Blamed, shamed

If the public and legal channels through which a survivor can report rape are not gender-sensitive, the consequences can be disastrous.

When a young woman of Nagarpur upazila in Tangail was raped by her stalker on July 12, 2018 after refusing his proposal, she was not just denied help but also publicly harassed by local Nari Nirjaton Protirodh Committee head, who called her a "sex worker".

The committee head, Dhubria Union Parishad chairman, issued a notice claiming the rape survivor did "sex work" at her home and her father sold drugs.

In the notice, a copy of which was seen by The Daily Star, UP Chairman Md Motiar Rahman urged the landlord to evict the rape survivor and her family to "put an end to their sex-work business".

"I don't know how the chairman himself could do that. After the incident, we went to him several times but he did not take any action," said the survivor, a college student.

Getting no help from the chairman or the committee, she filed a case with Tangail District Court by herself in November 2019.

But the chairman's agenda against the survivor wasn't over. Motiar also sent the earlier notice, written on his official notice pad, to the deputy commissioner, police superintendent, and bar association of Tangail.

After he came under media and official censure, the chairman said he was duped. "Since I live far from the village of the girl, I couldn't verify the matter. Some influential people of that village came and told me that she does sex work and that it must be stopped."

He further said, "I later came to know that those people were helping the perpetrator. It was my fault, which I admit."

Though the Nagarpur UNO later stepped in and made the Dhubria UP chairman hold a press conference to tell the truth, the damage was already done.

As the head of the committee which is meant to prevent repression of women had come out against her and accused her of being a sex worker, her hope for justice faded.

Her alleged rapist is now out on bail, and she is worried about what, if anything, will happen to her case.

Another survivor shared with The Daily Star how she was discouraged from filing a case back in 2004, against her rapist -- the son of her landlord.

She, a minor, also had to endure lewd comments from a police officer to whom she went to report her rape.

"I was only 14 and was working as a helper at a garment factory. When I went to Mohammadpur Police Station after the incident, the duty officer ogled my body, from top to bottom," she said.

"He said that since I'm poor, I did this because I wanted to entrap the perpetrator," adding, he refused to take down her case.

Even the case, which she could file with a court later with the help of some rights activists, ended when her father was forced by the perpetrators to sign a document saying his daughter was of "immoral character" and her allegation had been fabricated for financial gain.

Nothing ever happened to her alleged rapist, she added.

Prof Taslima Yasmin, assistant professor at department of law at Dhaka University, said it is disturbingly common that when a survivor comes to file a case, police are reluctant to take down a first information report (FIR) and seem to take it for granted that the victim is lying.

"To counter the victim's statement, they harass them by asking inappropriate and irrelevant questions. There seems to already be an assumption that many cases filed under the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act are fabricated," she said.

Human rights lawyer Salma Ali, president of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA), said gender awareness and sensitivity training for police is crucial.

"I strongly recommend that every police station must have at least three women police who will be equipped with such training," she said.

Not just by police, victims are routinely blamed and shamed in the courts too.

A survivor who was raped and brutally beaten by her ex-husband last year was called an "adulterer" by the defence lawyer in a courtroom in Dhaka in August this year.

The couple had divorced in 2018, but the husband used to pester her to come to his house promising to re-marry her. But she said she was cheated and he didn't keep his word.

If she refused to pick up his calls or visit, he would beat her; during the month of Ramadan this year, he beat her so severely in her head that she had to go to India for treatment, she told The Daily Star. She filed a case against him soon after.

"That day in court, the lawyer produced a paper with my signature forged on it, where it was written that I had married him again, in front of both of our families, in exchange for Tk 2 lakh.

"When I denied that lie, he called me an adulterer for going to my ex-husband's house," she said.

Rights activists and experts have long expressed concern that the survivor's character, social class, attire, past sexual history, and lifestyle details are seen as more relevant to the justice system, rather than her lack of consent.

Nina Goswami, senior deputy director of Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), said the manner in which survivors are interrogated under the Evidence Act-1872 is not gender-sensitive at all.

"Gender-sensitive behaviour and language matter as it creates further trauma and affects the overall judgment of the case," she said.

Right activists have suggested that gender awareness and sensitivity training be ensured for law enforcers, courts, and relevant government institutions in order to stop a culture of victim-blaming and for them to adopt a neutral perspective when dealing with rape cases.