Woe for the eve teasers

Eve teasers belong in jail. Photo: Doug Berry

ON May 4th the internet news site Tazakhobor.com reported that, for the very first time, six young men aged between 16 and 22 were convicted for "sexual harassment" in Bangladesh. They were arrested in front of Gono Bidya school in Narayanganj where they were trying to harass young female students. All of them were sentenced to jail for seven days. The sentence should have been for a longer term.
The fear of going to jail will deter most harassers from teasing young girls. No one wants to go to jail. A lower court in Narayanganj district declared the verdict in accordance with Section 34 of the code of criminal procedure. This decision was a welcome change for everyone concerned.
This was only a small victory. In the last few months, eve teasers have taken over the city streets. With easy access to internet and mobile phones, young men are e-mailing, text messaging and leaving sexually explicit messages to girls. When the girls are out in public mobile phone cameras are used to take disturbing, graphic photographs, which are later distributed to the like-minded ones.
It is not a city problem alone -- young rural girls going to school are also as affected by this kind of torment by guys older than them. Some girls have simply stopped going to school to avoid harassment, bodily injuries and even death in some sad cases. It is happening all over our country. If challenged, the perpetrators beat up and torture the girl's family members. They are simply not intimidated. They come in a group.
Women/girls have the right to share the same public spaces, buses and schools. Men who are making it difficult for young women to be up and about should be aware now that the public and law enforcement people are onto them and, if caught, they will be severely punished. A much harsher law will be enacted now. Their unacceptable behaviour will not go unpunished now, and they will have to take responsibility for deaths of girls due to suicide as a result of harassment.
Their teasing is making young girls feel utterly helpless. They are unable to cope with such belittlement and do not know how to defend themselves against such unseemly and unjustified vulgar activities. They do not usually tell their parents because of the shame and stigma.
They do not understand why they suddenly become objects of sexual desire to young men. A mother or a female teacher almost never explains puberty to them. Ultimately, unable to deal with such an enormous psychological burden, they look for an escape and think that self-immolation is their only choice. To them, death seems a permanent solution so that none can cause them any pain.
According to statistics, in the last three years thirty-two students committed suicide as they were continuously being harassed while out in public.
The reported deaths are causing an uproar in our country. Finally, it has received the attention it deserved in order to change the law. Recently, there was a seminar in Dhaka where creation of a safe environment for young girls/students was discussed. Home Minister Sahara Khatun and Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid were present.
There were many heads of educational institutions in attendance. They all were in agreement that teasing of young girls by juvenile delinquents must stop, that no teenage girl should become a victim of such abuse that she seeks to commit suicide as her only way of salvation.
At the seminar, the speaker of the parliament, Abdul Hamid, emphasised the passing of new laws in order to prevent the culprits from committing such crimes. They keep on harassing girls because their unacceptable behaviour is often ignored and they do not feel any responsibility for such deaths. The speaker called on everyone to act in a body to prevent such deaths as the government alone cannot handle it.
The home minister also urged the law enforcement agencies to keep vigil to catch the perpetrators. She put them on high alert. The education minister proposed an allotted day to raise awareness against teasing of any kind .
Women for Women chairperson Salma Khan blamed the political parties for having an unholy nexus with the immoral young men to get political backing. She urged them not to shield those who are responsible for the deaths of young girls. The panel adopted a zero-tolerance policy with regard to girls' harassment.
Human rights groups had a panel discussion on television, where Dr. Hamida Hussain and advocate Sultana Kamal strongly urged the government to change the laws and see that the offenders are punished severely. There was participation by young girls in the audience. They are afraid and expressed their concerns in candid terms. There was exchange of ideas, and probable solutions were discussed.
Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid is very proactive. He kept his word. Education Day was observed all across our country on the June13. A procession led by him was organised by the home ministry, where thousands of students, teachers and parents participated. Many political leaders and social and human rights activists also took part. The procession ended up at the Central Shaheed Minar.
Nurul Islam Nahid emphasised the safety of young girls and vowed that harassment would not be tolerated anymore. He urged the girls to be assertive and to inform the guardians and school administrators about any incident of harassment. He also conducted an oath taking ceremony.
The highly publicised protest was endorsed by prominent educators. Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Prof A.A.M.S. Arefin Siddique and Campaign for Popular Education Executive Director Rasheda K. Chowdhury, attended the rally at Shaheed Minar.
With this kind of exposure one would think that the eve teasers will back off and leave the girls alone. So we thought! The June 17 issue of the Daily Star reported "stalkers kill one girl, throw acid on another." It is the same story all over again. One girl became a victim of stalkers in Shatkhira and another one in Noakhali.
One girl was mutilated for rejecting a love proposal in a remote area of the village on her way to school. The other girl's face and upper part of the body was burnt. In the middle of the night, her stalker broke into her house where she was asleep with her older sister and her young nephew and doused her with acid. She is in critical condition in Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burn unit.
What other measures can be taken to stop this kind of sadistic game by young men when the girls reject their unjustified proposals? The law enforcement community should demonstrate that such behaviour will not be tolerated by arresting the criminals and putting them in jail. The courts should not grant them any bail either. After the trial, the perpetrators should be put away for many years. The law must send a much stronger message and keep at it until this problem is under control.
Now, everyone can join hands to make sexual harassment an issue for a social movement, as was laid out by the education minister. As is evident, the government alone cannot do it. A concerted effort is necessary to resolve this problem once and for all. No one person can do it comprehensively. In spite of the reports of July 17, the recent chain of actions gives one hope that finally such a horrific thing will be dealt with in the right manner.
Zeenat Khan is a freelance writer from the Washington, DC metropolitan area.