Harsh backlash of protesting harassment

The first time she stood up to her stalker, unable to take months of harassment, she was beaten up in public, where hundreds of bystanders stood by and watched.

Seventeen-year-old Samia (not her real name), was being stalked and verbally abused on her way to college by one Asif Morol, a local youth, for the last one year. This would happen regularly in Palashpur Bazaar, a small village market in Kapasia Upazila of Gazipur, she told this newspaper.

Samia had complained to her family about the harassment, but her mother advised her to ignore it. However, on December 3, she decided to protest when Asif and a few of his cohorts hurled dirty jokes and verbal abuse in her direction.

Instead of keeping her head down and walking away like she did usually, she confronted them. Taken aback, the stalkers got even more aggressive.

“One of them stood up and threatened to beat me if I didn’t leave the place quietly. I yelled back at them and turned to leave,” said Samia.

That’s when one of the boys attacked her, took off his sandal and started beating her up. The blows kept falling, and a crowd gathered but nobody intervened.

“I was dumbfounded. It happened in the market, but nobody protested. Rather, a shopkeeper asked me to go home and leave everything to my guardians,” she said.

Samia left the area in tears while the youths continued hurling abuse and threats at her, witnesses said.

Since then, the teenager is in severe mentally distress, and attempted to take her own life, said her mother. “She has refused to go to her classes or attend exams. She was unable to tolerate the humiliation.”

“It was horrible. I cannot cope with what they said about me,” said Samia.

Contacted, Kapasia’s Upazila Nirbahi Officer (UNO) Ismat Ara informed this correspondent that she visited the spot on the day of the incident, and took statements of the victim, spoke to eyewitnesses and ordered the father of the attacker to report to her office. “When I realised they won’t come, I handed the case to Kapasia Police Station,” she said.

Samia’s father filed a case at Kapasia Police Station accusing four -- Asif, Hridoy, Rajib, and Akash -- under   the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. The accused have been absconding since the case was filed.

“We are doing our best to arrest the culprits,” said Rafiqul Islam, OC of Kapasia Police Station.

Meanwhile, Asif’s father is constantly pressuring the victim’s family to settle the matter out of court, claimed Samia’s father.

According to Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), from January till October this year, 12 girls died by suicide after being sexually harassed. A total of 197 were beaten up by stalkers in addition to sexual harassment.

Stalking girls and women was declared illegal by the High Court in 2011, and the government was directed to consider the offence as sexual harassment.

The HC directive also said incidents of stalking have to be brought under trial in accordance with the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act.