Teenage girls victims of pornography

Sumi (not real name) is mentally ill. She cannot recollect anything. The dark episode of the teenager's life began in 2011 when she was a ninth grader at Civil Aviation High School in the capital's Tejgaon area. Her boyfriend Atiqul Islam Emon released some video clippings of her different close moments on the Internet, shattering Sumi's normal life.

As the video went viral in the social media, her mother filed a case under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. In the case Emon was awarded life-term imprisonment.

He raped Sumi by forcibly taking her to a room in a building in Mohakhali market Goli on November 2, 2010, according to police records. 

It is true that culprit Emon, who is now in jail, is enjoying punishment. But, what is Sumi's fate? Will she be able to return her normal life? Will she be able to go to school like many of her fellows?

"Sumi has become sick. Her studies remained totally stopped for the last five years as she cannot memorise anything," said her teary father.

Like Sumi, many of girls in the country are becoming the victims of pornography.

In February, 2014, a class nine student of Borura upazila in Comilla became victim of pornography, as one Aliullah forcibly took the girl to a nearby solitary place and raped her. Aliullah's friends videoed the raped episode in their mobile phones and released those on the Internet.  Abdullah Al-Mamun, programme coordinator of Manusher Jonno Foundation, a non-government organisation working on women and children issues, said a large section of school-going children are witnessing pornography regularly.

"At least 77% school-going children regularly watch pornography, and armature pornography is popular among them instead of commercially produced one," he said citing a research findings conducted recently.

Mamun said usually girls below 18 fall victim of pornography. Asked about the intention of taking such videos of girls, he cited his research findings saying in maximum cases culprits used to do it to blackmail the girls, undermine their families or establish sexual relations with the victims for a long time.

Besides, the victims are not aware that they are being captured through video recording.

Prof Md Tajul Islam of Mental Health Institute said the rate of such incidents is gradually increasing due to a lack of strict enforcement of laws and negligence to bring the perpetrators to book. Masudur Rahman, deputy commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan Police, underscored the need for keeping surveillance on their children's movement.

The parents should make them aware of the consequence of such incidents, he added.