WOMEN PROJECT

1. INTRODUCTION

The tragic fact of life is that women, in most parts of the world, are second-class citizens and they still face inequality in all spheres of life. They are discriminated against at birth, subordinated and exploited throughout their life despite their valuable and noteworthy contributions to society and national development process, and end their life as being dependent on their sons. This fact has been eloquently noted by the author when she writes that 'the index ranking of 151 countries on gender inequality in addressing poverty, education, basic health, employment, violence, political participation' contained in various Human Development Reports prepared by the United Nations Development Programme between 1995 and 2003.

Bangladesh being a Least Developed country is no exception in this regard. Women in Bangladesh constitute 50% of the population but in terms of life expectancy, participation in the work force, economic empowerment, legal protection (against male desertion, divorce and physical abuse) women in Bangladesh are most severely affected. In spite of the fact that there have been some improvements in certain indicators such as mean age at marriage, and female participation in the labour force, the condition of women, according to the population crisis committee, is the worst in the world.

Women get less pay than men and face difficulties in owning their own property or land. This is reflected in health and social indicators that are frankly appalling. Bangladesh's maternal morality rate is still one of the highest in the world: every year 320 women for every 100,000 die in childbirth. This means that in Bangladesh a woman dies from childbirth every hour of every day. Baby girls are more likely to die in their first year than boys. Girls in Bangladesh are five times more likely to drop out of school in grade one than boys, and one out of every two women in Bangladesh is illiterate. These inequalities of opportunity are reflected in the fact that one in every five households headed by women in Bangladesh earns less than Tk 28 (1 US Dollar= Tk. 70) per person per day.

The last five years has seen a dramatic rise in the numbers of women in the workforce, particularly in urban areas in the export processing industries, notably the ready made garment (RMG) sector. The work of these women has brought in much needed foreign exchange for the country and has contributed to well-being of millions of poor families in villages and towns across the country. But it is not only in the garment sector that women are increasingly contributing to both their own household economy and the national economy. Currently one in ten of all entrepreneurs in Bangladesh is a woman. While this is low compared to advanced economies, where one in four entrepreneurs is a woman, it signals a welcome change from the past (C. Austin, March 8, 2008).

Country Profile:

Area: 143,998 sq km (55,598 sq mi) Population: 129 million People: 98% Bengali, 250,000 Bihari, tribal less than 1 million Religion: 88.3% Islam, 10.5% Hindu, 1.2% other Economy supported by agriculture Average annual income = US$300 35.6 % live below poverty line 35% unemployment rate 74% of women are illiterate (vs. 50% of men) Jonmo Amar Dhono Holo Mago Sabina Yesmin Ami banglar gaan gai Old Bangla Song

At the current rate of poverty reduction, Bangladesh will require 135 years to eliminate poverty in rural areas and 43 years to achieve the prime target of the Millennium Development Goals, a report prepared by a research organisation, Unnayan Onneshan, claims. ‘Overall poverty eradication in general would, however, take 81 years at the current rate and 24 years to reach the Millennium Development Goals,’ the Bangladesh Public Policy Watch 2005 report, presented at a press conference on Tuesday, stated. It said the current rate of poverty reduction ‘is about 0.52 percent on average per year while the rate is only 0.32 per cent per year for the rural economy’.

Recent Preliminary Report of the Poverty Monitoring Survey 2004 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics shows that the incidence of poverty by head count ratio on the basis of Food Energy Intake was 42.1 per cent in 2004, which was 44.7 % in 1999. The poverty rate declined by 2.6 per cent in the last five years, amounting to an annual poverty reduction rate of about 0.52 per cent.

According to the Direct Calorie Intake method, the household income expenditure survey of 2000 shows that poverty declined from 47.52 per cent in 1991/92 to 44.33 per cent in 2000. Trends, in accordance with Food Energy Intake method, show that it will take about 81 years to eradicate poverty completely and 24 years to achieve the target of the millennium development goal. In rural areas, it would take 135 years to eradicate poverty and 43 years to achieve the target (New Age, September 14, 2005).

Prof. Yunus, the Nobel Laureate and champion of micro-credit, believes that if his schemes are followed poverty will be completely eradicated by 2025. Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, the head of the caretaker government, envisions reduction of poverty to half the present level by 2015. But the million-dollar question is, are these rosy projections mere wishful thinking or their proponents do understand what all it will take to eradicate poverty from our soil.

Poor are those who are deprived of the very basic wants of life: a safe and durable living quarter, a minimal consumption of nutrients (balanced food) and utilities (drinking water, gas), a threshold level of health and hygiene facilities (sanitation, medical care), basic educational facilities, and measures of protection against epidemics, natural calamities and man-made accidents and disasters: the rich do not suffer any of these wants. Thus poverty can be equated with pervasive deprivation (want of materials, resources and security measures). It will therefore be naïve to measure poverty in terms of per capita income because income only relates to material and services purchasing power, but does not take account of the deprivation for want of resources and security measures that the state or society must provide.
Therefore, those who claim to bring reduction in poverty (which virtually equates with deprivation) must take full cognizance of challenges ahead, lest political dynamics may change radically at the cost of the privileged class and the incumbent social and economic order (M Shadman , May 16, 2007).

The benefits of the growing trend in economy the country has witnessed this fiscal year failed to reach the rural poor mainly due to city-centric development, the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) observed yesterday (03. 06. 04).

The growing trend is reflected in the 5.5-percent increase in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the current fiscal year (FY), which was 5.26 percent last year. But, the major contributors to the growth were urban sectors -- 20.8-percent contribution made by manufacturing, 15.8 percent by wholesale trade, 12.5 percent by construction and 11.3 percent by transport and communications -- an interim report of the CPD, an independent think-tank, pointed out. In comparison, the contribution to the GDP by agriculture sector, which is directly related to the rural poor, was only 11 percent.

Poor girls here are compelled to earn a living due to abject poverty when other girls of their age group attend schools. Nilufa, Shirin, Rahela, Afroza and Marufa, all aged between 12 to 15 of Morishbunia village in Patuakhali Sadar upazila are a few of such girls. Shirin is their team leader. Each of them earn Tk 800-1,000 per month by making soap. But they are not complacent because they are being deprived of education. Their place of work is 15 kilometre off the district town. A local NGO named Centre for Mass Education in Science (CMES) runs the factory at Khaserhat in Sadar upazila is manufacturer of soaps.

Nilufa who was seen busy in packing soaps told this correspondent, 'My father is a rickshaw-puller. I stopped attending school due to poverty. Five of the girls now realise that education is necessary for decent living but now they do not have the scope (S. Hossain, Daily Star, November 9, 2004).

It shows that the economic growth was 'discriminatory' and biased towards urban areas rather than improving the condition of the rural poor(CPD Executive Director Debapriya Bhattacharya , 4. 06. 04).

Small farmers, businesses fail to play due role for lack of fund

Rural small businesses and farmers are unable to play their due role in growth and employment generation due to limited access to rural finance, says a joint study carried out by the government, world Bank and DFID.

A joint study on Access to Rural finance by the Government of Bangladesh, the World Bank and the Department for International Development (DFID) has found that for every taka deposited or collected in rural areas by banks, only half of it is on lent in rural areas. Besides bank lending to agriculture and rural small businesses have been decreasing significantly in recent years. In addition while microfinance plays a very important role in rural Bangladesh, small enterprises and small and medium farmers are not microfinance's traditional clients and there are only limited products targeted at this market segment (Holiday, May 11, 2007).

Poverty Bangladesh, predominantly an agricultural economy with a high population pressure of 834 residents occupied per square kilometres, has a population where most rural Bangladeshis are dependent on rice cultivation for survival. In Bangladesh in the crop sector rice dominates agriculture. As staple food, rice provides 75 per cent calorie and 55 per cent protein which occupies about 77 per cent of the countries total cropped area and contributes about 71 per cent output value of other sectors. In recent reports it is found that rice production has achieved great success, in fact, the highest during the past 30 years. Rice production was 11.82 million metric tons in 1969 to 70. Now (1999 to 2000) it is 23.08 mt. But this self-sufficiency in rice production is not reflected in minor crops, cereals, oilseeds and vegetables. In addition rice crops dominates our agriculture in terms of both cropped area (75 percent of the cultivated area) and crop production. Area coverage of other crops are pulses: 4.64 percent, wheat 3.92 percent, oilseeds 3.77 percent, jute 3.71 percent, sugarcane 1.23 percent, potato 1.11 percent, fruits 0.84 percent and vegetables 1.39 percent.but also the other sectors like fisheries and livestock, where an estimated 1.2 million people are directly employed. In addition, about 12 million people indirectly earn their livelihood out of the activities related to fisheries. This sub-sector alone contributes about 10.67 percent to the agricultural GDP and is also positioned third in the country's export. Landlessness structure in rural Bangladesh can be classified in five categories. The first category is households without household land and the second category without any cultivated land but homestead. The third category is households with homestead and cultivated land (upto 0.50 acre) while the fourth category is household with homestead and cultivated land (0.51-1.00 acre). Finally, the fifth category is households with homestead and cultivable land up to 1 acre or more. Extreme landless (Poverty) has reduced to some extent but functional landless i.e. without cultivable land has increased sharply at the rate of 5.23 per cent per annum.Functional landlessness, i.e. marginal farmers has increased from 12.32 per cent to 13.99 per cent and finally, the functionally landless people with one acre of cultivable land has reduced in some extent from 37.82 per cent to 27.91 per cent. The percentage distribution thus indicates that increasing tendency of landlessness and marginalization has reflected the unequal distribution of land ownership in the rural economy of Bangladesh. People of Bangladesh affected by floods, cyclones, and river- erosion every year and deprived by a few corrupt people gobbling up everything. More than 45% of the people in Bangladesh live below poverty line. The definition of poverty line is the minimum amount of income that a family needs for food, clothing, shelter, and other necessities. As the world's most densely populated country we should think about how to alleviate poverty. Mr. Saifur Rahman ex Finance Minister, accused a section of NGOs of deliberately not alleviating poverty to attract better credit programmes. "They (NGOs) are keeping the poor marginally alive and mired in poverty merely to get more funds from abroad. Their works are limited within seminar rooms or in the Press Club," he maintained. "Alien models of development will not be applicable in the Bangladesh context, be they from Harvard or MIT." Apart from the NGOs, a number of ministries run micro-credit programmes for poverty alleviation and social development. And as a lender, the Employment Bank focuses on small employment-generating projects to which other state-owned banks also give loans (New Age, January 14, 2004). Despite the overall increase in income and welfare, the gap between the richer and poorer countries and between the richer and poorer segments of the population within countries has probably widened. In this context, it needs to be recognised that while globalisation is likely to benefit overall those countries that are able to participate in it, it does create problems for certain categories of the population. There also remains a group of very poor countries that are less integrated into the global economy and that continue to be largely excluded from the benefits of the globalisation process. South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa lag far behind regions such as East Asia and the Pacific. Their share in world trade has fallen, their terms of trade have deteriorated and they continue to be unable to attract foreign capital. Improving living standards and the economic situation in these countries is one of the major challenges for the global economy.

Ancient history of Bengal shows that Bangladesh is the only country in the Indian-Subcontinent that accepted several religions but the root of the social philosophy was the ancient "Kuamo Society" that accepted god as a human being (Mukhopadhya, 1983). The society was based on "see" and emotional "feel" in a simple peaceful environment. These strong sustainable elements of the society can be seen as weakness as it could not resist foreign invaders (Mukhopadhya, 1983). Mainly four streams mingled in this social thought process - tribal anthropomorphism, Buddhist nihilism, Hindu vaiishnavism and Muslim sufism. Bangladeshis believe in simple life - this has been achieved through past association with Budhism, Boishnivism, Baulism, Simplism and Sufism. Perhaps these are the elements rooted in the nation that worldwide survey by the London School of Economics (1999) found that "Bangladeshis are the happiest nation" live on this earth.

Sebastien Manrique in 1640 wrote a very impressive account of prosperity of Dhaka, Bangladesh:

Many strange nations resort to this city on account of its vast trade and commerce in a great variety of commodities, which are produced in profusion in the rich and fertile lands of these regions. These have raised the city to an eminence of wealth which is actually stupefying, especially when one sees and considers the large quantities of money, in a such quantity indeed that, being difficult to account, it used commonly to weighed.

After the take over of Bengal by the British East India Company in 1770 about 10 million Bengali, about one third of the population died due to famine as a result of revenue collection. The Permanent Settlement law was imposed in Bengal in 1793 by the British East India Company to collect the revenue. The architects of this settlement were not only to secure a higher revenue but also to facilitate the flow of agricultural products for the British industries. The permanent settlement law altered agrarian Bengal from a traditional self-contained, motionless, egalitarian society to a new class of landlords

The rural society was locked into the expanding world system, in which it was forced to act as supplier of raw materials of Britains and elsewhere. From 1830 onward the demand of indigo increased tremendously in the textile factories in Europe. Indigo was introduced as a commercial crop by the administration, and Dhaka became the main centre of distribution. However, those who performed the labour did not share the benefits. .and a serious food shortage occurred.

From the middle of the nineteenth century the farmers were pushed to grow another cash-crop, jute. Rice was increasingly replaced by cash crops and the subsistence level of many peasants was threatened. The price fluctuation of jute in the local market and lack of control over the market by the peasants caused to become bankrupt and more dependent on land lords for credits. The shortage of food resulting from the cash-crop production created social disruption and a large number of peasants were forced to migrate.

Inspite of poverty the population of Bangladesh is the "happiest nation of the world" because of still existing traditional values. In Bangladesh the traditional shared community feels:

I built a home for he or she
Who has broken mine,
I cry to make my own,
Who has forsaken me.

Our ancient religion based on the principles of nature worship with extremely sophisticated manifestations of spiritualism. One of the characteristics of these rituals is the worship of forest or tree god. Tree worship was a part of the religious faith in the prehistoric Indus Civilisation. In the Buddhist religion, tree-worship had a special place as is evident from the discoveries in places like Sanchi, Barhut, Amravati, Budgaya. The ancient India also considered that the force behind flowing water was a god, and so the worship of rivers, streams and fountains became widespread. mother Ganges or Ganga Mai was originally a water goddess worshipped by the non-Aryans. In no other part of the world has any Muslim community assimilated so many alien rituals and customs with those of its own religion as in this sub-continent.

Three great religions of Bangladesh, i. e., Hinduism (Modern hinduism is the result of a blending orthodox Brahmanism with non-Aryan materialistic superstitions) which came earliest, Buddhism second and Islam. There is no denying the fact, the oldest inhabitants of Bangladesh known as Australoid, then the Dravidians, Aryans and the Muslims made a chequered history of this region and the Nakshi Kantha (An embellished quilt embroidered in traditional motifs and innovative style by rural women of Bangladesh) found a unique character as a multi religious product and also a multiracial expression.

A few hundreds years ago Bangladeshis become muslim through liberal (the essence of Sufi practice is quite simple. It is that the Sufi surrenders to God, in love, over and over; which involves embracing with love at each moment the content of one's consciousness (one's perceptions, thoughts, and feelings, as well as one's sense of self) as gifts of God or, more precisely, as manifestations of God."The body senses are wavering and blurry, but there is a clear fire inside, a flame like Abraham, that is Alpha and Omega. Human beings seem to be derived, evolved, from this planet, but essentially humanity is the origin of the world (Jalaluddin Rumi,(a prominent, thirteenth-century mystic and poet). ), who accepted traditional culture. But now the priciples of Sufism is disintegrating through new approach.

Bengalis are the inventors of the fabric called bathana muslin: an ultra fine cotton fabric that resembles woven air. Scientists are still puzzled over the question how people were able to spin an exteremly delicate and fine cotton yarn like 100s 0r an 80s by hand.

   

Some people have seen at late night
an embroidered quilt in the fields
and the sound of bamboo flute
its sad music touching the village.
Thus the village has been known as
the field of the embroidered quilt.
Jasim Uddin

From time immemorial, Bangladesh has earned a reputation as the high quality producer of handloom, especially muslin. Poets of the Mughal Durbar (court) likened our muslins to Baft hawa (woven air), Abe rawan (running water) and Shabnam (morning dew). So fine was its texture and quality that it was said to be woven with the thread of the winds and the Greek and the Roman texts mention the Gangetic muslins as one of the most coveted luxury items.

The art of weaving in Bangladesh was a routine affair since the last several centuries among the simple laborious villagers . For a present day layman enthusiast of the item, it has become a matter of great surprise to observe how skillful were those uneducated yet dedicated weavers, who, without any direction or supervision created fine, intricate designs solely out of their sophisticated imagination. In the days of medieval era, Satranjis( mats) were usually used as floor mats.. Since the later half of the previous century, production of rural handicrafts lessened to a great deal mainly due to modern technological advancement and hence brought misery to the fate of Satranji.

Hinduism spread throughout India and surrounding areas, including the region known as Bangladesh today, between 1500 and 500 B.B.C. In the literature it is argued that from this time forth Hindu Manuscripts scriptures teach life-long obedience for women to their male relations. Ma-tsui (1989, 93) insists that Hindu religion strengthens discrimination and inequality between men and women. To be born a woman is said to be a punishment for bad behaviour in a previous life. “[...] Drums, idiots, untouchables, cattle, and women should always be beaten to make them work ” (Matsui 1989, 92, 93).

Women have been and still are considered to be impure in Hindu religion. The idea about women’s ritual impurity which arose, along with the physical constraints on their activities, stressed that women’s menstrual, reproductive and sexual aspects (Wichterich 1986, 96), made them inherently impure.

It's worth noting that the Bangladeshi pride in ancestry is balanced by the Islamic slant of the country's intellectual life which tends to deny the achievements of the preceding Hindu and Buddhist cultures.

But in reality it is still different. Prof. Dinesh Chandra Sen (1866-1939) describes (Folk Literature of Bengal, Calcutta, 1920.) :

In the treatise I have for the first time brought to the notice of the scholars considerable materials about Bengali folk-tales chiefly those current amongst the Mahmedans of Lower Gangetic Valley. it has been a surprise to find that stories of Rupanala, kanchammala, Madhumala, puspamala etc. are not only the heritage of hindu children but also of their Moslems cousins who have been listening to these nursery and fairy tales, recited to them by their grandmothers, from a remote historical period .. The Hindu Buddhistic convert who gave their faith in the older religions did not forego their attachment to these folktales in which legends of Buddhist and hindu gods are sometime closely intermixed.

1. Traditional Social Dynamics in Bangladesh
2. Pat and Patua important audio-visual mediums in Bangladesh in educating the masses since immortal

Pat and Patua important audio-visual mediums in educating the masses since immortal

Many muslim poets wrote poems based on the folk belief of both muslims and hindus and tried to prove that the heroes of both communities Rustam, Hazrat Ali and Bhim, Krisna, Arjun etc. are in reality the various manifestations of the same person(S. Sen, History of Bengali Literature V.1, Calcutta, Bengali Year 1355)

There is a reference in charya geeti about the Buddhist drama and the big box containing the performance materials. But nothing has been specifically known about the Buddhist dramatic performances. The first known dramatic writing in Bengal is Shrikrishnakirtan and the first great Bengali performer was the author of Shrikrishnakirtan, Badu Chandidas himself. Shrikrishnakirtan was a song drama written in dialogues and trialogues. Badu Chandidas modelled it after the Sanskrit speech-plays. He divided the whole work into several cantos. Each canto was like a pala in later vaishnava dramatic sense which Badu Chandidas and his troupe would act in their open-air shows. So ever since its inception Bengali dramatic performance was music based.

Jatra, the Bengali folk dramatic stream, which followed from the Shrikrishnakirtan tradition, remained thoroughly musical. The dramatic performances in the urban stream were rather a mix-up of song and non-song parts. The Western influences worked well in shaping the urban dramatic movement in Bengal and many of the pioneers of professional Bengali drama were educated in the Western dramatics. They looked continuously for developing the text material and the performance manners, but could not shift away from the application of music in abundance. The influence of yatra continued to prevail on dramatic activities of every kind. Moreover, most of the major dramatists of the professional theatre in Bengal were the major Bengali poets and composers who employed songs in their plays.

Now Jatra, the most popular ballet drama of Bangladesh is fobidden by the fanatic priests.

The Koran advocates the ideology of men and women as being equals but reflects the historical and social conditions of those early days by imposing polygamy and purdah ( the practice of hiding women from the view of men and strangers]. Later men interpreted the Koran from a sexist point of view, and this discriminatory interpretation became well established. As a result, women are neither allowed nor expected to be independent, and are kept in subjugation[...]” (Answar 1980 quoted from Matsui 1989, 96).

Globalisation to hit womenfolk hard

South Asian Network of Gender Activists (27. 09. 03) criticise the developed countries for widening the gap between the rich and the poor, the speakers opined that poor countries would be poorer and small scale industry which already started closing down would be hard hit because of the impact of globalisation.

They said that the male-dominated globalisation system was ignoring the women around the world by abusing them sexually or paying them low wages. Migration, trafficking and sexual harassment have increased remarkably in last few years due to the globalisation which has made millions of female garment workers in Bangladesh jobless, they said adding rape, migration, trafficking and sexual harassment became widespread. A large number of NGO, HR activists, sex workers, eunuchs from India, Pakistan, Srilanka, Nepal and Bangladesh participated in the conference (The Independent, 27. 09. 03).

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2. BACKGROUND

In a society where the good is defined in terms of profit rather than in terms of human need, there must always be some group of people who, through systematized oppression, can be made to feel surplus, to occupy the place of the dehumanized inferior. Within this society, that group is made up of Black and Third World people, working-class people, older people, and women.
— Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider

The ‘legal’ situation of the Bangladeshi women is far better than the actual situation. Legally, women are not to be discriminated against in any sphere of familial, social, political, economic and cultural life, and specific legal provisions are in place to deal with any infringement of the equal rights of women. Still, women are subjugated and discriminated against by men in almost all the spheres of human activity in Bangladesh, which is projected by the political elite as a democracy. The problem lies in the paradigm of democracy that Bangladesh’s political elite, spread across the political divide, is committed to. The paradigm is plagued with patriarchal, and therefore, male-chauvinistic components.

The original Western perceptions of classical democracy have undergone a sea change, for the better, over the centuries — albeit in the face of ceaseless struggles by the oppressed classes, particularly the black and the women. Bangladesh, which has accepted democracy as a way of life, needs to realise that the country should not have to undergo the same painful, as well as suicidal, process of suppressing women in the political course of our development — social, political and economic. But the Bangladeshi elite’s discourse on democracy, as noted earlier, is devoid of many things, particularly the understanding that modern democracy envisages equal rights of both the male and female citizens of a country, and by that token, the females’ equal, and effective as well, participation in every sphere of life — familial, social, political and economic. The consequence is obvious: a pervasive patriarchy remains the order of the day, despite the fact that Bangladesh has at its disposal an adequate number of instruments, legal and constitutional, to uphold the equality of women in all spheres of life.

Women came in huge numbers from villages to work in the readymade garment factories in Dhaka and Chittagong. They were recruited not because they could be liberated but because they could be exploited as cheap labour. Everyone knows what working in a garment factory means. The demand to raise the minimum wage has not been accepted by the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers’ Association (BGMEA). The labour organisations demanded Tk 3,000 as minimum wage, but BGMEA proposes only Tk 1,300 per month.

A UBINIG study (2004) on the health conditions of the garment factory workers showed that if a woman works in the factory for a period of 10 to 15 years, she develops eye sight problems, back pains and urinary tract infections. Many workers lost their jobs not because they demanded higher wages, but because they were not fit to work for health reasons. The garment workers are treated like disposable workers. Use them for work as long as they are physically fit, otherwise throw them out of the factory!

2.1. Discrimination

The work on acid violence had the power to stir one's imagination…we did the work because it moved us. It was the work of creativity and imagination. In the beginning that is what mobilised us. We did not have resources, or support, but we had the imagination. Yesterday, March 2nd, 2008 , I read a pathetic story in Daily Star of an 18 years old girl. Her name is Nila and she is a victim of an acid attack, and the criminal is her husband. Nila was married to one Akbar Hossain, an ex-expatriate from Saudi Arabia. He did not demand any dowry and there was no quarrel for which Akbar, the horrendous monster, attacked Nila with acid in the middle of the night. Today, March 3rd, I read another sad story in the Daily Star, about a 22 years old housewife, with a 3 year old, child who died at Dhaka Medical College hospital on February 22. Her name is Rupa Begum and she died after her husband and in-laws allegedly set her on fire as her family refused to give dowry. Action against dowry is also over-due. Girls from Bangladesh's Hindu community were the victims of this crime for centuries. Now it has become a norm even among the Muslims (T. Hossain, Daily Star, March 8, 2008).

Four thousand four hundred and forty-four incidents of repression against women took place in Bangladesh in the first nine months this year(2004), according to a report made by Bangladesh Mahila Parishad.The number of such incidents was 20,134 in the last seven years since 1997, the report says adding some 1,690 incidents took place in 1999, 1,974 in 2000, 3,149 in 2001, 5,792 in 2002, and 5,618 in 2003.
“Women have no security in their families, workplaces, institutions, and even on roads, they always have to lead an insecure life". Types of repression against women include abduction, acid throwing, rape, forced prostitution and suicide, physical harassment, killing for dowry, killing after rape, fatwa, trafficking, and torture in police custody. (New Age, Dec. 1, 2004).

Most women in the rural areas are forced to sell their goods (often rice or milk) through a male wholesaler or with the help of their husbands or sons. Women are not allowed to buy or sell goods in the haats and bazaars (village markets). Although women are not usually in control of their profits, their contribution to the products sold may serve to increase their household status and earn the respect of their husbands and his family.

Women in Bangladesh live in an unequal society. Violence against women is widespread inside and outside the home. Nutritional levels are lower for females than for males. A recent Human Development Report estimated that 59% of girls suffer chronic malnutrition and the number of girls dying before age 5 is 11% higher than the number of boys. The United Nations Development Programme estimates that 58% of pregnant women (15-49) suffer from anemia and only 5% of births are attended by a healthcare professional.

Because of legal discrimination and high illiteracy rates, women have little access to credit and few inheritance rights under the law. Rural women face even worse conditions in Bangladesh because of the little access to land, which is key to economic and political power (only 5% of government positions are held by women). Because of illiteracy, women's opportunities for improving their status are extremely limited

Only 26% of nearly 62 million women are literate. Rural women have even greater difficulty because of ongoing floods, which can have devastating effects on already fragile lives.

Curse’ still there on girl child Babli, five years and three months old, will never be able to talk. Not because of she was born deaf and dumb, but because her father decided that was the way it would be! Only because she is a girl. Her father, Bakhtiar Rana, poured acid on the Babli’s mouth, the nails on her 10 fingers, and her rectum when she was only seven months old. His apparent aim was to kill the baby, as she was born as a girl, and not a boy. ‘He wanted to be a “proud” father of a son,’ says Parul Akthar, Babli’s mother, as she attends to her daughter who is undergoing treatment at a privately-run treatment centre in the capital. While narrating Babli’s story at Jibantara, the specialised hospital run by the Acid Survivors Foundation, Parul broke down in tears saying it all happened because of the preconceive notion that the female child is a burden for the family, and the society as well. Bakhtiar was arrested for his action, but managed to post bail soon after, and traverses the streets a free man today. Three female babies were killed by their fathers between October and December last year, according to a report of the NGO Manusher Jonno. Also, a man killed his wife for giving birth to a girl child n Akkelpur village in Jaipurhat. According to statistics available with UNICEF’s Steps Towards Development and the Bangladesh Shishu Odhikar Forum, in 2002 alone 686 female children were raped, 83 murdered after rape, 32 murdered for dowry, 69 victims of sexual harassment, and 358 trafficked. The convenor of the Female Children Advocacy Forum, Badiul Alam Majumder, told New Age on Sunday that the nature of repression on female children mainly includes physical torture, acid burn and murder. Female children are regularly deprived of their rights in the family, society, country, and fall victim to inequality in food division, medical facility and education facility, he said. He said there are many more cases than are reported of parents abandoning, aborting or killing the girl child. The government, with the assistance of national and international NGOs, has conducted many campaigns to stop the brutality. The minister for women and children affairs, Khurshid Jahan Haque, told New Age on Saturday that the government is conscious in its efforts to eliminate violence against the girl child. ‘To make people aware of violence against the girl child, the government runs a programme, Jagaran, in several districts. The message is disseminated through through music, theatre and rallies,’ she said. MSI Mullick, associate professor of psychiatry at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, told New Age however, ‘It is not easy to dispel age-old beliefs, especially in rural areas, that only the son will be a productive member of the family.’ Steps to improve awareness, important as they are, can only go a certain distance. Perhaps deterrence through greater enforcement of laws against dowry, child repression and acid crimes would go a long way. And perhaps then Babli’s father would not be traversing the streets a free man today (A. Arzu, New Age, March 8, 2005).

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Islam for world peace

Muhammad (SM) promulgated a charter, sometimes called the Constitution of Medina that set out the rights and duties of all citizens and the relationship of the Muslim community to other communities. The Quran emphasises the social dimension of service to God, for it is on earth and in society that God's will is to govern and prevail. As humankind came from a single pair of parents, so too God "made you into nations and tribes" (XLIX:13). Similarly, as God had sent His Prophets and revelation to the Jews and then to the Christians, He declares in the Quran that the Muslims now constitute the new community of believes who are to be an example to other nations: "Thus We made you an Ummah justly balanced, that ye might be witness over the nations" (II:143).

Muslims see Muhammad (SM) as recapping the messages of all the previous Prophets, just as the conclusion to a book recaps the themes of the whole book. He manifested the absolute submission and monotheism of Abraham, the dream-interpreting ability of Joseph, the spiritual warrior-Kingship of David, the wisdom of Solomon, the law of Moses, and the spirituality of Jesus. He was a Prophet and spiritual guide: a head of state and leader of community; supreme judge and arbitrator of dispute; reformer of society; a family man, loving husband, and father. In the way that Muhammad (SM) discharged these rule.

In his book What Is Right With Islam Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf observes: "The truth is that killing innocent people is always wrong -- and no argument or excuse, no matter how deeply believed, can ever make it right. No religion on earth condones the killing of innocent people; no faith or tradition tolerates the random killing of our brothers and sisters on this earth. God does not want us to kill each other: "Do not kill the soul which God has made sacred except by right (of justice)" VI; 151). And God has certainly prohibited killing the most defenceless members of our societies."

We should stress that all civilisations have an equal right to exist side by side. Instead of domination, accommodation should be the spirit of each one of them. Coexistence and cooperation, rather than clashes and conflicts should be the motto of each. No country however powerful should try to impose its system on others by dint of its arms might. In a multicivilisational world, the constructive course is to renounce universalism, accept diversity, and seek commonalities.

Danger from Outside

Some religious groups in SE Asia are trying to import idealogy from Middle East.

Second-Class Citizen

At present, women throughout the region are second-class citizens, being excluded from the rights, privileges, and security that all citizens of a country should enjoy. Unjust laws, discriminatory constitutions, and biased mentalities that do not recognize women as equal citizens violate women’s rights. A national, that is, a citizen, is defined as someone who is a native or naturalized member of a state. A national is entitled to the rights and privileges allotted to a free individual and to protection from the state. However, in no country in the Middle East or Northern Africa are women granted full citizenship; in every country they are second-class citizens. In many cases, the laws and codes of the state work to reinforce gender inequality and exclusion from nationality.

State discrimination against women in the family is expressed through, among other things, unjust family laws that deny women equal access to divorce and child custody.

Family laws based on Sharia frequently require women to obtain a male relative’s permission to undertake activities that should be theirs by right. This increases the dependency women have on their male family members in economic, social, and legal matters.

Political Islam

The political Islamic movement started to gather real power and to spread in the 1970s. During the 1980s it was supported and nurtured by Western governments, which found it useful in Cold War conflicts and in opposing progressive movements in the region. Key features of political Islam included opposition to women’s freedom and civil liberties, and to their freedom of expression in the cultural and personal domains. It supports the enforcement of brutal laws and traditions, including beheading and genocide. In Iran, the Sudan, Pakistan, and Afghanistan under the Taliban, Islamic regimes transformed societies in general and women’s homes in particular into prisons. For women confinement, exclusion from many fields of work and education, and brutal treatment became the law of the land. In addition, the misogynist rhetoric of political Islam in the social sphere implicitly sanctioned male violence towards women.

Key to women’s liberation is secularism and the establishment of egalitarian political systems. Secularism has been and continues to be a prerequisite for women’s liberation (Azam Kamguian,Bangladesh Observer, November 30, 2004):

the complete separation of religion from the state;

the elimination of all religious and religiously inspired concepts from laws;

definition of religion as the private affair of individuals;

removal of references to a person’s religion in laws, on identity cards, and in official papers;

a ban on ascribing any religion to people, whether individually or collectively, in official documents and the media;

elimination of religion from education; and

a ban on teaching religious subjects and dogma and on presenting purely religious interpretations of secular subjects in schools.

Madrasas mushroom with state favour

No sport for women?

Women in this country have always taken part in different athletic events which were part of life and reality. Now-a-days as sport is becoming more organised and women are increasingly coming out of their ruts it is natural that such events will increase and women's athletics will take newer directions. This indeed is part of women's empowerment and represents progress itself. Unfortunately the forces of obscurantism which are out to put the clock back are becoming stronger. A 15-kilometre long-distance swimming competition for women had been arranged on the river Dakatia at Chandpur which created great enthusiasm among the women and four of them were ready to compete.

But a few bigoted elements thwarted the effort creating confusion in public mind. A further irony is that these people are known as religious leaders who are expected to be exponents of the principles and values of Islam, a notably dynamic and progressive religion. Under the banner of 'Anti-Islamic Activities Resistance Committee' a procession of one thousand ulema and musallis of Chandpur was brought out to register protest against female swimming competition. The competition was due to be held yesterday (The Independent, November 1, 2004).

Women groups decry fatwa on women's swimming Women's rights organisations on Wednesday condemned the fatwa of an Islamist group on women's swimming which led to the cancellation of a competition scheduled to be held in Chandpur on Tuesday. The leaders demanded women's rights to sports in Bangladesh, saying that the fundamentalists never wanted to ensure women's rights in all spheres of life. The Islamist group, Anti-Islamic Activities Prevention Committee, protested against the competition, organised by the Bangladesh Swimming Federation, and threatened with shutting down the whole area. The Chandpur district administration on Monday agreed to cancel the event after more than 1,000 demonstrators had taken to the streets in the town, saying that the event is "un-Islamic." The swimming federation general secretary, Sahabuddin Ahmed, said the Chandpur administration decided to cancel the event in the face of threats. This is the third such incident when a women's sports competition is suspended in the face of opposition of the Islamist group Another Islamist group, led by Mohiuddin Khan of Jamiatul Ulema Islami Bangladesh - along with like-minded organisations such as the Islamic Constitution Movement, Nezam-e-Bangladesh and the Islamic Party - threatened with foiling the competition by sacrificing the lives of its members. Condemning the move of the Islamist group, the women leaders said they failed to understand why there should have been a prejudice against women's swimming or athletics when women are in the policy-making process. "Women have no right to sports in Bangladesh and they should only play a role in family," Bangladesh Mahila Parishad general secretary Ayesha Khanam told New Age on Wednesday. She criticised the role of the government in ensuring women's rights in society. "It is wrong to reduce the women's exercise of power when the government has limited initiatives to empower women." Women exercise their franchise and become prime minister. But when they want to move in all the spheres freely, they are intimidated by the fundamentalists, she said. The Karmajibi Nari president, Shirin Akhter, on Wednesday told New Age, "While the world is moving towards modernity and development, the fundamentalists in Bangladesh want to tarnish our image." She said women in many Islamic countries formed women's swimming team, "but women in Bangladesh have threatened against joining sports of any sort." Sammilita Nari Samaj and Karmajibi Nari issued a statement on Wednesday condemning the fatwa of the Islamist group (New Age, December 2, 2004)

Mdieval Savagery: Young girls, women and children

Blasts rock every corner of country , AUGUST 18, 2005

Women representatives unable to work

Madrasas for Females Where life is under lock and key It is a privately-owned residential madrasa along with an orphanage for 306 girls aged between three and fifteen. It is a single-room bamboo-made house, where all the students are herd together to sleep, eat, play and study. In the centre of the crowded neighbourhood of Chantek in Demra, the madrasa is kept under lock and key round the clock. Inside, helpless children cram the handful of windows to wave to passers-by. Most children show visible signs of malnourishment and anxiety. Their only ambition is to learn how to read the Quran and become religion instructors. "We will do what Allah wishes," Sajeda, a 12-year-old girl said when she was asked about her plans on completion of her studies in the madrasa established in 1988. The Jamia Islamia Ashraful Ulam Mahila Madrasa teaches only Arabic. Students receive no education in Bengali, English, Science or Mathematics, which is contradictory to the national education policy. Other female Qawmi madrasas in Dhaka also offer similar 'education', not officially recognised. The head of the madrasa, Mohammad Abdur Rahman, explained the principle behind this kind of education and said it is based on gaining 'access to paradise' after death and not aimed at gaining anything earthly. "We teach children how to lead a religious life and gather maximum spiritual wealth for eternal life," the principal said. He, however, did not explain his failure to address the problems that include unhygienic conditions in the madrasa. Of the 25 teachers of the madrasa, most are males. The principal stressed that he maintained strict segregation between the male teachers and the students by installing a curtain between them during class. In March 2002, seven students were burnt alive and a hundred others injured inside this madrasa as it was under lock and key when the fire occurred. The thatched house was burnt to ashes. Most of the students could not come out during the fire as the principal kept the key. "The bodies were so severely burnt that they could not be identified," said a student who was injured in the fire. "I am an orphan, where will I go? The madrasa at least offers me shelter," the girl said. The situation in Rashidia Ibrahimia Mahila Madrasa at Shanir Akhra about 500 metres away from this madrasa is more or less the same. With 210 students crammed inside two floors of a six-storey building, the children are confined to rooms under lock and key. On July 13, when the Star City correspondent visited the Rashidia Ibrahimia Mahila Madrasa established four years ago, the third floor was found to be opened, while the fourth floor was locked. Around 50 juveniles on the third floor surrounded the correspondent to meet her. "We rarely meet new people. The entrance and exit to this place are restricted," said eight-year-old Tania. "I was admitted here one and a half years ago and never had the opportunity to see outsiders." As Tania talked to the correspondent, a boy around 13 screamed seeing a female visitor inside the madrasa. He rebuked the correspondent and also the students for entertaining an 'outsider'. "You will be punished later," the boy threatened, locking the door (Morshed Ali Khan and Sultana Rahman, Daily Star, July 25, 2005).. The Shariah, Mullah and Muslims in Bangladesh

2.2. Trafficking of Bangladeshi women

Bangladesh is a country of origin and transit for women and children trafficked for the purposes of sexual exploitation, involuntary domestic servitude, and debt bondage. An estimated 10-20,000 women and girls are trafficked annually to India, Pakistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). A small number of women and girls are trafficked through Bangladesh from Burma to India. Bangladeshi boys are also trafficked into the U.A.E. and Qatar and forced to work as camel jockeys and beggars. Women and children from rural areas in Bangladesh are trafficked to urban centres for commercial sexual exploitation and domestic work.

Police officials are known to facilitate trafficking of women and children, though none has ever been charged or arrested. Bangladesh should take greater steps to address government corruption and prosecute officials who are involved in trafficking.

Traffickers have lured the women and children to migrate on false promises of employment. Ninety percent of women victims are illiterate and only five percent have primary education. A survey conducted recently in 10 villages found that 33 out of 51 victims were still missing. Others returned home on their own or with help from human rights organisations. Estimates are that about 25,000 women and children are trafficked out of the country every year and many of them remain missing, according to the Women Lawyers Association.

Lack of enforcement of proper prosecution, use of children as commodities, powerlessness and vulnerability of women, corruption and bribery at all levels are the main causes of trafficking of women and children.

Bangladesh is a source and transit country for men and women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. It is also a source country for children - both girls and boys - trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation, bonded labor, and other forms of involuntary servitude. Women and children from Bangladesh are trafficked to India and Pakistan for sexual exploitation. Bangladeshi women also migrate legally to the Gulf for work as domestic servants, but often find themselves in situations of involuntary servitude when faced with restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, and physical or sexual abuse. In addition, Bangladeshi men and women migrate to Malaysia, the Gulf, and Jordan to work in the construction or garment industry, but sometimes face conditions of involuntary servitude, including fraudulent recruitment offers; debt bondage may be facilitated by large pre-departure fees imposed by Bangladeshi recruitment agents. Internally, Bangladeshis are trafficked for commercial sexual exploitation, domestic servitude, and bonded labor. Some Burmese women who are trafficked to India transit through Bangladesh. - U.S. State Dept Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2007. Children are trafficked internally, externally, and through Bangladesh for purposes of domestic service, marriage, sale of organs, bonded labor, and sexual exploitation. The problem of child trafficking is compounded by the low rate of birth registration, since children without legal documents have no proof that they are underage, and the lack of enforcement at the borders. India and the Middle East are the primary destinations for trafficked children. Children are trafficked from rural areas of Bangladesh to its larger cities, and to countries in the Gulf region and the Middle East. Young boys are trafficked to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar to work as camel jockeys. However, some progress has been made in stemming the trafficking of children to the region. U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs. The minor girl, Mallika, hailing from a poverty stricken family, was approached by a 'sympathetic-looking' Bangladeshi woman, who offered to take the girl to Mumbai with the promise that the family would see a change in their fortunes. At Apna Ghar, Mallika narrated her woeful tale of being bought in from Bangladesh and being forced into the prostitution trade, to the counselor appointed by the government. Tens of thousands of women and children are trafficked out each year from Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world. Poverty provides traffickers with people who have no alternatives for survival. They trust the offers of work or marriage abroad, which promise security but lead them to slavery.

2. 3. Children, subjected to inhuman treatment - Children Trafficking: Game to adults in UAE was death to Bangladeshi children

As for Bangladesh it is poverty that puts the children's fate in jeopardy. The sheer prevalence of poverty kills off quarter of a million children annually with fifty per cent of the entire child population remaining malnourished or undernourished at any given time. Thirty-six per cent of the babies are born underweight. They are victims of trafficking and repression. The floating children, in particular, are vulnerable to juvenile delinquency and crime.It is hardly any solace to see Bangladesh ranked 130th among the 192 countries evaluated for the state of the global children.
There are about 40,000 blind children in Bangladesh and more than two-thirds of blindness in children could have been prevented, 36 per cent of the cases is still treatable, which means over 12,000 blind children can see the light of the world through cataract surgery. About 32 per cent of the cases went blind due to corneal scarring caused from vitamin A deficiency, which means over 10,000 children went blind because of lack of primary health care and community awareness.

Children are wrongly collected from Bangladesh villages with false promises.

Camel jockeys are often kidnapped, sold by their parents or relatives, or taken on false pretences from their own country. Most are taken from Pakistan, India or Bangladesh, though there are also reports that children are trafficked from the Sudan for this purpose. The use of children as jockeys in camel racing is itself extremely dangerous and can result in serious injury and even death. There is also evidence of mistreatment and torture of camel jockeys by traffickers and employers. However, the children's separation from their families and their transportation to a country where the people, culture and usually the language are completely unknown means that the children are not in a position to report incidents of abuse. The trafficking of children for use as camel jockeys is prohibited by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and by the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Conventions No.29 on forced labour and No. 138 on minimum age - all of which have been ratified by the UAE. The rules of the Emirates Camel Racing Federation also specifically forbid the use of riders under the age of 14, or weighing less than approximately 45 kilograms. Nevertheless, there is strong evidence that children under 14 are still being used as camel jockeys and that the UAE Government has not taken adequate measures to tackle the problem. An article in Gulf Times earlier this year included interviews with a camel jockey in Qatar who was recovering from a broken arm and a former camel jockey who confirmed that "There are many injuries to child jockeys. Bleeding due to constant pressure… and smashing of genitals is common and indescribably painful." Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim, President of the race organising committee in Qatar, was also quoted as recognising that the use of child camel jockeys "has sullied Qatar's image abroad". The Supreme Council for Family Affairs and the Interior Ministry in Qatar are currently reviewing the practice.

About 500 children, who had long been used as camel jockeys, in the United Arab Emirates living in a dreadful stage. The number of Bangladeshi children may increase as there is no exact figure, said the official on Thursday. He also said children, who had grown up, might choose to stay back, but minors would be repatriated with the assistance of UNICEF in phases. Child rights organisations say children are usually kidnapped and sometimes even sold off by their poor parents. Traffickers posing as parents take children out on family passports and visas, often travelling to India. UNICEF and non-government campaigners say children often die or are severely injured as they are tied to the camel's back. The camels apparently become scared and run faster when these children begin crying out loud. This is an old traditional sport in the emirates.

The government of United Arab Emirates banned use of children below 45kg in weight or 14 years in age, but the law is often violated, said sources. Rescued jockeys, after their repatriation have recounted their traumatic experiences. A survey conducted in 1997 by the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association, found that more than 7,000 children are trafficked out of the country every year (New Age, August 6, 2005).

Expressing their grim condition back in UAE, they said they had to work there as jockeys.

The sickly and skinny children aged between four and 15 described their ordeal. "I was regularly put on a camel in the race where 60 to 150 camels would run. I had to whip the camel so that I can go first. If failed to be first, second or third, my employer would beat me up," said Abdul Samad, 13, of Noakhali whom his maternal uncle and aunt took to the UAE eight years back.

"I could not cope with the strong and speedy camel, but I had to suffer for that," Samad, slender and thin boy told The Daily Star at the ZIA.
Samad's uncle and aunt Nurunnabi and Ratna Nobi, who took him to the UAE, had promised his parents in Noakhali that the boy would live well and go to school every day.
Samad said he was entitled to get a package of 500 dirham (Tk 8,500) a month, but he never received it. He even does not know if his uncle sent his parents at home any money.
Meanwhile, interviews with a number of guardians revealed that many of them were not mothers of the children.

Many of the children cannot recall how they went there and where their home villages were. They cannot recall anything associated with their homes as they were taken to UAE when they were infants.

The parents of some other children said they had gone to UAE through middlemen in exchange of large amounts of money.
Nurul Islam (7) and Saddam (5) went to UAE with their mother Shefali Begum in 2000. Shefali Begum is a divorcee who went to the desert-country through a middleman to change her lot. She is an inhabitant of Bancharampur of Brahmanbaria district. She said she used to serve as a housemaid in UAE and her elder son Nurul Islam worked as a camel jockey. She was paid only 300 dirhams a month.

What was game to adults in UAE was death to Bangladeshi children there. And this has been going on for years, despite protests by human rights and child welfare activists and some interna-tional agencies. Use of children in camel race was cruel in itself while it also created an interna-tional ring of child smugglers and extended a crime network that exploited the poverty of the igno-rant rural people. After intensive lobbying this cruel involvement of children in the sport was banned only recently. But many of the more than 200 children have nothing left of their childhood.

Return of Camel Jockeys

Children between five and 12 years used as camel jockeys along with their parents totalling 132 were brought to Dhaka in four phases, are now kept at the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) shelter home. On a visit to the home, some of the children were playing, a few sleeping and others trying to fit into the new environment. They were talking in Arabic, Urdu and Hindi, Bangla being unfamiliar as they left Bangladesh as babies or toddlers. The shelter workers are struggling to locate their roots. Seventeen-year old Obaidullah Hossain who spent his teens in the heat of the desert in United Arab Emirates (UAE) narrated his story. He was taken to the UAE by his own parents about nine years back, along with his younger brother who was 18 months.

"I lived with my family six months where my brother and I were marked by a Kafil (sponsor) who later became our owner. A Kafil turns Arbab (owner) when he takes complete charge. My parents got back to Bangladesh at the end of six months and we started our training," he said. "We started with 400 dirhams and two days holiday a month. At the end of two years, we received an increase of only 200 dirhams. We witnessed how fractures were caused as children fell off and run over by camels. I was afraid, but had to go on," Obaidullah added.

"An average weight of a jockey was 25 to 30 kilograms. The younger the kid, the better it was as the camels could run faster with lightweight on their backs. As I grew older I was made caretaker where I had to feed, exercise and take care of the animals," he continued. "The owner treated us well. We had enough food, medicines and other facitilities we required. My life was at a risk, but the benefits were plenty, and I never wanted to return," he said.

Shamim, a seven-year old said those who posed as his parents were not real. He lived in the UAE for five years. He fell off the camel twice and had each his hands fractured. He is now acquainting himself with the culture here. Only at the Shelter, he found that he was trafficked as a child. The children said they were given hormone injections to hinder growth and keep their weight within limit to continue as jockeys. Digging into their roots, it was found that most children were trafficked from Cox's Bazar. Many came from Narshingdi and Comilla and a large number from Chandpur.

Mominul Islam Shuruz, senior investigation officer of BNWLA said: "It is trying job to trace their actual kith and kin. Dishonest people pose as their parents. The risk is that once a child is handed over, he may be sent back to UAE." "We received information that about 600 Bangladeshi camel jockeys are in UAE, and along with their parents, almost 1,600 Bangladeshis are waiting to return home," said Mominul. Those in the business are unaware that the use of children as a jockey in the sport has been banned in the UAE, said sources involved in bringing the children back.

Passport office officials who are aware of this business issue passports to the children and 'make-shift' parents while those in the police department supply verification knowing well that the process is illegal. Traffickers transport children by bus and air. The outward journeys begin from the Zia International Airport direct to UAE, or to Kanthmandu via Jalpaiguri and from Benapole to Dubai via Kolkata. Transit visas are issued in Nepal. On reaching UAE, the boys face a lot of trouble including sexual harassment, as sources revealed.

Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Al Ain and Ras Al Khaimah airports see these children arrive and it is here that the Kafils, who plan the entire immigration process, choose which of the children to employ. It has also been pointed out that a fraction from the Bangladesh High Commission in UAE is also involved, including clerks and drivers. With only four BCS cadres in the high commission, the lower level staff employed locally renew passports. The Bangladesh government took the initiative to bring these children back home with the assistance of United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and International Organisation for Migration (IOM). The UAE government signed an agreement with Unicef in May this year, which banned the employment of children under 16 and weighing less than 45 kilograms in camel races (Daily Star, August 31, 2005).

Harrowing tales of Azad's 10 years as camel jockey

The horrifying memories of life as a camel jockey for the last 10 years in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) still haunt Azad Alam. "I often have nightmares that I am on the back of a camel and fall on the ground," says 20-year-old Azad, who returned to Bangladesh recently. "...The employer beats me and then I wake up and see...no, I am now in my own country," he says in Bangla mixed with an accent of Arabic and Urdu, languages he speaks fluently. Azad is now staying at a home of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association (BNWLA) in the city with 65 other camel jockeys who returned home on August 11 and 23. Azad along with his fake parents--Nurunnabi and Ratna Nabi of Noakhali--and their son went to the UAE in 1995 via India as transit.

Azad does not know if his real parents handed him to Nurunnabi and Ratna for taking him to Abu Dhabi. Only he was directed to call them "Abba" and "Amma' (father and mother), Azad recalls. The BNWLA authority is yet to discover whether Azad's real parents gave their son willingly or he was trafficked. Nurunnabi and his wife along with Azad and some other children and their parents first went to India and stayed there for a few days. Azad, however, cannot remember the name of the state. Azad, his fake parents and their son went to Abu Dhabi separately and stayed at a room of Ratna's sister. More sisters of Ratna had been living in Abu Dhabi since long, according to Azad. A few days later, an Arab man named Ali Diliti--as Azad pronounced it--took him to his house by a car. The man handed Azad over to another Arab, who put him on the back of a camel as soon as he arrived his home.

"I was very happy to sit on the camel's back, but the accident took place when the animal started running. I fell down. The Arab man beat me and again put me on the camel's back, but I was so frightened that I fell down again," Azad narrates his first experience on a camel's back. "He then tied me with a tree and beat me severely. Blood oozed out the cut skin," he says. "At one stage my employer Ali Diliti took me to his house where I was in bed for two weeks to be cured." Azad says the Arab man also used to beat him if he failed to become first in a race and gave him very little food to keep him light. There were more children from Pakistan and Sudan with Azad. They had to take part in camel races for different competitors--the employer and his friends. "I also had to look after the camels, train them by running them for 20-40 kilometres. I had little time to sleep," Azad recalls his days of camel jockeying that became quite a habit within a few months.

But crueler was racing against a speedy car. "Some Arabs would drive cars and force us to race against them. We had no choice as they would whip us mercilessly if we disobeyed," Azad says. Overwork and lack of nutrition have taken its toll on the little boy. In his sickly-looking, skinny frame, 20-year-old Azad hardly looks more than 15. The authorities working on human trafficking say boys are often injected drugs to hinder physical growth in a bid to prolong their work period. A camel cannot run fast when boys become heavy. Azad worked under Ali Diliti for four years. "I could not control my tears whenever I went to Amma's residence and would urge her to send me back home. But she wouldn't listen to me," Azad narrates in tearful eyes. Moreover, the monthly salary of 400 dirham he was supposed to get was given to his fake parents, he notes. One day Azad collected a mobile phone number from Ratna's house to contact his mother in Bangladesh. Annoyed by his constant appeal, Ratna sent him to another employer.

One day in 2000, the young lad fled this second employer's house and started working under another person. "But somehow my fake mother came to know of my whereabouts. She came to me and threatened me saying she would tell the police if I don't go with her." Ratna, however, had to go back as Azad lashed back at her that the police will not arrest him but her.

One and half years later, Azad went back to his second employer as he had assured him of a better salary of 500 dirham. "I began sending money to my mother," he told The Daily Star at the BNWLA home on Monday. There he only looked after the camels and did not take part in the race. "I used to spend rest of the money on talking to my mother in Bangladesh," he says.

This year after the UAE government directed all its citizens to release the Bangladeshi camel jockeys, his employer sent him to a deportation cell in Abu Dhabi from where he was flown back home. The youth, who never went to school before going to Abu Dhabi, now dreams of being educated and a free life. "I am happy now...my mother came to visit me here. I will be with my parents very soon and go to school," Azad says. "I want the people, who took me and others for employing as camel jockeys, be punished for our sufferings."(Porimol Palma , September 03, 2005)

Between fortune and fate

Reksona Begum has returned from Saudi Arabia last month with painful memories and nightmares, she never expected in a place where she fled in hope of well paid and decent jobs. ‘It was unbearable!’ says the lady when she recalls the ruthless torture under the guise of household work, and not surprisingly, she was just another victim of sexual exploitation. As hard as it is to believe, this is the case of thousands migrating to Gulf States and countries like Jordan and Spain, where Bangladeshis not only starve for days and weeks but live in dreadful conditions. For women the realities are worse. A divorcee and a single parent, Reksona, somewhere in her 30s was unemployed and living with her parents after divorce. However, life proved to be difficult as the financial burdens of a joint family where high and hard to keep up with.

In case of Reksona, she was lured with a well-paid job abroad. The offer was placed by Islam, a trusted neighbour. Islam, a rickshaw puller, convinced Reksona that she could go to Saudi Arabia and earn good money for her family only if she could arrange Tk 30,000 for her migration. Agreeing to the terms, Reksona was introduced to the Royal Associates International Limited at Banani. The agency managed her legal formalities and sent her to Saudi Arabia. Reksona, a recent returnee after a few months stay at the desert kingdom, now alleges that in the guise of a well paid job described to her as household work, she was brutally tortured and sexually exploited. Many women like Reksona are reported to have often encountered with similar situations at the Gulf States and mostly in Saudi Arabia.

‘They beat me up mercilessly for not understanding their words,’ says a tear-choked Reksona. Like Reksona, a number of returnees from Saudi Arabia accused the recruiting agencies like Royal Associates of being involved in the sex business, run through a nexus between countries of origin and departure. Those who give in are kept abroad while the rebels are abandoned and left stranded, Reksona told Rights Jessore, a local non-government organisation that rescued her. It is estimated that more than 10,000 to 20,000 women who are trafficked every year for work mostly in Gulf States meet a similar fate.

Experts and human rights organisations allege that a criminal network of local recruitment agencies and recruiting organisations abroad conspire to recruit women with the promise of well paid jobs abroad and force them into hard labour, sex work, as well as physical and mental abuse. They are charged inflated rates by the agencies here and are also at times cheated of their payments once they go abroad. The government meanwhile has done little to protect woman migrants- a section who reportedly contribute a much higher percentage of their remittances than their male counterparts.

According to the State of World Population 2006 released by the UNFPA, migrant women’s contribution to the country in the form of remittance is more than men. The study unveils that Bangladeshi migrant women in the Middle East send 72 per cent of their earnings back home. The study further reveals that 56 per cent of female remittances were used for daily needs, health care or education—a pattern which reflects the spending priorities of migrant women. This is largely because women are more inclined to invest in their children than men. However, all this is not taken into consideration when these women are ruthlessly exploited by recruitment agencies. Moreover, these agencies, owing to their financial might, are well protected by elements in the government

There are at least 740 recruitment agencies licensed by the government but hardly any law or measure is in place to check their activities, say sources at the Bureau of Manpower Employment and Training (BMET). Recruitment agencies meanwhile are also accused of depriving migrant workers most of their income alongside failing to secure their human rights.

The south-west border is the safest route for illegal trafficking of women and children. However, illegal trafficking of manpower complying with the legal formalities is not much behind the by-road system. A section of recruiting agencies, travel agencies and brokers are closely involved with the whole mechanism of illegal trafficking through legal means (New AgeXtra. 6-12 October, 2006).

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2. 4. Marriage

Haldi Marriage Ceremony Wedding: Biyah Shajoni Shajo My marriage Fara Halud Haldi Ceremony Bidhir Badhon Katbe Tumi (Tagore song) Haldi Abhishek's Haldi

Muslim Marriage Customs and Laws: The joutuk or dowry plays a key role in the arrangement of marriages in Bangladesh. The dowry is an agreement between the bride’s and the groom’s family whereby the bride’s family agrees to pay a certain amount of money and/or goods in kind to the groom’s family [Aziz and Maloney 1985].

Violence against woman on rise in Kushtia

At least 19 women were killed in Kushtia district last month due to alleged domestic violence. Most of the victims were housewives and demand for dowry was the main cause.

Of them, eight were allegedly tortured to death by their husbands or their family members and the rest 11 committed suicide, according to records with police, NGOs and women's rights activcists.

The death toll from violence against woman in the district was 14 in the previous month. Six of them were killed allegedly by husbands or their families and the rest were incidents of suicide, the records showed. Torture by husbands or their families forced the victims to commit suicide, police sources said.

Of the murders last month, five were in Kushtia Sadar upazila, two in Khoksa, three in Kumarkhali, five in Bheramara and four in Daulatpur upazila. Talking to this correspondent, police at the five police stations in the district admitted that death of women from violence increased alarmingly in the district. As per records, 32 women were killed in previous four months in the district. This was the highest number of death of women in the 10 districts in Khulna division.

Violence against women and deaths are increasing, said a doctor at Kushtia General Hospital where autopsy of victims are done. In most cases, husbands were responsible for violence leading to death of housewives or incidents of suicide, an official of Mollah Foundation, a research organisation in Khoksa upazila, told this correspondent. Other family members were also found involved in physically or mentally torturing housewives, he claimed. Demand for dowry was the main reason for torture, he said.

In a number of cases, poverty was behind family feuds leading to torture by husbands, according to findings by Mollah Foundation. The actual number of deaths from violence would be far more as many incidents were not reported to police deliberately by the victim's relatives and cases were not filed to avoid hassle.

In such cases, police have no alternative to recording unnatural deaths, said a police official in the district. NGOs working on violence against women said in many cases, victim's families did not lodge case fearing retaliation by the killers and apprehending harassment by police. "Poor families of victims also want to avoid trouble and spending money on legal battle," said Dewan Aktheruzzaman, executive director of FAIR, an NGO in Kushtia (Daily Star, June 11, 2007).

Dowry and deaths

These are the normal but vicious scenario of rape, dowry and acid violence against women in Bangladesh. Violence against women is a universal phenomenon, exists all over the world as well as in Bangladesh. Our socio-cultural structure, so called traditional views, lack of education, non application of laws and justice and many other factors are involved in violence against women. From 2002-2006, over the last 5 years, as per statistics of a human rights organization, Odhikar, total 5128 women and girl children were raped, 1683 were the victims of dowry related violence and 855 women were the victims of acid violence. The ratio of rape, dowry and acid violence against women are 63 percent, 20 percent and 17 percent from 2002-2006, respectively (Taskin Fahmina, March 10, 2007).

The dowry culture is largely responsible for domestic violence. It is a curse for our social life. Women become victims of unbearable harassment due to the force of dowry system in society. Most of the time the sufferers are housewives. Many innocent women fall victim to this brutal system and their lives become miserable. Illiteracy adds to the miseries of these women. Dowry is a serious problem that hampers the normal marriage of young girls. Sometimes the guardians are unable to provide dowry fully and so the new brides are tormented by their husbands. Though almost fifty percent of our population is women, they are not being given their rights and are seriously mistreated by their family members. The family members are torturing women psychologically and physically. The violence against women is increasing rapidly.

I felt disturbed when I read the report 'Violence against women on the rise in Kushtia' in The Daily Star on June 11, 2007. At least 19 women (most of them housewives) were killed in Kushtia district alone last month. They were allegedly tortured by their husbands and their family members. In most of the cases husbands were responsible for violence leading to death of the housewives. Oppression against women is increasing everywhere and the victims' families keep mum, declining to take any legal support. How long will this continue? (R. Islam, June 21, 2007).

Marriages as well as divorces can be registered with the government through the civil registration system, but most of those events are not registered. In cases where they are not, they are enacted through marriage ceremonies following existing religious and social customs and procedures.

Anti Dowry Drama in Bangla. This is funny but subject is not funny, the video is given a message against dowry on the occation of wedding in Bangladesh. All performers live in Bangladesh but not Bangladeshi. They are from America, England, France, Japan, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Sweden.

Muslim Divorce Customs and Laws:

Divorce of a Muslim marriage is an option which is available to spouses. The process of divorce is usually lengthy and hazardous starting with quarrels followed by mental and physical insults to women, followed by separation and, finally, leading to divorce. Divorce in Muslim marriages is governed by the laws of Islam which traditionally grant more opportunities to men than to women.

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Mass Islamization occurred under the Mughals and followed by British Colonization

2. 4.1. Teenage Mothers

Bangladesh ranked highest among nations in South-Central Asia for the number of teenage mothers, the current rate being 125 per 1000 women aged between 15 and 19. The State of World Population Report 2002 released by UN Population Fund presented this report recently, giving the statistics of other countries as well. According to UNFPA Report the number of teenage mothers per one thousand in Nepal is 124, Afghanistan-111, Bhutan-57, Pakistan-50, India-44, Iran-28 and Sri Lanka-23. The report further elaborates that 22 per cent of girls in Bangladesh give birth before reaching the age of 15 and 40 per cent become pregnant against their will because of lack of knowledge regarding various family planning methods and services

Another disconcerting news is that though the current contraceptive prevalence rate in the country is 54 per cent, nearly 63 per cent of the married couple are reported to have never used modern family planning or contraceptive methods.

The alarming state of teenage pregnancy in Bangladesh becomes outrageously obvious from even a cursory glance at the above figures, and we desperately hope the people entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the matter had a look at them and accordingly will plan their next moves toward bringing down the rate to an acceptable level. What is perplexing is the realisation that though the programmes of family planning have more acceptability in the rural societies in this country compared to those in the other conservative societies, and despite having better rate of female education and empowerment, the rates of early motherhood is tolerably low in India and Pakistan than that in Bangladesh.

The need of the hour is to undertake and implement vigorous educative and behaviour change communication programmes on health and family planning, with special emphasis on reducing fertility rate and promoting better health, among the rural and urban population who are not covered under the presently run programmes. There has to be more social investment in the health sector today to ensure better health of the population tomorrow. No doubt this will require greater social mobilisation, commitment and political will (Editorial,The Independent, 9. 12. 02).

2. 4. 2. Unsafe abortion causing deaths of women

When Deepali (not her real name) was admitted to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) with gangrene in her private parts, she was in psychological disorder. A traditional birth attendant aborted her pregnancy using herbs that caused serious internal injuries, which eventually turned into gangrene. The 20-year-old unmarried woman from Bogra, who was admitted to the abortion ward of DMCH on June 16, is still struggling for life. Her pregnancy was the result of an affair with a young man who works in a garment factory in Dhaka. "I lost my senses when I found myself pregnant," Deepali mumbled lying in the hospital bed. "My father arranged a dai (birth attendant) to remove it," she said.

Her father was crying, sitting beside his daughter's bed at DMCH. "I did not know the dai would kill my daughter," the poor father said. DMCH's Obstetrics and Gynecology Department everyday receives two or three patients like Deepali, most of them are criminal abortion cases, doctors said.

Seventeen-year-old Nilu of Kurigram district died at DMCH last month after fighting for life for 12 days. Her family members said Nilu had been involved with a young guy in her village. Her father Akkas Mia said: "We went to a dai to abort her pregnancy but did not know we will have to lose Nilu." The dai doctored her five months pregnancy and left her in utter pain. After a week, Akkas Mia went to a quack who gave some herbal treatment. But Nilu's condition deteriorated further and she lost her senses. "When Nilu was admitted here, there was nothing left for us to do," said a physician.

Most patients presently admitted to the abortion ward of DMCH have serious infections in the vagina and birth passages, said Associate Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology department, Dr Farhana Dewan. "These patients usually come here at a critical stage -- when they are about to die. The unskilled traditional birth attendants are solely responsible for this," she said. "The cases we receive are mostly unwanted pregnancies. The families of the victims try to terminate the pregnancy secretly in fear of social stigma," Dr Farhana said.

It is estimated that 780,000 unsafe abortions are performed annually in Bangladesh. Of these 8,000 result in mother's mortality. Poverty, cultural practices, lack of reproductive health education and gender inequality are major factors that contribute to these tragic deaths. Dr Farhana said strategies to decrease maternal mortality should include provision of quality post-abortion care, health education and awareness of unsafe abortion (Source: 10 July, 2005, The Daily Star).

Women’s Position in the Family:

In rural Bangladesh, the husband is the breadwinner and the wife is the primary home-keeper. She depends on her husband for livelihood, and there are hardly any other possibilities for her to make a living. Moreover, divorced persons are looked down upon in the society with an obvious gender difference. Divorce of a woman damages her as well as her family’s prestige. It may lower prospects of marriage of her younger sisters with the most eligible grooms. Chances of remarriage after divorce are usually lower for women than for men and this holds for Bangladesh as well as elsewhere [Shaikh 1995, Chamie and Nsuly 1981].

The practice of the dowry is a social curse to women contributing to marital tensions and divorce. It reflects women’s economic dependence on men. In a number of cases the bride’s party fails to pay the dowry demanded by the groom’s party.

Men were prominent in the early struggles to improve the condition of women in Islamic society, but from the beginning women, too, were involved. For the first time in the history of Islam, the veil and other issues such as polygamy, divorce, and segregation were openly discussed in Middle Eastern society. Advocacy for women’s rights became widespread in the twentieth century. Modernization further improved women’s position. As women’s economic and social situation improved, ideologues struggled with how to reconcile the changes with Islamic law. Women figured more prominently in public life and took a role in the history-making nation building of Turkey and Tunisia, which led to further secularization and economic modernization.

1.Divorce for non-payment of dowry a common phenomenon
2. Dowry: The crime continues
3. Member of the Parliament accused of torturing wife for dowry
4. Wife begging to meet dowry demand, September 2004

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2. 5. Attacks against Women

A phenomenon in Bangladesh is acid attacks against women. Sulfuric acid is thrown on a woman's face, forever scarring her and revoking her chance to get married and have children. Attacks can come from "rejected suitors," or be motivated by family feuds or the absence of a dowry. Men can access acid easily, and attacks have been on the rise: an attack is reported every three days. There were 233 recorded cases from 1995 to 1998. Few women seek justice because of limited legal help, fear of perpetrators, police corruption, and a discriminatory legal system - although there is now death penalty for acid attacks. We need a social change.

Mobility of Unmarried Adolescent Girls

Generally, in rural Bangladesh, the mobility of girls is restricted after they reach menarche, and our data supports this generalisation. However, there was a range in the mobility of girls.

Interestingly, despite restrictions, some girls had effective strategies to negotiate greater mobility and gain access and exposure to the wider world. In the majority of cases, girls were not allowed to go very far beyond their villages, and they nearly always needed reasons and permission to go out. Their spatial mobility was often determined by where relatives lived.

The most common reasons for the mobility of girls were social visits, attending public events, and shopping. When girls needed to access healthcare treatment, their mobility depended in part on the type of illness; however, families often consulted providers and brought medicines home, markedly limiting mobility for healthcare seeking in several cases. Often, conditions were applied to mobility: many girls had to be accompanied by family members and were allowed out only during the daytime.

Although mobility restrictions were common, their extent or degree varied by household. Some families were very strict and controlling, whereas others were more flexible with their rules. Socio-economic status seemed to influence mobility: all of the non-poor girls had medium or high mobility. The individual personal characteristics of the girls also played a role.

Some were more successful than others at negotiating freedom, and some seemed more able to instil trust in their parents that they were “good girls” and sensible. Those personal characteristics are likely part of the complex dynamics of family interactions, from which some girls emerged empowered relative to others.

These findings are important in several respects. They suggest that although gender discrimination and restrictions are widely prevalent, at the community level, there are opportunities for change because not all families adhere strictly to the rules of social expectations.

Moreover, in some cases, girls are skilled at challenging existing social practices and at negotiating for more freedom. These insights may help inform efforts to encourage parents to allow their daughters to continue their education, delay their marriage, and develop life skills critical for their well-being in the future(R T Naved, S Chowdhury, S Arman, K Sethuraman, 2007).

Schoolgirl, family burnt in acid attack

Repression on Women

Fundamentalists ask govt to stop all women sports

A Devil in Pir's (socalled religious/spiritual leader) Clothing

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2. 5. 1. Violence against women still high

The incidence of violence against women remains significantly high despite a downward trend in the past few years.

Dowry continues to be the major reason for violence against women. According to the human rights coalition Odhikar, 138 women were killed and 47 tortured while 13 committed suicide in dowry-related incidents in 2007. The number of dowry-related violent incidents in 2006 was 320, with 243 being killed and 64 tortured. The Odhikar report put the number women and children raped in 2007 at 456. Fifty-six women and 23 children were killed after rape. In 2006 the number of rape victims was 639 – 412 women and 227 children.

According to the Acid Survivors’ Foundation, 2,627 men, women and children were victims in 2,060 incidents of acid violence between 1999 and 2004.

The annual casualty of acid violence has continued to come down ever since – 272 in 2005, 221 in 2006 and 187 in 2007. Women continued to be the major targets of acid attacks, with the reasons ranging from dowry to property that my father had received,’ Tahura told New Age in Hatibandha, Lalmonirhat recently. She mentioned that she was pressured at the family level to accept the settlement. ‘I was not a witness as I was sleeping during the incident and taking advantage of this, my family refrained from depositing witnesses before the court.’

Even then, she dared to spell out her story because she receives a certain amount of money from the Acid Survivors Foundation regularly. The status of many hundreds of thousands of women in Bangladesh, especially in the north, is even worse. Dowry, divorce, polygamy, early marriage, hillah [proxy] marriage, repression of women in family, and even rape are not uncommon in many backward villages.

Radha Rani, a mother of four at village Telipara in Thakurgaon Sadar, was gang raped and the rapists gauged out her eyes when she recognised them. Two culprits – Rafiqul and Yusuf – have been sentenced to 27 years’ imprisonment. ‘Will they come out of jail during the voting?’ she expressed her suspicion. Asked about her demand to the state, she said, ‘I need justice in all cases like this and I also deserve some help as I cannot work. My life is meaningless.’

Sakhina Akhter, who was once a nurse at a clinic, is now staying with two children at her parents’ home in Panchagarh Sadar after her husband deserted her after taking dowry on the pretence of borrowing money for running a business. A determined Sakhina, with the assistance from rights campaigners, is fighting for justice; she has filed two lawsuits.

Mirza Nazmul Islam, a lawyer who helps legal patronisation of victims by the Rangpur-Dinajpur Rural Service, a non-governmental organisation, said sensitive cases could be taken up if they were brought to their attention. ‘The entire region is poor and violence is also a poverty syndrome,’ he told New Age in Panchagarh. Shahidul, a hawker in Kurigram Sadar, was forced to get married with Sujona after she became pregnant a few years back. Later, he claimed dowry from the family of Sujona and beat her whenever she raised voice.

Asked why he assaulted her wife frequently, he denied and said she did not listen to her most of the time. ‘This is common in this backward region. I strongly believe, reconciliation is very important for making peace in family apart from making all social and official efforts to improve conditions of women,’ said Tajul Islam, a physician-cum-rights leader who runs an organisation called Unnota Paribar Gathan Mahila Sangstha in Kurigram. He mentioned that their ‘Male Coalition’ had vowed to show ‘zero tolerance’ to violence against women.

Rasheda K Chowdhury, adviser in charge of women and children affairs and primary and mass education ministries, stressed the need for a social movement alongside legal measures to check violence against women, which, she observed, is present everywhere in the country even today (New Age, March 8, 2008).

Violence against women runs high in North Bengal

Tahura Khatun, an undergraduate student at the Hatibandha Women’s Degree College, has been bearing ugly marks of acid burns on her face since January 2006. Miscreants threw acid on her after she had turned down the marriage proposal from one of her cousins. Tahura hopes the spots on her face would go away after surgery but is aggrieved that the culprit, Faridul, is freely roaming about. Her father Tayeb Ali of Maddhyo Goddimari village took money for making an outside-the-court settlement with the family of the main accused.

‘I want justice not money. I did not even touch the money disputes to spurned marriage proposals. The legal aid wing of the Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, on the basis of media reports, pointed to an upturn in the incidence of violence against women, and children, this year.

In February alone, there were 193 incidents of violence against women. Thirty-four women were raped, four abducted and 23 tortured. Besides, 44 women and children were killed. Meanwhile, there has been a significant rise in the incidents of violence against women at workplace and torture on domestic helps.

A Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies survey found out that 563 women were sexually abused at workplace between from 1998 and 2007. In 2007 alone 28 women workers were sexually abused and eight of them were killed after rape at workplace. Of the victims, 19 were garment workers, 6 domestic helps and 3 workers in other sectors.

The BILS survey found domestic helps, mostly girls, faced violence at their place of employment. In 2007 63 such occurrences took place, in which 34 domestic helps were killed and 28 tortured. Women rights activists, however, believe that although the incidence of violence against women continues to be high there has been a general increase in the level of awareness across society.

Women have become more vocal these days against violence, be it at home or workplace, they say. Sulatna Kamal, a former adviser to the caretaker government and executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra, told New Age that people are now more conscious about these issues than they used to be. ‘The intensity of violence at individual and familial matters is increasing because women now want to exercise their rights while their male counterparts are still not willing to break away from their patriarchal mindset,’ she said.

The former adviser urged the government to use the state machineries for an end to all sorts of violence. Ayesha Khanom, general secretary of the Bangladesh Mohila Parishad, told New Age that women were now more vocal about their rights and in protest at violence against them.

‘Women now come forward to take legal aid if any violence against them takes place. Previously we had to convince them to take the support,’ she said. Ayesha suggested that the issues of equal rights and violence against women should be incorporated in textbooks so that schoolchildren develop awareness of these issues very early in their lives.

Shirin Akhter, president of Karmajibi Nari, said strengthening of local government is important to curb violence against women. She said wage discrimination, sexual harassment and safety problems still pose major problems for women at their work place (New Age, March 8, 2008).

2. 6. Police Corruption

Recently the most circulated bengali news paper "Prathom Alo" wrote in an editorial, "Do we need Police Department ?" In Dhaka Metropolitan police collects millions Taka (Bnagla currency) each day from street shopkeepers. All governments have failed to control the police from bribery and other inhuman activities.

The police, education, health, local government and communication sectors are the most corrupt, said a report of the Bangladesh chapter of Berlin-based corruption watchdog, Transparency International. The Corruption Database 2004, launched at the National Press Club on Thursday (15. 09. 05), found that in terms of corruption, the police secured the top position. The communication sector secured the top position in terms of the volume of corruption, Ordinary people suffer most from corruption and unless it is reduced, living standards will not improve (New Age, September 16, 2005).

A survey conducted last year said that 78% people do not believe the police about their services. Is it not enough to prove the lack of confidence of the people on the police? The police think themselves as king and the public are their subjects. Showing reason they think it is their duty to persecute the people. As if the people are their permanent source of income. But we see from the newspapers that the policemen were stoical as and when crimes were taking place close by their location. Even in many instances, during the time of great danger men do not get the due assistance from the police. There are countless examples in our country that can be given. When a man inform the whereabouts of the miscreants to the police, the informer receive premature death letter from the hands of the miscreants because the police allegedly convey the same to them (miscreants). It is also a cause of no confidence upon police (The Bangladesh Observer, 22. 07. 03).

Nevertheless, the fact remains that if all the incidents of corruption had seen daylight on being reported by newspapers, there would have been an infinitely more horrendous realisation about corruption: the extent to which economic losses are inflicted on the nation together with an infringement on civic rights, because corruption and abuse of power go hand in hand.

Let's have the political will needed to carry out police reform, sweep away the regulatory cobwebs and introduce transparency based on accountability at all levels of decision-making

Poilice Corruption in Bangladesh
Schoolgirl 'killed' after rape, police allegedly record suicide case

While working in rural ares, several poor family complained that because they are unable to bribe the police their husbands/family members are in jail for several year. We spent plenty of time in court and jail to release them from prison. After a long battle, we could set four cases free from jail. All four of them is now working for our project.

Lawyers of Bangladesh are only available for those who can pay. We could not find any human right group in Faridpur. The haggard defeated looks that prisoners wear on their faces. The jail is bigger than the personality of individuals. The jail is also a murderer. It's a killer of souls. And perhaps this murder leaves its worst marks on children. Our jails like all jails may let the body survive but the person inside is always butchered.

On 23 rd December, 2003 the Daily Star writes;

Behind bars sans trial for years: 155 Dhaka Central Jail inmates languish with no witnesses to pin them down Chaitanya Chandra Halder and Shariful Islam. Mohammad Jahangir has spent the last 11 years in custody at Dhaka Central Jail without trial. Son of Abdur Rahman of Dholairpar under the city's Demra Police Station, Jahangir was arrested on September 9, 1992 on charges of robbery and murder. Three days later, he was sent to jail. Since then, he was produced before the Court of Second Additional Metropolitan Sessions' Judge, Dhaka on 78 occasions but trial was put off each time as prosecution failed to produce witnesses for deposition before the court.. As many as 155 such inmates of Dhaka Central Jail has been incarcerated without trial for five or more years because prosecution witnesses did not show up for deposition. The cases against them involving charges of rape, murder, robbery, abduction, smuggling and possession of illegal firearms and explosives are currently pending with the Court of Dhaka District and Sessions Judge, the Court of Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Judge and the Special Tribunal for Prevention of Women and Children Repression, Dhaka, court sources said. Preferring anonymity, an official of Dhaka Central Jail said a large number of such accused continue to languish in other prisons across the country without trial due to the same problem. "Why should I have to spend year after year in jail without trial. What if I'm acquitted of the charges or given a prison sentence less than 11 years. How can I get back those years lost in jail," said Jahangir while standing in the dock on October 21. Despite repeated reminders, the prosecution failed to produce their witnesses. These witnesses have constantly avoided giving deposition ignoring court orders mailed to their addresses, said a lawyer on condition of anonymity. He said the courts concerned refused to grant bail to the accused despite a Supreme Court (SC) decision that undue delay in holding trial due to the prosecution's fault will constitute valid grounds for bail. Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed said the situation is being monitored and the ministry 'would take measures' for the deserving accused to get bail after assessment of their cases. Inspector General of Police (IGP) Shahudul Haque declined to comment on the issue saying he didn't have knowledge of the situation. Countless number of children are arbitrarily arrested and held for various lengths of time in detention - ammesty International Experts point towards the mounting violation of rights among street children who live on the pavements and streets. According to researchers, it is estimated that there are 50000 street children in Dhaka alone. These children make a living out of working as domestic servants or prostitutes, selling flowers, picking rubbish over dumps for scraps of paper or plastic that can be sold, sell drugs and alcohol. They are being regularly picked up by the police who extract bribes, beat, humiliate and harass them. According to an Amnesty International report, countless of number of children are arbitrarily arrested and held for various lengths of time in detention. It also adds that most children are not charged at all; if they are charged with petty or even serious offences, they do not have the wherewithal to engage legal counsel. Nurul Nabi (15), who spent most of his life in the streets. His mother had left him in the Shadarghat promising to be back by dusk but she never returned. Since then he spent most of his life in the streets, often bullied and tortured by a gang of boys and the police. Later, he was put into the work of selling marijuana. ‘I did it because that way I could at least be able to earn a living to feed myself,’ explains Nurul. But soon he was arrested and kept in jail. Nurul went through various kinds of mental and physical abuse during his time in jail. ‘I was kept in the adult prison along with two other boys of my age. We were abused frequently and this was accepted by the jail police, who were no better then the prisoners,’ he recalls. Such cases of children being kept with adult prisoners is a direct violation of right. Major duty holders such as police, doctors, lawyers themselves violate child rights in various instances. ‘Therefore, it is the judiciary system itself and the service providers, who need to be aware of the laws and protect the rights of children (New AgeXtra, 6-12 October, 2006).

Present Law, Justice and Parliament Affair Minister Barrister Moudud Ahmed (1995) describes:

To visit a jail is also to discover that nearly all prisoners are very poor. The visitor will soon come to realise that they are in prison only because they are poor. They have no one to fall back on in society, no means to go to court and, with no legal aid for them, they cannot even apply for bail.....The prisoners live in inhuman conditions, treated as slaves, fed as animals...... After being in jail for long as five years, the prisoner may be given a conviction of two years, with the result that he serves seven years altogether.... Every government since independence has made some attempt, as far as law and procedure is concerned, to remove these sufferings and ensure justice. But they have all been half-hearted, indifferent endeavours. The crisis in the system of justice has now engulfed the nation leading to a loss confidence in the system as a whole.

Narcoanalysis: A Dangerous Mirage

The police are increasingly relying on narcoanalysis tests to gather evidence and the courts are accepting them as mere investigative tools. However, these tests are unrealiable. They are capable of inducing false confessions from innocent persons and violate crucial constitutional protections

Right to Life and Personal Liberty

Subjecting persons to injections of mindaltering chemicals against their will is a violation of their right to privacy and may even violate their right to health. In this regard, it must be remembered that the drugs used in narcoanalysis are not simple over-the-counter medicines, but powerful drugs. Indeed, one of the most commonly used truth serum substances - sodium pentathol14 - is the same substance that in larger dosages is used to induce a deep coma-like state for executions by lethal injection in the US.15 Indeed, a large dose of this drug is lethal.

Narcoanalysis tests undermine the right against self-incrimination and have the potential to adversely affect the fairness of a trial. Widespread use of narcoanalysis is likely to foster laxity in the investigation standards of the police force, who may increasingly rely on the seemingly facile nature of the test rather than conduct more pedestrian forensic investigations (Economic and Political Weekly, SOUTH ASIA HUMAN RIGHTS, DOCUMENTATION CENTRE, July 14, 2007,).

Abetting Police Crime: Why?

The death of a father of a brilliant student from St. Gregory School at Sutrapur Police Station has once again brought to the fore the unpleasant truth of the criminality of the men in uniform.

On the day the ninth grade student, now on a holiday after the annual examination, was on his way to play cricket. But in a country where the police are always on the lookout for unearned money, why should the innocent students be allowed the freedom to pursue their hobbies and games after their arduous academic year end? So the student was a target and whisked away into the thana hajat. The boy's father went to the police station and appealed for his son's release. But that was not to be especially when the father is not somebody. Tk 50,000 was demanded as bribe from him, which he naturally refused to pay. His son was beaten under his eyes and when he protested, he was pushed off balance and collapsed to his death.

The boy was soon released but the police came to threaten the family of dire consequences if it made much of the incident. Yet another student was arrested along with the boy who lost his father. And these are the custodians of law! Devoid of humanity and any sense of dignity of the uniform they wear, these criminals can do anything but not help the rule of law. Do they have sons like the innocent schoolboy they picked up? More importantly, they are abusing the uniform for their personal gains. This is unacceptable by the vilest standard of police ethics and legal codes of conduct anywhere in the world.

Do the authorities consider this a trivial incident? When will they feel prompted to take note of incidents like this? It is the question of attitude. Corrupt and criminal men in uniform deserve no leniency. If their act of criminality is abetted, others will feel encouraged to carry on similar acts and the rule of law thus becomes a casualty. Protection of each and every individual's rights is guaranteed by the law of the land.

The police are there only to ensure that no innocent person is victimised. But if they target people to line their pockets and the administration turns a blind eye to the criminal practice, society soon becomes an unlivable place. This society has already turned into such a hostile place and any further continuation of the legacy will leave it completely rotten. We want judicial inquiry into the incident and exemplary punishment of those responsible for the barbaric incident. Although no compensation is enough for the loss of a father, the family must be compensated for what it has suffered at the hands of the police (The Bangladesh Observer, December 19, 2004).

"But those hungry ones always came before me. And did snatch it away ruthlessly, Now my word of imagination is Dry as a vast desert. And my own beautiful! I grow listless in the shadowy skirt of the earth And my dreams of beauty and goodness vanish!"

1. 'I want to go home"
2. Small pox claims one, 45 affected in Satkhira jail, South Bangladesh

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2. 7. Women, Silent Victim of ground water poisoning

Most of the rivers of this continent are named famine. The Ichhamati, the Mahananda, the Punarbhova, the Gudabori, the Kaberi, the Padma, the Ganges the Narmada etc. are few examples. Different literatures including the myths reveal that women play key roles also in protecting and saving water from contamination. Therefore, women are naturally linked with the source, supply and use of clean water.

Give me a glass of water. I am very thirsty". This is an usual type of request or capricious insistence commonly made by a man to a woman in our society. Because, in most cases, it is women who serve food and water at home. Regarding any waste of drinking water, often the women warn that the reserve might be exhausted if all are not careful. The f