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London, June 16 (ANI): Eve teasing in Bangladesh has taken such a heavy toll on the country¶s
women that the education ministry there has voted to have an ³Eve Teasing Protection Day´.

The announcement was made after the increasing concern over the worrying number of girls and
women who have recently committed suicide in the country to escape eve teasing, a euphemism
for sexual harassment.

According to figures released by the Ain-O-Shalish Kendra (ASK) human rights organisation, 14
girls and women have taken their own lives over the past four months across the country as a
direct result of the insults.

In addition, a father and a daughter also committed suicide together - in an incident blamed by
the authorities on ³eve teasing´.

Police say three men who publicly protested against the harassment have been killed over the
past 12 weeks.

Critics argue that laws, which should prohibit sexual harassment, are so poorly drafted that
victims get virtually no help from the law enforcement agencies. Families of the victims are left
feeling hopeless and helpless.

³Some victims find suicide is the only avenue that enables them to escape this social pandemic,´
the BBC quoted Sultana Kamal, executive director of ASK, as saying.

³The situation is very frightening. The suicides of 14 girls are an alarming sign of the times. If it
is not controlled, we women can no longer live in society with any dignity,´ she said.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid while admitting to the menace said female students and
female teachers were at present not safe on the streets or schools, a situation leading to an
increased drop-out rate of female students in many schools, and underage marriages. (ANI)




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Aleya, 18, sustained burns to 70 per cent of her body and died after six days in intensive care,
becoming one of dozens of teenage girls to be killed or have committed suicide in Bangladesh
this year because of sexual harassment.

³A huge fire ball engulfed her and she was screaming, running around and trying to put out the
fire, but she couldn¶t ² everything except her face was burned,´ said Aleya¶s aunt Rajia Begum,
40, who witnessed the attack.

³The man started asking her to marry him in April, she was dead by May 26. She was scared of
him. We all were. When she told him she wouldn¶t marry him, he said µI¶ll make sure you don¶t
marry anyone else.¶´

A string of teenage suicides, at least 22 this year, according to local rights group Ain O Salish
Kendra (ASK), and dozens of high-profile attacks on teenage girls have highlighted
Bangladesh¶s sexual bullying problem.

³Eve-teasing´ ± the south Asian term for sexual harassment ± is an everyday reality in
Bangladesh, but it also causes public outrage in a country that regards itself as more progressive
than other Muslim nations such as Pakistan.

³We recently have seen a lot of eve-teasing and teenagers committing suicide, and the
government is very aware of this,´ Bangladesh¶s Women and Children Affairs Minister Shirin
Sharmin Chaudhury said.

Bangladeshi teenage girls have no real protection from bullies or stalkers, and deep-rooted
traditional attitudes mean violent crimes against women are easy to carry out and often go
unpunished.

³The family and society together blame girls if they¶re being harassed,´ said lawyer Nina
Goswami, who works with local rights group ASK.

³The family would tell the girl, µyou laugh too much¶. They would tell her to lower her head
when she¶s walking to school.´

³Some girls even chose suicide as they feel so unsafe. The parents don¶t listen to their daughters.
Instead they accuse her of being responsible for the harassment.´





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As I was waiting in the car, immovable in the well-known traffic jam of Dhaka city, looking
around for something exciting to catch my eyes, what I noticed was a girl waiting for the bus in a
bus stop and two men behind her continuously staring at the ³wrong places´ and passing
comments to each other. The girl looked uncomfortable as she waited for the bus, which never
seemed to show up among the cluttered vehicles in the road. As I was witnessing this kind of an
unethical behavior of the men towards the girl, I wondered why the girl was weak enough to not
raise her voice and just ask them to ³shut up´. Why she chose ignorance instead of what, that
could make a change?

This is an oh-so-familiar phenomenon in the streets of Dhaka, which is happening every day.
Eve-teasing, as we call it, is men¶s street sexual harassment or molestation of young women who
travel their own streets to and from work, school, or their assorted tasks. In the male dominated
society of Bangladesh, this eve-teasing, has mostly been ignored. These teasers, who have
nothing better to do, have the decency of their souls sold out to the devils of disrespect towards
women. This particular issue needs a recipe for change because eve teasing leaves a huge impact
in both our individual and national life. Victimized women and girls do not only get
psychologically troubled, but also continuously feel insecure to go outside their homes. They
develop a sense of disbelieve and humiliation against men. In fact, within the patriarchal social
fabric, eve teasing is a weapon to weaken, hurt or force women to consign to domestic affairs. It
evidently restricts women¶s mobility in the public, which contributes to their diminishing
participation and contribution in outdoor activities and also causes early marriage. There is
increasing realization that eve teasing severely restricts the mobility of women and girls, which
is unquestionably a threat to women¶s empowerment. All together, though apparently invisible,
the cost of eve teasing is huge at our national and individual life in Bangladesh.

Along with that, in Bangladesh, it has gradually become brutal form of sexual harassment often
resulting in grievous hurt, abduction, acid throwing, rape murder and forced suicide. Eve-teasing,
though, had been previously considered under the VAW reports of BNWLA since 2000, but
from 2005 the organization has declared crusade against eve-teasing and published a poster
trying to bring this matter into the limelight and held various discussions, meetings and event
held a press conference to create awareness as well. In 2004-5 the Bangladeshi women¶s group,
Mahila Parishad distributed a poster and conducted a campaign against eve-teasing because
several young women, students, and even young girls committed suicide owing to social
pressures-shame-daily harassment. In 2007, Advocate Habibun Nessa of Naripokkho, reported
29 suicide deaths in the last four years. In some cases the police colluded with the eve-teasers
and blamed the women for their own problems. Bangladesh has no laws against eve-teasing,
much less respect for women who dare to venture alone or even in groups in the streets.
Along with the law enforcement being weak on this issue, there are also various other causes
which leads to this unacceptable behavior of these teasers. Firstly, it¶s the silence and ignorance.
The silence and ignorance of these victims add up to themselves being teased frequently. If every
girl was brave enough to just say ³SHUT UP´ in the faces of these big ±mouth-bastards, who are
apparently ³small everywhere´, then to some extent, we could see less of eve teasing. It is very
much disgraceful, shameful, and dishonorable for us if we ignore them and increase their guts to
speak trash with their big mouths. However, in some cases, raising our voices is not enough
when it becomes inaudible to the world. But in that case, we should not be weak enough to let
our voices end up inaudible. With the spread of education and economic well-being, the
consequences of eve teasing are now widely known. We should demand perpetrators brought to
justice. So, what we need most now is to voice collective protest and action against eve teasing.
Side by side, without ensuring a sensitive, supportive and responsible law-enforcing force, all
efforts will go in vain. After all, they have a huge role in preventing all dreadful and unlawful
incidents including eve teasing. So let¶s get together and voice our collective protest against eve
teasing and be familiar with it as a crime against humanity. For dignity, respect and self-
confidence, every woman has to raise their voices, shut up the big mouths and therefore, make a
statement.




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his Sunday (13 June) has been designated "Eve Teasing Protection Day" by the education
ministry in Bangladesh.

The announcement reflects increasing concern over the worrying number of girls and women
who have recently committed suicide in the country to escape "Eve teasing", a euphemism for
sexual harassment.

Figures released by the Ain-O-Shalish Kendra (ASK) human rights organisation reveal that 14
girls and women have taken their own lives over the past four months across the country as a
direct result of the insults.

In addition, a father and a daughter also committed suicide together - in an incident blamed by
the authorities on "Eve teasing". Police say three men who publicly protested against the
harassment have been killed over the past 12 weeks.

'Very frightening'

Critics argue that laws which should prohibit sexual harassment are so poorly drafted that
victims get virtually no help from the law enforcement agencies. Families of the victims are left
feeling hopeless and helpless.

Dancing was another of Pinky's hobbies

"Some victims find suicide is the only avenue that enables them to escape this social pandemic,"
said Sultana Kamal, executive director of ASK.

"The situation is very frightening. The suicides of 14 girls are an alarming sign of the times. If it
is not controlled, we women can no longer live in society with any dignity."

The tragic story of 13-year-old Nashfia Akhand Pinky - known as Pinky - shows just how
damaging "Eve teasing" can be.
Pinky was a ninth-grade student of a school only half a kilometre away from where she lived
with her uncle in central Dhaka.

On her way to school, she was stalked by her 22-year-old male neighbour and some of his
friends who, according to her family, persisted with "ribald comments, smutty jokes, coarse
laughter, sly whistles and even indecent exposure".

The neighbour is alleged to have been stalking her for several months.

On 19 January, she went out of her house to buy some medicine for a niggling hand injury.

The neighbour and his friends blocked her way and made suggestive remarks. She became angry
and protested.

After that, he became more aggressive and bombarded her with crude language, pulling off her
scarf and slapping her face.

Pinky fell down on the street under a barrage of blows. Some neighbours apparently saw the
incident yet did not try to stop it or protest against it.

'Grave concern'

Ali Ashraf Akhand, Pinky's uncle, said that she suffered "serious mental torment from this
indecent assault".

Dhaka's streets can be dangerous for women

"She could not tolerate the insult of it," he said, "so she hanged herself with a sari scarf tied to a
ceiling fan in her drawing room.

"Pinky informed me around 15 days before her suicide about the stalking by the neighbour. I
tried to warn him off but he became more predatory," Mr Akhand said.

His version of events seems to be borne out by a note Pinky wrote just before the suicide.

"When [my tormentor] pulled my scarf and harassed me physically in front of the house,
onlookers at the scene laughed. Nobody protested. None of my family members are responsible
for my suicide."

Bangladesh police chief Nur Mohammad said that Pinky's case - and others like them - were a
cause for "grave concern". He said harassment was a problem that urgently needed to be sorted
out.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said female students and female teachers are at present
not safe on streets or in schools.
"That is no exaggeration. In some places, schools have been shut down and exams delayed
because of the problems caused by Eve teasing stalkers.

"Those who are teased do not like to go to school and sometimes guardians do not allow them to
go to school for their safety and honour. So the drop-out rate of female students in many schools
is increasing," Mr Nahid said.

"Another negative manifestation of the problem is the tendency of parents to push underage
daughters into early marriages so that they can escape Eve teasing. Parents think that if their
daughter has a husband, they will be saved from the dangers.

"It has become a vicious cycle."