Shudir Baran Mazi

The names of the newspapers are the daily Star, the daily Observer, the daily Sun, the daily Earth, the Country Today, the New Age, the Bangladesh Today, the Bangladesh Post, the New Nation, the Muslim Times, the financial express, Jugantor, Ittefaq, Prothom Alo, Janakantha, Ajker Patrika, Samakal, Sangbad, Share Beej, Mukta Kantha, Kaler Kantha, Amadere Somoi, Bangladesh Pratidin, Bhorer Kagoj and many others. When I look at the pages of the newspapers, I see some promises, some criticism, etc. Even then, there is some news that makes everyone think, worries everyone about insecurity. Everyone is worried, anxious. - Then the news that is now a regular topic of all newspapers is murder! suicide! murder! rape! torture! disappearance! The number of rapes in the last four days is about 22! I saw in a national daily that one person is raped every 9 hours. Looking at the situation, it seems that the country will now be taken over by rapists along with syndicates.

From January 2020 to 2023, 4,386 rape cases have occurred. Violence against women and children, including rape, is increasing. In 2024, a total of 401 women and children were victims of rape and gang rape across the country. Of these, 34 were killed after rape and 07 committed suicide after rape. 109 were victims of attempted rape. In January 2025, a total of 205 women and girls were victims of torture. Of these, 67 women, including 42 daughters, were raped.

Out of them, 20, including 14 daughters, were gang raped, and 2, including 1 daughter, were killed after rape. 60 percent of those who make headlines are women. Rape, murder, and killing have taken the form of an epidemic today. How long will this headline be printed on the pages of newspapers? Loving mothers, compassionate sisters, wives, women occupy various roles in our society, family and personal lives. But what is their status in society as human beings? Just by opening the pages of the newspaper, we see murders due to dowry, gang rapes due to not accepting love or marriage proposals, pornographic pictures taken and spread on mobile internet, acid thrown on the face, and countless news of teenage girls in the heat of humiliation torment conscientious people. The question arises in a country where millions of young men and women have lost their lives seeking redress for the insult of their mothers and the loss of their sisters' dignity. Why are the young men and women of that country today becoming the cause of the death of their mothers and sisters, standing in the way of mental development? How did the innocent child who was the light of his parents' lap one day grow up to question humanity, conscience and civilization and become a scoundrel? Does our environment have no role in it? The current capitalist social system has created a profit-based mentality in people, which is the inevitable result of self-centeredness and consumerism. Just as in the economy, the price of things is increased as desired for profit, it is not considered whether people can buy them or whether they will die of hunger. Similarly, in the case of culture, the mentality of suppressing the opinions or wishes of others, even if it is irrational, is created in order to fulfill my desires. The incidents of murder, rape or barbarity that we see when someone does not agree to love or marry are an expression of this mentality. With the same mentality, the capitalists are not so leprous in spreading drugs and vulgar pornography by destroying the moral character and good sense of the youth.

As a result, instead of the desire for redress among the youth who are suffering from poverty, deprivation and want to eat and drink, a kind of mentality of being addicted to alcohol or enjoying everything is being born in the exploitative regime. Women are presented in advertisements, movies and satellite channels in such a way that instead of creating respect for women among the youth, a consumerist mentality is being created. Again, there are no playgrounds or creative culture arrangements in schools and colleges. Although the burden of certificate-oriented education is heavy, it is taking away the joy of earning, so the teenagers influenced by satellite television are standing at the crossroads looking for distorted pleasure and entertainment. The poisonous results of which are coming. A survey has shown that 70 percent of the users of pornographic images on mobile phones in Dhaka city are school students. In the organized educational environment of the beauty of taste, culture, the wide world of forms and flavors of life, the children and adolescents are getting confused by the emotions of adolescence, intensifying their sensual addiction. Again, the social environment is constantly teaching us to think not about talent, wisdom, or greatness in character. To grow in body, skin, appearance, external clothing, and eloquence. Being smart no longer means being a person with modern thinking. If we can give mobile phones and mobile subculture to the young, the ruling class benefits from the market. But the sense of self-respect goes down. In primitive society, women were made slaves by wearing chains. In the dark ages of Arabia, girls were buried alive, mothers were cut open to see if they were daughters and then burned. All this was possible because people were not yet fully civilized. Men and women fought shoulder to shoulder in the struggle for social development. In the French Revolution, slogans of women's liberation were uttered along with the slogans of equality, friendship, and freedom. During the Renaissance, various thinkers wanted to liberate and develop women through thought and action. In our country, Begum Robeya has fought a spirited struggle to awaken the self-power of women. In 1932, Pritilata showed with her life that sisters are not behind in the struggle for freedom along with their brothers. In '71, countless women have directly and indirectly participated in our liberation struggle. 2 lakh women have had to pay the price of their dignity. In this way, women have had to overcome various obstacles in the national and international arena to achieve their rights. Even after reaching the current position in the long journey of mankind, when incidents of violent oppression against women are happening, a group of people want to re-enslave women from a place of fanaticism. Their explanation is that if women had not studied in schools, colleges, universities, did not work in banks, insurance, offices, courts, factories, did not go out on the streets and just stayed at home and cooked, produced and raised children, then these incidents would not have happened. Women are being oppressed because of themselves. Then the question arises, why are two and a half year old children, fourth grade students, and teenage girls being harassed and raped? In reality, these thoughts only help to keep society backward. The government has no role to play in changing this situation, and in most cases, the scoundrels are getting away with it under the protection of opportunists. Drug and porn business is going on under the protection of opportunistic government officials and employees. Even at this stage of civilization, women are victims of discrimination, humiliation, and deprivation since birth. Who knows the pain of this sorrow and humiliation more than women? Women have to walk in fear in the family, at work, on the streets, and even in educational institutions. A teenager who is supposed to have dreams in her eyes, and is eager to know everything, but now she has panic in her eyes. She cannot think of where to hide herself. Unable to bear the harassment of scoundrels, many women are forced to choose the path of suicide. Along with this, there is the attack of fundamentalists' fatwas. A class of Maulana Waj propagates ugly statements against women in the name of Waz, which has put women in a lot of pain at home and abroad. On the other hand, in advertisements, movies, and even in plays, the female body is being presented in a distorted and ugly way. It is being forgotten that a woman's dignity is not in her body, in her clothes, but in her character, in her determination to struggle, in her humanity and personality. When a woman is humiliated, it is not just a humiliation for the woman. It is a humiliation for the entire society and civilization. A woman who is humiliated, oppressed, and deprived is someone's sister, someone's daughter, someone's mother, someone's friend, someone's wife. Can we remain silent in this situation? Can we remain silent? Seeing the magnitude and horror of the incident, we are all cowering in fear. Will there be an end to this? If character and democratic values collapse in society, how will we walk in this society? Will we be spared by making laws and punishing them? Humanity, values, and humanity are decreasing at twice the rate at which the human population has increased.
Therefore, there is a need to change the social mentality and build social resistance today. Values, humanity and humanity must be awakened; and this must be done jointly by women and men. Equal wages must be ensured in social work. Violence against women through fatwas must be stopped. Obscenity and subculture must be prevented. Healthy cultural activities and adequate sports facilities must be provided in educational institutions. Democratic women's policies must be introduced. Strict laws must be formulated and implemented to stop violence against women and eve-teasing. Rape, torture, suicide, murder, killing and rape can only be prevented if exemplary punishment is ensured for whoever the rapist is. We want to see our beloved motherland, Bangladesh, as a rape-free Bangladesh.

The writer is a, Teacher, Haimchar Government College, Haimchar, Chandpur.