Increased tolerance of men can reduce the violence against women

In Bangladesh women face various forms of violence. Each year many women are physically tortured, raped, murdered and abducted. The digital arena has put women as victim of the cyber bullying as well. In most of the cases, the patriarchal gaze and the misogynist attitudes are responsible  for the abuse and violence. On the International Tolerance Day on 16th November, Share-Net Bangladesh has interviewed two BLAST spokesperson, Saraban Tahura Zaman, Coordinator and Taposhi Rabaya, Assistant Director, Mediation and discussed on the reasons of the intolerance of the society for the women and focused on the issues of the cyber bullying and rape incidents in the country.

Most of the people of our country do not have any idea about cyber violence. People do not talk about it because of the fear and social stigma. ‘The victims are afraid of file a case fearing the disclosing and revealing the incident’ says Saraban Tahura Zaman. According to the Information and Communication Technology Department of Bangladesh, 26 women have filed the case in 2016 for cyber bullying which is a very scanty portion of the whole scenario. The victim prefers to solve the cases by having mutual discussion with the wrongdoer in the fear of disclosing  which turns out to be vain in most of the cases.    

Cyber harassment takes place in many forms. The perpetrator threatens to disclose the  image, snapshot of the text, distorts the picture. In this way, they commit criminal intimidation and blackmailing. They also exploit the victims sexually and financially. Attacking someone on personal level and shaming publicly lead the victims in the traumatic situation. Sometimes people expose the photo and the identity of the rape victim on the social media in the name of activism which is also one kind of criminal offense. This leaves the victims into the mental trauma.

The rape victims also face the similar vulnerable situation in the society. When a woman is raped, she is shamed for improper attire and is questioned about her character evidence. ‘The patriarchal norm allows the violence in the form of masculinity’ says Taposhi Rabeya. Two fingers test is also another form of humiliation for the rape victim which is a non-scientific process to check the rape incidents. Blast has been trying to outlaw this traditional system. When a woman is raped physically, she is also raped mentally for thousands time. She is asked improper questions at the police station as well as  face lots of harassment throughout the legal procedure.

To reduce the violence against women, increasing the tolerance level is inevitable. Parents have  a significant role in treating the girl and boy equally. They also need to be taught about proper sex education. Additionally, they need to be aware about the right use of the digital platform to alert themselves about cyber bullying.