka has no bounds. Every other person on the streets tends to verbally assault women ranging from rich to poor, being literate or uneducated. It is very sad that a recent survey shows a healthy number of educated boys from reputed families’ are very much involved in this treacherous act towards women. Quoting a teenage girl’s statement “despite living in an area such as Dhaka cantonment, I have to hear the remarks from boys while returning home each day”. Statistics suggests that 32% of eve teasers are students, 33% are middle aged men and 35% are anti-socials.

Dhaka city eve teasing common scenario:

A common scenario of defining how women are sexually harassed would be the fact that teasers wait mostly in schools, in collages or they just sit outside the houses and as soon as they cite girls walk past them, they tend to start commenting on them, pass dirty jokes, sly whistles, uncivilized laughter and sometimes reaching the extreme extent of rude publicity. The society often blames the women or girls stating that they aggravated the teasers by failing to wear proper and modest clothes. But are these statements placed by the society fact or fiction?

On the contrary, those wearing decent or traditional clothes are found to be the victims of eve teasing more than others to some extent.

In Bangladesh, almost 90% of girls aged 10-18 are victims of public sexual harassment, according to the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association. Most cases of sexual harassment are unreported and unpunished due to the young girls’ fear of further physical and sexual harm, being socially rebuked, or becoming the subject of local “social gossip.”

Bound to domestic servitude and with little mobility, these adolescent girls find themselves deprived of both educational opportunities and social outlets. Due to eve teasing, there has been a substantial increase in the drop-out rate of girls from schools and collages as parents are parents are afraid and feel insecure. This form of safety often leads to home schooled, decrease in the literacy rate of Bangladesh or even early marriage. Victims are sometimes forced into marriage before they are mentally or physically matured enough. They are also vulnerable to the health risks associated with early marriage and pregnancy.

The government of Bangladesh has pursued a number of legal actions in order to minimize the eve teasing incidents in Dhaka city, violence against women and uphold their rights. Interestingly, as eve teasing has no involvement in physical violence, thus these laws of our country reject it as a violence act. Thus victims are not taken seriously by the police or other authority. Facts suggest that eve teasing leads to a sort of mental imbalance of the victim or even suicide which can be classified under physical violence.

Though a lot of law amendments have been made recently against eve teasing and certain measurements have been taken by the Government of Bangladesh but all of these are somewhat vague or not strong enough to stop these perfidious people who are a disgrace to our society. These laws will only be applicable when we as a nation act and take a step to stop this crime against the women of our country as they are and should be considered as equals.