Violence Against Women, Bangladesh and CEDAW

Sultana Kamal Violence against women is not a phenomenon peculiar to Bangladesh. Nevertheless one cannot help thinking of Bangladesh as soon as the issue of violence against women is raised. It is unfortunate that despite remarkable achievements in the field of womens development and bearing a glorious history of womens movement, incidences of violence against women is rather high in Bangladesh. It is not easy to say whether violence against women has decreased or increased over the past few years because of lack of reliable base-line survey, but in absolute term, the number of incidences is alarmingly high. To quote from the record by ASK documentation unit prepared on the basis of newspaper reporting, there have been about 1500 incidents of violence against women in Bangladesh in the year 2006 which included acid burns, dowry related violence, rape and attempted rape, violence instigated by fatwa and violence against female domestic workers. According to the information provided by Mahila Parishad, a leading womens organization of Bangladesh, only for the months of January and February 2007, the numbers stand at 332 and 462 respectively. Another source reveals, of the 1,254 cases of violence against women reported by various Newspapers in 2006, about 50 per cent of victims were under 30 years of age. 741 women were victims of rape, 334 subjected to violence due to dowry whereas number of fatwas issued by imams (religious leaders) stood at 39. Some improvement was seen in the case of acid burns, which decreased from 270 in 2005 to 221 in 2006. However, in the period between January and March 2007, ASK documented already 4 fatwa related cases of violence, 126 incidents of rape including 10 deaths and 2 suicides, 67 dowry related violence with 34 deaths and 4 suicides. Cases of acid burns were 28. The above statistics are particularly disturbing for Bangladesh as Bangladesh is a country known for the resilience of her people against repression, discrimination, undemocratic and autocratic military rules in which women have always played a significant role. In fact Bangladesh is one of those countries where women at different very critical junctures of time took the responsibility of leading the country forward. This is true of the time during the nine-month long liberation war when it is the women basically who were left back in the territory to look after the country while most of the male family members were either killed by the Pakistani occupation army or they had to leave the country to save themselves and join the liberation force. Even before that, over the decades of fifties and sixties, women gave leadership to the literary and cultural movements culminating in the mass upheaval of 1969 and the liberation war itself. In the post liberation war period too, we see women leaders engaged in the reconstruction of the country both in the private as well as public sectors, moving for the trial of the war criminals, participating in the political, social and cultural rebuilding of the society. But the contributions of women

have not been given due recognition in history before, during or after the war of liberation. The Constitution of Bangladesh, however, pledges and also guarantees equality before law for everyone including women, equality for women in the public life, special measures to bring women at par with their male counterparts and repealing of discriminatory laws. But application of personal laws to govern people according to the dictates of the religion one is born into, defeats the principle of equality before law so pledged. This brings us to the discussion of the UN Convention for the elimination of all kinds of discrimination against women (CEDAW). The UN CEDAW (1979) binds all the UN member states signing and ratifying the document to review its laws to examine whether they are good enough to give women the desired equality- equality not only in terms of opportunity but also equality in result. Bangladesh was one of the first countries to sign and ratify it but reserving clause 2, and clauses relating to rights within the family. The 1996 government withdrew reservation on two of the clauses still retaining the same on clause 2 and 16.1. These two clauses are the most important ones as far as womens equality is concerned. And equality in every sphere of life- be it private or public, is a pre-condition to minimize violence against women. It is therefore important to work towards full ratification and materialization of CEDAWs principles. It is important to note that the women of Bangladesh, through various forums tried to sustain the pressure on the governments to take the issue of violence against women seriously and to deal with it in a holistic manner. Violence against women, for the policy makers of Bangladesh generally meant only gross violence like rape and murder. That is why the state interventions to stop violence against women limited themselves to making prohibitive laws for taking and giving dowry under the title of the Dowry Prohibition Act of 1980 and the Violence Against Women (Deterrent) Punishment Act of 1983 which overlooked the route causes of violence against women which are basically related to womens subordination and their role in the society and family defined by gender. Womens subordination, it is needless to say denies her the basic human rights to life, right to be free from discrimination, right to health, right to privacy, the right not to be subjected to torture or ill treatment, the right to choose, right to be free from all kinds of violence including sexual violence. Womens subordination is a necessary condition of patriarchy, which endows supremacy of men over women and to maintain that supremacy the system uses both psychological conditioning as well as disciplinary measures. Women living in constant fear of retaliation- most of the time choose to opt for submission to male domination and control to save themselves from dislocation. Otherwise the penalty is too high for them to be able to deal with. The situation becomes even more precarious for women as the violence inflicted on them is sanctioned by the society as well as the state in the name of culture, tradition and religion, which cannot be easily questioned without being branded as infidels or even fallen.

Gender based violence also becomes difficult to combat as it is directly and closely linked to cultural, socio-economic and political powers. In the above situation women are made to depend physically, materially and psychologically on me for protection turning women literally into chattels for men. As a result it is not only physical torture that women are made to suffer, but also mental and psychological assaults. Threats, vindictive behaviour, exploitation, deprivation or oppression are not that uncommon. Recognition of this dimension of gender- based violence is very important to challenge the genesis of violence against women. Failing which, efforts to stop violence is more likely to meet frustration than success. It is yet not the fullest understanding of the issue. The challenge still remains to see violence against women in the violation of not only the violent acts perpetrated on them. It is also important to identify the physical areas or frames within which violence against women occur. It is mainly the three areas family, society and state. Family violence is manifested in physical torture, (murder for dowry or other reasons, assault, battering, female feticide, murder of girl-child, food deprivation, absence of health services, malnutrition, control over reproductive rights) sexual violence by rape and other sexual transgressions and mental torture by obstructing womens mobility, forced marriage, threats of eviction from the family etc. Society does it normally by humiliation and sanctioning family violence in the name of social norms. Trafficking, forced prostitution, gang rape, sexual harassment, pornography, commoditization of womens body etc could be cited as social violence whereas condoning social and family violence is a form of state violence in addition to not offering protection in case of communal violence or violence at times of war and conflict, denying equal rights by application of discriminatory laws or imposing unequal status by statute to uphold patriarchal values. Family and the society are the places where indoctrination and socialization of patriarchal values nurturing the principles of male hegemony over women, which motivates both women and men to accept it as natural takes place. The socialization process ensures mens control and disciplining power over womens body, mobility and labour. Not only that, womens bodily integrity, her right to control her body including her sexuality and reproduction too are violated through such controlling authority given to men. State validates this by either making laws in favour or refusing to provide remedies against. The most unfortunate part is that the violence at the very personal/private level within the limits of the family is not even recognized as violence by the state in Bangladesh. Even though Bangladesh has a much discussed law under the title of Suppression of Violence against Women Act (1995 amended in 1997 and 2000) has been enacted after intensive and extensive consultation with he womens groups, the main focus of the act was on enhancement of punishment rather than substantial and procedural competence. The womens ministry has only a meager percentage of 1-4 allocated to combat violence against women. Absence of adequately qualified persons with strong motivation is still a problem within the government institutions. Conviction rate is significantly low compared to the complaints lodged and cases filed. This shows the mindset of the

officials responsible. The womens policy formulated in 1997 on the basis of recommendations of CEDAW, Beijing Platform for Action and SNAT of 1996 was changed clandestinely in the year 2004 to replace equality clauses by vague words signifying no definite rights for women in the area of property ownership and resourcesharing. Policies for appointment in responsible positions were also removed. However, in the face of challenge by the womens groups, the changed policy has been sent in abeyance. The Non-Governmental as well as activist organizations, of course, have shown considerable commitment to combat violence against women through individual or collective networks. In the last few years violence against women has been practically the main focus of these organizations. The alliances of ANCVAW, We Can Stop Violence Against Women, Gender and Development Alliance are the most active now in Bangladesh on the issue of violence against women. To mention CEDAW in relation to violence against women it is important to recognize the value of full ratification of the convention. Otherwise without accepting the basic clause of equality (2) and equal rights within the family (16.1), one cannot expect to see any effective result in this area. CEDAW anyhow does not deal with the issue of violence against women but the very premise that equality in every sphere of life would ensure violence free life for women is the basic in the concept of the instrument. Moreover, recommendations by CEDAW regarding the reform in police stations to offer special assistance to women has proved to be really helpful. Application of CEDAW principles in court has also given women the desired result in some cases. In conclusion, it may not be out of context to discuss the Diaspora mentality towards violence against women, which is typically characterized by the tendency to hide incidences of violence lest family or national honour is hurt. It is very important to remember honour lies in honestly recognizing the wrong to make it right. Thank you all.