Of bruises and blues
Between January and October 2019, 173 women have been killed by their husbands in Bangladesh, 37 have been murdered by the husband's family, while 36 have been killed by their own family members. As fictitious and inflated as these numbers may appear, these figures—documented by Ain o Salish Kendra—are real, portraying the harrowing extent of the rot that pervades our social fabric.
It is called domestic violence. Truth is often stranger than fiction, and for us the truth is that even in the 21st century—a time when we beat the drums of women empowerment—women are being tortured, maimed and killed by their intimate partners and at times even their families.
And not just in Bangladesh, domestic violence is distorting the social makeup of many developed countries around the world, including France, Germany and the US. According to a France 24 report, this year alone, 116 women had been killed by their intimate partners. In Germany, a woman is killed every three days in incidents related to domestic violence, as per a report by Deutsche Welle, Germany's international broadcaster. And in the US, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, nearly 1 in 10 women have experienced rape, physical violence and/or stalking by a partner and have reported a related impact on their lives.
The protests on the streets of Paris, Brussels, and other cities in the word against femicide and violence against women are a testament to the sufferings of women at the hands of men on account of their gender.
And a research released in December 2018, suggested that 66 percent—or two thirds—of women in Bangladesh, become victims of domestic violence, and a staggering 72 percent of them have never shared their plight with another person. The research further revealed that only 2.1 percent women had informed local leaders of the domestic abuse they were facing, while a meagre 1.1 percent of women sought help from the police. The 32 percent probability that a court will dismiss a case and allow the perpetrator to go scot free, might be the reason why most women choose to remain silent in the face of domestic violence.
And even when domestic violence is perpetrated out in the open by the husband and his family—as in the case of the woman in Bogura, who was tied to a tree by her husband and in-laws and given a medieval-style beating for allegedly damaging their cabbage field—it is often the victim who is harassed by the law enforcers.
In this case, the victim, Shilpi Begum had been handed over to the police by Shibganj Raynagar Union Parishad Chairman Shahiqul Islam. Later, sub-inspector Hazizur Rahman of Shibganj Police Station detained the victim and requested Shibganj upazila nirbahi officer Alamgir Kabir to place the victim before a mobile court, without even examining if the allegations against Shilpi Begum of destroying the cabbage field were legitimate.
And although the victim was later released by the police, and her husband Rafi and his brother had been arrested—after the victim's brother Mamun Hossain filed a case against Rafi and the other perpetrators of the violence against Shilpi, under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act with Shibganj Police Station—when justice will be served remains uncertain.
So what is the role of the law enforcement agencies in combating domestic violence? According to Mahmuda Afroz Lucky, Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police, Detective Branch-Dhaka Metropolitan Police, the major problem faced by the police is the reluctance of the victims to initiate formal procedure against their husbands and in-laws for the violence perpetrated on them.
"Often victims come to us complaining about the abuse and violence that they suffer at the hands of their husbands and/or in-laws. However, the moment we ask them to file a written complaint so that we can take necessary steps to bring the culprits to book, the victims backtrack, fearing the consequences of such an action. The problem is domestic violence is still seen by people as a 'private, family matter' that at best should be addressed within the confines of the household, if at all. As a result, families of the victims are in most cases not supportive of the victims' decision to seek legal support, or the law enforcement agencies' involvement in such 'personal matters.' And since we do not have the authority to pursue incidents of domestic violence until the victims initiate the official process by lodging written complaints, we are often left with no choice other than letting go of these incidents."
And under pressure from family and fearing social stigma, women often choose to endure domestic abuse in silence, making it a part of their lives. The government has, however, established victim support centres at divisional level to provide support and counselling to female victims of violence. The problem is, these support centres are not accessible to the women living in the rural areas, because it is simply often not possible for them to travel all the way from their villages to the victim support centres and seek help from law enforcement agencies against domestic violence.
"The problem is, the definition of domestic violence remains unclear in our society. Majority of the people don't even know what constitutes domestic violence," Mahmuda Afroz Lucky says while discussing the problem of awareness. She suggests the collaboration of local NGOs working in this field with the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs to promote awareness about this at the grassroots level. "It is important to let the women living in rural areas know what domestic violence means and how they can seek legal help to address this problem," she adds.
And while it is important to raise awareness about domestic violence among rural women, access to law enforcement is crucial, which is why Mahmuda Afroz Lucky suggests more mobility for the victim support centres. "If we can make the victim support cells mobile and empower and equip them to reach and counsel the victims on the spot, it will boost the mental strength of the victims and allow them to make rational decisions about how to address their circumstances."
Domestic abuse exists in every sphere of our society, it has remained rooted to our patriarchal mind-set like a parasite, sucking the lifeblood out of our society. For how long must we endure? Why must we endure at all? Questions that deserve our collective introspection.
Tasneem Tayeb works for The Daily Star. Her Twitter handle is: @TayebTasneem
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