Editorial
The lengthening shadows of stalking
No alternative to tough handling of such crimes
The murder of a mother in Madhukhali upazila of Faridpur for protesting the stalking of her twin daughters is once more a sign of the menace of sexual harassment of young women taking on uglier colours. Worse, it is a powerful indication of how our law enforcers have been failing, consistently and embarrassingly, to take action against those who have been committing such nefarious deeds. Only the other day, the prime minister spoke of tougher laws being enacted to deal with these culprits. She reassured the nation that no one caught stalking women would be spared. Our question, which is also that of society as a whole, is pretty simple: do we need newer laws to handle such criminality or do we need some effective, deterrent action on the ground to see to it that the menace is put to an end? The statistics, as a report by Ain-o-Salish Kendra makes clear, inform us that despite the growing public condemnation of stalking, incidents of such manifest criminality have steadily gone up. And they have gone up because of the gross failure of the authorities to bring to justice those who have been indulging in the crime.
Only a few days ago, college teacher Mizanur Rashid succumbed to his injuries, caused by a motor cycle rider because he had protested the harassment of young women in Natore. Now this new death in Madhukhali, again at the hands of a motor cycle rider, gives us an insight into the no-holds-barred method the stalkers appear to have adopted for unleashing their vengeance.
Let there be no doubt that the patent failure of the law enforcers to act against stalkers has now led us all to this sordid pass. The figures speak for themselves. In recent times, as many as 25 women have taken their lives to put themselves out of the misery engendered by stalking. Nine men brave and conscientious enough to have protested the stalking of women have been killed. A father, unable to withstand the humiliation heaped on his family by the stalking of his young daughter, simply committed suicide. All these incidents ought to have been eye-openers for the authorities. Unfortunately, there has hardly been any instance of a stalker being caught and brought to justice. The consequences can only be horrendous. In the cities, small towns and villages of Bangladesh, young women will remain in a state of vulnerability unless the state begins to demonstrate its will and ability to punish those elements who have already committed the crime of stalking.
The Madhukhali murder must spur the police into action, in two ways. First, the killer must be swiftly apprehended. A similar approach must be made in dealing with earlier incidents of stalking. Second, the police must develop the mechanism and the tactics that will allow them to take preventive action, that is, they must act against stalkers before tragedy strikes. Law enforcement is a twenty four-hour job. Let us see that job performed to the nation's satisfaction.
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