Online violence against women in Bangladesh

In the gender-bias cultural context of Bangladesh, violence against women or their

humiliating or subservient presentation are the operational motivations of the patriarchal
procedural set-up of all institutions-social, economic, educational, cultural, medical, and all
other core areas making up the life of Bangladeshi people. Online violence against women is
not, at all, an isolated phenomenon unaffected and uninfluenced by the venom and vapor of
the existing women-unfriendly process. In fact, online violence against women is the
digitalized version of the hackneyed legacy being handed down from generation to
generation. Offline or ground violence is taken as the severely coarsest form of visible
violence while the online violence is taken to be a coated and elusive form of anti-women
humiliating propaganda operated through electro-magnetic channel.

According to the statistical data of research findings conducted by a number of social

organizations and NGOs, presently more than 75% women using online communication
facilities in some way or the other are succumbing to the risks and hazards of becoming the
victims of online violence. One distinctive point of difference between domestic or ground
violence and online violence is the nature and extent of losses slapped on the victims. In
domestic violence the victims have to bear both life-threatening risks as well as to carry the
social stigma whereas online violence is a morbid form of psychological torture that
traumatize the victims to the point of life-in-death condition. Any sort of prolonged
torturing process is usually considered to be more excruciating than even death and it is
really so. On that count I will always put the issue of online violence against women above
domestic violence once considered the real tangible losses.

In Bangladesh, online violence against women is now quite a rampant practice occurring
almost in a free-wheeling fashion. Specifically speaking, violence against women mostly
occurs in the social networking channels. Most readily available instance is the blatantly
gross misuse of Facebook where women especially Bangladeshi women which is our
particular case in point are presented and displayed in the way that clearly degrade and
degenerate their status and honor. Intrusion into the innermost privacies and intimacies of
women is a recurrent manifestation in which exclusive privacies and secrecies of women
which are coded to be preserved universally are shared through the posts of the users of
this social networking media. More than 60% such posts by both implicit and explicit
implications and hints humiliate women which are obviously a form of violence. To make
our key word violence crystal clear, that is, what we really understand by violence and
specifically online violence, we need to redefine it in the changed situation and
circumstances.

Any sort of hostile presentation of women or antagonistic description and display that can
sensibly be felt as a motivated or distorted version is to be definitely treated as a form of
violence so far as the sense and sensibility of the 21st century are concerned. When secret
footages and audios concerning some women are posted and shared in the social media like
the most popular Face book, these trashes instantly turn to be the weapons of torture for
the women concerned. Around 40% social posts are clearly insulting posts targeting
women.

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YouTube is not an exception to honor and imaging tarnishing process of women as we find
in the use of Face book. And, to speak statistically, deviations and distortions aimed at
undermining women occur in higher degrees and proportions. Unquestionably, videos leave
more lasting impact and impressions on the viewers than the audio tapes and scripts.
According to several survey reports conducted in this field, it has seen that more than 70%
You Tube videos are made up ones and among these around 40% videos are targeted
against women. Why do women constitute the higher percentage among the victims of
online violence? More researches will be required to make a conclusive decision. However,
it can be said prima facie that it is patriarchal attitude and outlook to treat women as a
marketable product to earn money. These sorts of embarrassing cooked up videos are clear
violence against the victims and 75% women victims happen to be women.

Installation of a woman in the highest executive seat of the country can hardly assure a
sure-fire defense against violence and torture carried out against women. As long as the
women as a participatory and complementary force of the society will not be organized
among themselves and will be rigidly conscious of their potentials, no real breakthrough can
be made to improve the status and social dignity of the women of Bangladesh. It is really an
unfortunate experience that even after achieving the highest degree from the university,
755 women can hardly shake off the conventional legacy of treating themselves as women
instead of treating themselves as human beings and competent counterparts of their male
colleagues.

Legal reforms are urgently needed to address te changing realities and circumstances in
which today’s women are working. Since the working field of women have been expanded
and are being expanding day by day their exposure in the online and especially increasing
proportionately. To effectively reduce and control the rate and number of online violence
against women it is essential not only to formulate new laws and rules but it is also
necessary to ensure the proper execution of these laws. In fact, execution is more important
than mere formulation.

Sakib Hasan, The writer is Assistant Professor of English, Bogura Cantonment Public
School & College.

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