Opinion: When stalkers enjoy impunity

None of us can fathom the pain, the helplessness of a father who has been maimed for life for protesting the harassment of his daughters by stalkers, while he learns that the perpetrators are allowed to roam free, threatening further torture to his family if he refuses to back down.  

When Shahanur Alam complained to village leaders that a group of seven - namely Kamal Hossain, UP member and Secretary of the Nalbhanga Union of the Awami Jubo League, Billal Hossain, Jahid Hossain, Imdadul Haque, Tuku Mia, Hasan Ali and Motaleb Hossain – had been stalking his daughters Sharmin Aktar, a former student at the Jessore Women’s College and Shahnaz Aktar, a seventh grader at the Nalbhanga Secondary School, he was viciously attacked with iron bars by the gang on his way to work on the morning of October 16 and left for dead. Locals took the unconscious Shahanur to Jessore Medical College Hospital and he was later transferred to the Dhaka Orthopaedics Hospital in a critical condition, as the injury on Shahanur’s legs festered and signs of gangrene started to develop, forcing doctors to amputate his legs to save his life.

The nightmare did not end there. According to Shahnaz, Shahanur’s 13-year-old daughter, the stalkers were so sure of not being arrested that they visited the victim’s Jhenidah home at night, threatening to burn the young girl’s face with acid if the case against them was not withdrawn. Moreover, her older brother went into hiding in fear of possible repercussions by the stalkers who don’t seem to fear either law or God.

Meanwhile, Shahnaz has stopped going to school, as she is terrified that she could be seriously harmed if her paths crossed with that of the stalkers, while her older sister quit studying a couple of years ago due to excessive stalking on her way to college located some 20 kilometres away from her home. Thanks to the audacity of these stalkers, who understand that power of abuse and threats can help them get the impunity that we as a society offer them, Shahnaz and Sharmin join a long list of girls who are forced to give up their education, and in effect their independence, because some men cannot take no for an answer. 

This sense of impunity is further strengthened when law enforcing agencies appear to help the criminals rather than offer support and every assistance to make the victims feel protected. This is again evidenced in the present case, as Shahanur’s brother in law Eakub Ali alleged that he had to file the case with the court after the Kaliganj Police Station refused to lodge their complaint. Thankfully, the High Court has directed the Jhenidah police to arrest the accused while also asking them to submit a report about the arrest before the court by November 27.

Even as the criminals seem to be walking free, fearlessly threatening the people whose lives they have ruined, the police claim that they have been ‘looking’ for the gang as they went into hiding. The message could not be clearer; Kamal is a UP member and thus enjoys a fair amount of clout and power in his locality. However, despite being a UP member, Kamal, according to some locals, is allegedly a drug dealer; in fact, he was arrested with Phensidyl bottles and a motorcycle bought illegally in 2014. Even before that, he was arrested with arms. In spite of such crimes, this person holds a position of power in our government and seems to be quite well-protected by the police. Kamal is aware that he can go scot free because of his connections, and why shouldn’t he? This seems to be the case with many other well connected individuals who resort to all kinds of crimes because of the impunity they enjoy.

In 2015, 89 girls and women were attacked by their stalkers while 10 committed suicide due to sexual harassment while six were killed by their stalkers, according to Ain O Shalish Kendra. In the first six months of 2016, at least six people were killed for protesting sexual harassment while 57 others were injured. Rarely, if ever, were the perpetrators of these crimes brought to justice. Thus, while presenting overwhelming statistics to our girls that establishes Bangladesh’s commitment to and progress in female empowerment, we also need to let them know that we won’t be able to save them when they are stalked, harassed, molested, raped or killed on their way to school, home or anywhere, really. What good is all our talk of progress and empowerment if we can’t even assure our daughters that they can move and live without fear or harassment?

The writer is member of the Editorial Team, The Daily Star.