THE UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTH

The incident of sexual assault that took place this Pahela Baishakh on the Dhaka University campus was not the first of its kind. This incident just happens to be very well documented. Sexual harassment happens every single day to women all over the country-that is what we as a society must first learn to acknowledge before we can do something about it. "Socially, we have not created an environment which makes this behaviour strongly objectionable," says psychiatrist Dr Omar Rahman. "This is a deeply patriarchal male-centric society where women's mobility is severely constrained," he says. "Looking at it from a regional perspective, sexual harassment is more rampant in North India rather than the South, and Kolkata, which is not even 200 miles from us, is one of the safest cities in the subcontinent. This has less to do with education and more to do with the attitude toward women." he explains.

According to Dr Rahman, the social context overrides the psychological one in this case. "The psychology of the perpetrators is that they can get away with it. It would be a big mistake to think these people are somehow mentally ill. These men most likely come from backgrounds where their mothers and sisters don't go out alone in public or with other men, and don't dress a certain way, therefore, they conclude that those who do, are bad charactered women, 'They are wrong and I am right, so it doesn't matter what I do or say to them,' is what they are thinking." 

These men attack women not only to derive sexual pleasure, but in a way, to teach them a lesson. "The first step towards making a change would be to have exemplary punishment for the perpetrators, to send out a strong message that this will not be condoned," says Dr Rahman. "Law enforcement officers should also be sensitised to the issue of sexual violence, which is not just limited to rape. In a situation like this, where there is so much media attention and documentation, if nothing happens, it sends the message that the society does not care," he opines.

Lack of punishment for these crimes creates a vicious cycle, where parents respond to the threat of sexual violence by denying their daughters a level of freedom that is their basic right, in order to protect them. This reinforces the idea that a woman's rightful place is inside the home. Sensitising men about these issues from a young age is one way to deal with the problem, but that will not happen overnight. The message women are taking away from this incident is "Don't go out, you will encounter men like this," instead, we should send out the message that says, "Don't harass women, there will be consequences." These are uncomfortable truths a society has to deal with, if it wants to make progress.