Editorial
We, too, must rise
The curse of violence against women must end
The Home Minister recently revealed in parliament that 50,000 women were victims of repression in Bangladesh in the last four years, of them 19,422 incidents occurred last year alone. Some 900 of the perpetrators were punished in cases of acid-throwing, abduction, rape and other crimes.
Around the world, one in three billion women are or will be physically and/or sexually abused in their lifetime -- that's one billion women. To counter this atrocious figure, One Billion Rising (OBR), an initiative of organisation V-Day, has called upon one billion women around the world to stand up in protest of violence against women on February 14. Almost 200 countries and states have pledged their solidarity with the initiative. The Bangladesh chapter of OBR is called "Uddomey Uttoroney Shotokoti" and the campaign will be carried out in collaboration with some 184 rights-based organisations, government and educational institutions, media and corporate houses, cultural groups as well as activists and individuals. On the day, people across the country, in every district and in 39 locations in the capital, will rise in protest.
Granted, a day of protest will not end the deep-rooted causes and consequences of violence against women, which, despite numerous laws, continues not only in Bangladesh but around the world. It will, however, help to break the silence which many women, their families and societies practise in cases of repression of women, resulting in inaction and, finally, lack of consequences for the perpetrators, which directly or tacitly encourages them or at least fails to deter them.
Awareness is the basis of any struggle for rights, followed by action and women and men alike must understand that violence against women is not normal, it is not acceptable, it is a brutal and legally punishable offence. "The personal is political" is an oft-used motto of feminists around the world and, indeed, it is high time that a crime that is often thought to be personal is bared to the world as the political and social curse that it is and which must end. Let us, too, show our solidarity.
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