Women’s Studies International Forum, Vol. 22, No. 1, pp.

37–48, 1999
Copyright © 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd
Pergamon Printed in the USA. All rights reserved
0277-5395/99 $–see front matter

PII S0277-5395(98)00093-4

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN BANGLADESH:

ISSUES AND RESPONSES

Habiba Zaman
Department of Women’s Studies, Simon Fraser University,
Burnaby, British Columbia, V5A 1S6, Canada

Synopsis — Women are everyday targets of discrimination, exploitation, and violence in Bangladesh.
This article deals with various forms of violence and their shared links and common roots in the socio-
political and ideological relations between men and women in Bangladesh society. It raises the issues in-
herent in considering the complexity of violence and presents cases of resistance against violence. The
significant role of women’s groups and other nongovernment organizations in bringing about the kinds
of qualitative change necessary to establish rights for women in Bangladesh is highlighted. © 1999
Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

In contemporary Bangladesh, violence against in Bangladesh is that violence against women

women appears in a myriad of forms, ranging
from wife abuse to rape, dowry killings, acid
throwing, sexual harassment, and sexual sla-
very through international trafficking in women.
While it has been well established that women
in Bangladesh are everyday targets of discrimi-
nation, exploitation, and violence (Arens &
van Beurden, 1977; Jahan, 1994; White, 1992;
Zaman, 1996), these issues have received at-
tention only in the past few years from femi-
nist scholars and activists. This paper deals
with various forms of violence and demon-
strates their shared links and common roots in
the socio-political and ideological relations be-
tween men and women in Bangladesh society.
Broadly defined, violence is an act of ag-
gression occurring in both personal and social
contexts, and, therefore, includes women’s ex-
perience of both domestic violence and vio-
lence outside the home. A popular assumption
This is a much shorter and revised version of a monograph
(in progress) to be published by the Life and Peace
Institute, Uppsala, Sweden. The author wishes to thank the
anonymous reviewers and the editor for their comments
and suggestions. Research for the article was partially
funded by the Simon Fraser University President’s Research
Grant (January 1996–August 1997). I am particularly
thankful to Hasina Khanam Lata for collecting some of the
research materials used in this study.
is pervasive only among poor and working-
class people, but the facts tell a different story.
Violence against women cuts across the
boundaries of age, education, class, caste, and
religion. The existing social, economic, and po-
litical structures, such as property rights, state
laws, policies, and discriminatory treatment
along gender lines, are exploitative in nature
and ultimately deny women their socioeco-
nomic autonomy at every stage of their lives.
Subtle yet overt forms of violence are used on
various occasions and at different stages of
women’s lives.
Although it is possible to discuss various
forms of violence separately—for example,
sexual harassment in one case, rape and dowry
deaths in another—one form of abuse tends to
flourish and feed off others. Any examination
of the forms of violence in a piecemeal way
may result in a fragmented view and minimize
its extent and its insidious nature. Therefore, it
is essential to examine the common roots of vi-
olence and how they are linked in order to
chart a direction toward alleviating the prob-
lem in Bangladesh.
My own experience of growing up in Bang-
ladesh and also my research among rural and
urban Bangladeshi women (Zaman, 1995, 1996,
1997) have been extremely valuable in shaping
my analysis of women’s issues in Bangladesh.

37
38 Habiba Zaman
My approach to the study of violence against
women in Bangladesh is influenced by the so-
cialist feminist approach, especially by the
writings of some socialist feminist scholars
(Arens & van Beurden, 1977; Bennholdt-
Thomsen, 1988; Mies, 1986) and, to some ex-
tent, by the human rights approach. In contem-
porary feminist writings, one can identify at
least four different approaches to the study of
violence against women. These are the radical
feminist approach, the socialist feminist ap-
proach, ecofeminism, and the human rights
approach (for further details, see Coomar-
aswamy, 1995). Socialist feminists combine an
analysis of the impact of patriarchy with some
aspects of a more traditional Marxist approach
to address issues of exploitation and violence
against women. According to the socialist fem-
inist view, discrimination and exploitation
stem from lack of recognition of the value of
women’s productive role as well as domestic
work. For socialist feminists, violence is the re-
sult of economic exploitation/deprivation and
market systems. The human rights approach to
violence against women is based on the rights
of individuals to be free from fear and the right
to be secure in the family and the community
(Coomaraswamy, 1995). However, the drive to
control poverty and the drive to control women’s
fertility in countries like Bangladesh and India
have led to a new form of violence against
poor women within their homes and in public
spheres, where population control policies like
“family planning” are regularly carried out by
force (Hartmann, 1995; Nair, 1992). These
kinds of development policies have generated
new forms of violence, including sexual vio-
lence as one of the most striking features of
development (Schrijvers, 1993).
I consider that issues of exploitation and vi-
olence against women in Bangladesh are largely
structural and systemic problems. The eco-
nomic deprivation of women and the patrilin-
eal nature of property relations, including in-
heritance and ownership, render women
exploited and susceptible to male domination,
and to abuse in interpersonal and social rela-
tionships. This exploitation is further rein-
forced in the name of cultural values and be-
liefs and by the laws and practices of the state,
which, in the name of Islam, continue to legiti-
mize unequal rights and discriminatory treat-
ment of women in Bangladesh. I examine vari-
ous aspects of these issues in this article. First,
I briefly outline the sociopolitical history of
feminism in Bangladesh. The feminist move-
ment has transformed violence against women
from a nonissue to a social issue, and given
birth to various types of women’s groups to re-
sist violence. I also briefly review women’s
rights or lack of rights under Islamic laws. To
illustrate unequal treatment of Bangladeshi
women at various stages of life, I present ex-
amples of social, economic, and legal discrimi-
nation that ultimately facilitate the growth of
covert and overt violence, and use several case
studies drawn from secondary sources to dem-
onstrate the extent and kinds of violence against
women in Bangladesh. In closing, because I
strongly consider that collective rather than in-
dividual actions can lead to promotion of
women’s rights, I discuss resistance and em-
powerment by women’s groups in Bangladesh.
SOCIOPOLITICAL HISTORY OF
FEMINISM IN BANGLADESH
Bangladesh, geographically located in the east-
ern part of the Indian subcontinent, has en-
dured much political turmoil in its history. Af-
ter 200 years of British rule, the subcontinent
was partitioned in 1947 by the colonial rulers,
thus creating two independent countries, India
and Pakistan. The partition was based solely
on religious lines—Hinduism and Islam. Paki-
stan was further divided into two: West Paki-
stan (now Pakistan, consisting of Sind, Bal-
uchistan, North West Frontier Province, and
Punjab) and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh).
During the two and a half decades of Paki-
stani rule (1947–1971), East Pakistan was ef-
fectively turned into an internal colony of
West Pakistan through cultural and political
subordination of the Bengali people and eco-
nomic exploitation of resources. In 1970, after
almost a decade of military dictatorship, a na-
tional election was held for the first time and
the Awami League led by Sheikh Mujib from
East Pakistan won an absolute majority (160
of 300 seats) in the Parliament. Instead of
transferring power to Sheikh Mujib and his
East Pakistan-based party, however, the mili-
tary regime clamped down on the Bengali ci-
vilians and police forces on March 25, 1971.
The 10-month, bloody civil war that ensued in
East Pakistan resulted in the breakdown of Pa-
kistan and the emergence of Bangladesh as an
independent country (Jahan, 1980).
 Violence Against Women in Bangladesh
People in Bangladesh named this war the
Liberation War, meaning to free the occupied
homeland from the Pakistani forces. The west-
ern media continuously labeled this as a civil
war or internal affair of Pakistan, which ini-
tially diffused the actual situation. During the
Liberation War, the Pakistani military brutally
killed thousands of unarmed civilians and raped
close to 30,000 women. Millions of people, in-
cluding women and children, fled to India as
refugees (Mascarenhas, 1975). A leading femi-
nist and human rights activist documented un-
precedented stories of women’s active partici-
pation in the Liberation War and of the
psychological suffering caused by the Pakistani
army’s ruthless violence against them (Imam,
1990). In postindependence Bangladesh, women
violated by the Pakistani army were labeled by
the Mujib government (1972–1975) as biran-
gana (war heroines), a term which later came
to be used in a derogatory way. While the “his-
story” books in Bangladesh documented men’s
heroic actions and contributions, women’s roles
in the war and their contributions to the Bang-
ladesh liberation movement have remained to
date largely ignored by historians in the country.
During the initial phase of postindepen-
dence, the violence against women continued
in Bangladesh. Kabeer (1988) notes:
The rape of thousands of Bangladeshi
women—from all classes—during the occu-
pation of Bangladesh [by the Pakistani army]
was followed after liberation by a period of
lawlessness when armed Bengali gangsters
abducted women and forced them into
“sten-gun weddings” [weddings under gun
threat]. (p. 110)
Many non-Bengali families were targeted and
tortured by these armed youths and members
of the Rakkhi Bahini (paramilitary forces).
“For some groups of middle class women,”
Kabeer further remarks, “this period may have
marked the birth of a feminist consciousness in
the sense of revealing the common thread of
oppression uniting them with poorer women”
(Kabeer, 1988, p. 110). This new feminist con-
sciousness was further promoted by two im-
portant developments during this period: (a)
the growing international concern with the sta-
tus of women as reflected in the propagation of
the 1975 United Nations Decade for Women,
and (b) the role of women’s organizations and
39
the media (especially newspapers) in bringing
to light the abuse of young married women for
nonpayment of dowry (Jahan, 1988).
In recent years, women’s issues and vio-
lence against women in Bangladesh have re-
ceived both national and international public-
ity because of the case of Taslima Nasrin, a
controversial feminist writer now in asylum in
Sweden. Nasrin has been highly vocal through
her writings against religious fundamentalism,
sexual discrimination, gender violence, and
oppression of women in Bangladesh (Riaz,
1995; Zaman, 1997). The inequality that women
in Bangladesh face in nearly all aspects of life
is legitimized and reinforced by the existing so-
cioeconomic order and the state system.
Therefore, gender inequality and its resolution
in gender violence is embedded in the socioeo-
nomic political structure of Bangladesh. In
many instances, not only is gender inequality
practiced, but the demonstration of unequal
power relations between sexes is encouraged
in order to perpetuate the interest of the patri-
archal order (Jahan, 1983). This becomes espe-
cially clear in an examination of women’s
rights and of laws relating to violence against
women.
WOMEN’S LEGAL RIGHTS
AND PRACTICES
In Bangladesh, Islam as a religion plays a vital
role in determining women’s rights and obliga-
tions. In conjunction with the general laws of
the country, Muslim Personal Laws, following
the principles of sharia (Islamic principles and
teachings), govern significant matters, such as
succession, property rights, marriage, divorce,
maintenance, custody of children, and funda-
mental rights (Ahmed & Chaudhury, 1980).
Muslim Personal Laws perpetuate gender ine-
qualities by placing women under the control
and authority of men. For example, a wife in-
herits only one eighth of her husband’s prop-
erty if she has only one or more children and
one fourth if she is childless; a daughter inher-
its only half of a son’s share; if there are no
male children, a daughter inherits a fixed share
and the rest of the estate is inherited by other
agnatic relatives (relatives only on the male
side of the family), such as a brother or father
of the deceased. In brief, under the rules of in-
heritance, men always inherit more than
women. Furthermore, there is a difference be-
40 Habiba Zaman
tween women’s inheritance rights and actual
practice. In the name of local custom and cul-
ture, married daughters are expected to give
up their inheritance in exchange for naior (the
right to visit father’s/brother’s home— baper
bhaier bhita). The result is that many women
lack property or resources to fall back upon in
the event of divorce or a husband’s death, and
this puts women in a more dependent and vul-
nerable position.
The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance of
1961, which governs marriage and divorce, al-
lows up to four wives, provided each wife is
treated equally (Qadir, 1968). The fact that
there are specific conditions under which po-
lygamous marriages are allowed in Islam seems
to be scarcely remembered while taking a sec-
ond wife. Thus, Muslim women never enjoy
equal rights in marriage and remain vulnerable
in marital life. The husband in a marriage has a
unilateral right to divorce without even show-
ing grounds, whereas a woman seeking a di-
vorce has to undergo extensive and compli-
cated legal/judicial procedures, and suffers
social stigma and often insurmountable diffi-
culties in earning a living after divorce. As a
result, more women stay in marriages, even
abusive ones, rather than seek divorces. Dur-
ing my research in Bangladesh in the summer
of 1996 and 1997, I interviewed several women
(presently unattached—either separated or di-
vorced) who told me how much physical and
mental torture they had endured in their mari-
tal relationship before leaving their husbands.
According to their accounts, their sufferings
were made worse by a number of factors, such
as economic dependency, absence of state sup-
port, and the legal procedure, which seems
particularly prolonged when divorce cases are
initiated by women. All of the women are cur-
rently economically independent and their ex-
periences have made them conscious about
women’s issues.
The legal conditions in which women live in
Bangladesh increases their vulnerability to male
violence. The Bangladesh legal system, de-
rived from the British Penal Code and Com-
mon Law, has done very little so far to dimin-
ish women’s vulnerability or protect them from
violence. For example, when a woman is
raped, the legal requirement of proving the
rape through physical examination exposes the
woman to tremendous shame and social dis-
grace. In rural areas, where traditional village
benches may adjudicate such incidents in the
light of Islamic law, the requirement of proof
also includes at least three witnesses! Jahan
(1994) provides examples of many cases of
rape, molestation, and abduction where women
were deprived of justice due to minor technical
or legal issues. Jahan (1994) also gives exam-
ples of the sex bias that exists in law enforce-
ment in Bangladesh. Women accused of hav-
ing hurt or killed their assaulters are usually
promptly arrested, whereas, in many instances,
male suspects or aggressors remain free even
when they are formally identified by the af-
fected women. One of the women I inter-
viewed shared this story:
I wanted to go to the police station to report
my husband’s physical torture and verbal
abuse. My brother, who is also compassion-
ate, told me that the moment the police will
be informed, they will contact my husband
and will mention the charges laid. Then my
husband will bribe them to be silenced and
will increase his physical and verbal abuse.1
Such stories are common in Bangladesh.
Women rarely go to police stations for protec-
tion because there are many cases of rape and
sexual assault of women in police custody. It is
clear that the legacy of the British Penal Code,
Muslim Personal Laws, and the legal systems
backed up by the state agencies condone gen-
der discrimination, inequality, and thus per-
petuate violence against women.
GROWING UP AS A WOMAN
IN BANGLADESH
A woman in Bangladesh experiences neglect
and various forms of discrimination and vio-
lence systematically from the moment of birth.
These practices are tacitly condoned and are
legitimized through laws and customs in the
name of cultural and religious practices that
blatantly discriminate against women. In this
section, I demonstrate the state of Bangladeshi
women’s vulnerability by showing how these
discriminatory practices affect women through-
out their lives, from birth to childhood to ado-
lescence to adulthood. I augment this section
with my own personal experience of growing
up in Bangladesh.
 Violence Against Women in Bangladesh
Ritualistic discriminatory practices begin at
the time of birth in Bangladesh. For example,
the birth of a male child is announced through
azan (Muslims’ call for prayer), welcoming the
person to the Muslim community. In contrast,
no azan is given when a girl is born, and thus
her arrival is not ritually recognized by the
family and the community (Jahan, 1975; Noman,
1983). In rural areas, the body of a newborn
male child is touched with a stick, whereas the
newborn female body is touched with a glass
bangle and a lazzabati vine—a plant whose
leaves fold when it comes in contact with other
substances (Rahman, 1994). Metaphorically,
this ritual indicates the strength and unbend-
able quality of the male as opposed to the fragile,
shy, and submissive quality of the female. A
son creates joy and optimism for the family,
whereas a daughter receives a half-hearted wel-
come. When my fourth and youngest sister was
born (all my siblings are sisters), my paternal
grandfather was so upset he refused to see her.
From childhood, a girl in Bangladesh is ex-
pected to have two important virtues, patience
and modesty, to comply with the sociocultural
values and practices that favor boys. For exam-
ple, the best food is served to male members of
the family, however wealthy the family is. Ac-
cording to a Daily Morning Sun article (“Mal-
nutrition Rates Higher Among Girls,” 1994),
malnutrition rates among girls in rural Bang-
ladesh are reportedly four to five times higher
than among boys.2 Nutritional deprivation is
one example of the subtle violence perpetu-
ated on women. In general, boys are consid-
ered to be assets who remain in the family to
carry out responsibilities in later life. In con-
trast, a daughter is likely to be regarded as a
burden by her own family. A son is always pre-
ferred over a daughter for schooling. Physical
care of the daughter and her schooling have
been compared to “watering the neighbour’s
tree; you take all the trouble to nurture the
plant, but the fruit goes to some one else” (Ka-
beer, 1988, p. 101). In Bangladesh, a child’s sex
accounts for variations in access to basic neces-
sities of life more than any other factor.
In adolescence, a girl in Bangladesh spends
much of her time looking after younger sib-
lings, assisting her mother in the kitchen, doing
the cleaning work at home, and performing
other household chores rarely recognized in
national surveys or statistics. During this stage,
a girl is taught to sacrifice her individual iden-
41
tity for the religious and social values that
make up an ideal wife and a good mother. The
prevailing social attitude is that the earlier the
daughter’s marriage takes place, the more
blessings befall the parents. Also, by the time a
girl attains puberty, her parents or guardians
are seriously concerned about protecting their
daughter’s premarital chastity. The adult life
status of a woman is symbolized by her mar-
riage, which is expected to be arranged by her
parents or male relatives. Furthermore, as men
have control over the means of production by
virtue of ownership of land or property, so also
men have control over women’s sexuality and
reproduction throughout their lives. As Ka-
beer notes, “a woman can be expected to be
maintained by her husband as long as she is
obedient, faithful and fertile” (Kabeer, 1988,
p. 101). The status and future of a marriage is
dependent upon the wife bearing children.
Due to patrilineality, the more sons a woman
will bear, the more status she will earn in the
house of her in-laws. This unequal gender rela-
tionship in social structure makes women vul-
nerable to subtle and overt forms of violence.
In Bangladesh, a woman is expected to be
escorted (particularly after sundown) by a
close male relative, an elderly woman, or even
a minor child, for any visit outside the bound-
ary of the home. As a young, unmarried (there-
fore unattached), female faculty member in a
Bangladesh university, I lived on campus in a
female students’ dormitory. The dorm was sur-
rounded by tall brick walls and had male
guards on duty 24 hours of the day. Although I
was a faculty member, I was expected to return
to the dorm before sundown. Nowadays,
young Bangladeshi feminists call it the “sun-
down law.” Recently, female students of
Dhaka University protested and staged dem-
onstrations against this law and forced the uni-
versity authorities to relax it so that women
could use the university library until 9:00 pm. I
was able to stay outside beyond sundown only
with prior permission from the superintendent,
who, incidentally, had a lower position than I
did in the hierarchy of the dorm administra-
tion. After all, I was young and unmarried! I
needed to be supervised and protected! I
achieved my adult status only after I married,
and only then was I able to maneuver through
the mechanism of social control and free my-
self from various forms of subtle violence
adopted even by the university culture.
42 Habiba Zaman

CASE STUDIES: VIOLENCE two such cases have been widely publicized by
AND RESISTANCE the media: the murder of Sharmeen Akhter
Reema (“The Murder of Sharmeen Akhter
Between 1980 and 1984, according to one ac-
Reema,” 1989, 1993) and the murder of Fouzia
count, the incidence of reported violence
Rahman Champa (“The Murder of Fouzia
against women rose from 12.4 to 32.7%, a net
Rahman Champa,” 1994a, 1994b, 1994c).
increase of 20% over a 5-year period (Jahan,
Sharmeen Akhter Reema, aged 19, in a third-
1988, p. 203). One should read these statistics
year honors program at Badrunnessa Women’s
with caution and with certain factors in mind.
College, married an engineer, Munir Hossain,
Violence against women has not been a social
aged 32, on December 31, 1988. Sharmeen was
issue in Bangladesh until recently, and no gov-
the youngest daughter of Nizamuddin Ahmed
ernment statistics or systematic police records
who, as a distinguished journalist and reporter
exist regarding this issue. The statistics re-
for the British Broadcasting Corporation, was
ported by Jahan (1988) are based on the news
killed by the Pakistani army during the 1971
reported in the newspaper. The newspaper
Liberation War. Munir’s parents, Drs. Me-
coverage of violence against women depends
herunnessa and Abul Kasem, were well-estab-
upon multiple factors. Kabeer notes:
lished physicians in Dhaka. The young cou-
ple’s marriage was arranged by the family.
A ban on media coverage of political events
Soon after the marriage, Sharmeen discovered
by the martial law regime under Ershad in
that Munir was fond of alcohol and extramari-
1985 deprived journalists of their usual sto-
tal relationships, which she resented strongly.
ries and forced them to seek out alternative
As a result, although they were a newlywed
material. Their decision to focus on crime
couple, their marriage was strained. On April
turned into a sudden and startling upsurge in
7, 1989, Munir took Sharmeen on a honey-
coverage of violence against women—rapes,
moon trip to the port city of Chittagong. Police
abduction, dowry deaths, acid throwing and
recovered Sharmeen’s blood-covered body on
mutilation. (Kabeer, 1988, p. 120)
April 9. The investigating team later arrested
Munir, who admitted to the killing. Sharmeen’s
Jahan (1988) identified the following fac-
murder created a nationwide uproar; the news
tors contributing to increased gender violence:
media followed the story and were successful
an increase in the general level of acceptance
in sensitizing the public mood about the case.
of political violence in society, due mainly to
Munir was tried, found guilty of first-degree
certain historical-political factors; increasing
murder, and sentenced to death. Despite his
stress in male–female relations in the family,
parents’ best efforts to save his life, he was ex-
brought about by changing socioeconomic
ecuted on July 26, 1993.
processes; and the state’s basic reluctance to
Fouzia Rahman Champa, a graduate stu-
change laws and policies that perpetuate male
dent, was murdered in her own bedroom in the
violence toward women.
residence of her father-in-law on October 18,
In the case studies that follow, I illustrate
1989. At the time of the murder, her husband,
the nature of violence against women in Bang-
Shahidul Islam, and her father-in-law were in
ladesh by referring to several well-known cases
India for medical treatment. The investigating
that have aroused concern and awareness es-
officer arrested Fouzia’s three brothers-in-law
pecially among women’s groups and nongov-
(two were her husband’s brothers and one was
ernment organizations (NGOs) working to
her sister-in-law’s husband). Upon investiga-
counter violence against women and to
tion, it was found that the murder was the re-
achieve equal rights for both sexes.
sult of family violence over a trifling matter.
After a court case that lasted 4 years, the judge
Murder convicted the three men and sentenced each to
33 years of imprisonment.
One can rarely read a daily newspaper in The two cases cited above were publicized
Bangladesh without coming across a headline across Bangladesh and in both cases the perpe-
that reads “Housewife Killed.” Physical tor- trators were punished due to various factors. In
ture and beating are common causes of death the case of Sharmeen, the news media created
in murder cases (Jahan, 1988). In recent times, tremendous public interest in the case and sup-
 Violence Against Women in Bangladesh
port for Sharmeen because Sharmeen’s father,
a renowned journalist, had been brutally killed
by the Pakistani military. The newspaper jour-
nalists collectively paid their tributes to their
colleague in this way. In the case of Fouzia, the
same news media focused more on Fouzia’s
beauty and charm—a sexist ploy—rather than
the actual incident. In addition, Fouzia’s fa-
ther, who was, incidentally, rich and could af-
ford to pursue the case, made every effort to
put the accused behind bars.
Domestic violence
Despite the fact that domestic violence is, in
one form or another, almost routine in many
Bangladeshi families, it is rarely addressed in
Bangladesh. For instance, a large number of
suicide cases involving women are the result of
depression, mental torture, and violence in the
family, but suicide is often passed off as nor-
mal, due to the family’s fears of social and reli-
gious sanction. In many cases, law enforce-
ment agencies in Bangladesh cooperate with
the perpetrators and hide domestic violence
under the shadow of “suicide” in cases of mur-
der and “normal death” in cases of suicide. In
the summer of 1997, when I was in Bang-
ladesh, a female relative of mine committed
suicide. However, some suspected that since
my relative had been in an abusive relation-
ship, her husband had killed her.3 Due to the
social standing and influence of my relative’s
father, the suspected murder case became a
sudden death case, and a mortem and police
enquiry were not pursued. This case has three
dimensions: Close relatives had no doubt that
this was a murder; distant relatives and friends
heard that the incident was a suicide, and the
police possibly recorded the same, guarantee-
ing that society in the future will accept this in-
cident as a normal death!
Acid-throwing
Acid-throwing is an innovative form of bru-
tal violence against women that is rising at an
alarming rate in Bangladesh. Incidents of acid-
throwing began in the early 1980s. Dhaka-
based dailies, such as Janakantha, The Daily
Star, and The Daily Sangbad, reported four
cases of acid-throwing in the first 3 months of
1994. The target of the first violence was a
school student named Sukla Rani from Mani-
43
kganj. It is reported that members of a gang
regularly harassed her on her way to school.
This was reported to the police. Members of
the gang reportedly became furious. On Janu-
ary 6, 1994, while Sukla was sleeping in her
room, the gang broke in and completely de-
faced Sukla by throwing acid on her face.
Sukla died after 3 days of unimaginable suffer-
ing (“The Murder of Sukla Rani,” 1994). In
most cases, acid throwers target a woman’s
face; this violence not only damages the woman’s
body (if she survives such an ordeal), but puts
a stigma on her. In Bangladesh, acid is not nor-
mally available except in laboratories and medi-
cal stores. However, anyone can procure this
high-risk but low-cost substance without con-
straint, as there is no state regulation restrict-
ing its use. Acid-throwing is a constant threat
that effectively makes young women psycho-
logically subservient to men’s power. Women’s
groups have been demanding stricter control
over the sale and use of acid.
Dowry deaths
Theoretically, Islam as a religion does not
approve of dowry. In reality, however, dowry
has now become a part of wedding and cul-
tural practices for various reasons. For in-
stance, in the last two decades, the state’s lib-
eralization policies have opened up a market
for luxury goods (televisions, VCRs, cars, jew-
elry, etc.) and the easiest way for men who as-
pire to own these goods to acquire them is
through a dowry at marriage. Dowry-related
violence against women has been increasing.
According to the Weekly Holiday, “Twenty-
five out of 48 murders were related to discords
over dowry and [the women] were killed for the
sake of dowry” (“Dowry Murders,” 1993, p. 8).
Rape
Rape cases in Bangladesh remain largely
unreported because of the social stigma and
loss of family honor (izzat) that results. Raped
women are mostly teenagers, but cases involv-
ing young children are not uncommon. Be-
tween 1983 and 1985, 159 (62%) of 256 re-
ported cases were young women between 10 to
19 years of age; 38 (15%) were girls below 9
years old (Jahan, 1988). Unfortunately, these
statistics are problematic, as they are totally
based on newspaper reporting. There is no na-
44 Habiba Zaman
tional research or data on rape. Lack of action
by government and reluctance on the part of
the law enforcing agencies to deal with re-
ported cases are responsible for low reporting
(Bhuiyan, 1991), as are unequal power rela-
tions between the perpetrators and the women
who are raped, and high-level corruption in
law-enforcing agencies. As a result, in most in-
stances, perpetrators can find ways to keep
themselves above the law.
RELIGIOUS FUNDAMENTALISM AND
GENDER VIOLENCE
The ideology of Islam is used to exert male
control and power over women and to perpet-
uate women’s exploitation. Particularly in ru-
ral areas, women are taught to follow and
honor the traditional religious values, and vio-
lation of religious norms and practices is met
with sanctions by the community. In Tarapur,
where I carried out research in 1984 and 1985,
several women who worked in the agricultural
field as wage laborers were ostracized by the
village leaders for breaking purdah (seclusion)
restrictions (Zaman, 1996). In rural Bang-
ladesh, religious leaders are influential in de-
termining codes of social behavior in the name
of religion. The following case studies narrate
the extent of religious violence against women.
Nurjahan stoned to death
Nurjahan (age 21), from the village of
Chatakchara in the Sylhet district, remarried
after divorcing her first husband. Her parents
arranged the second marriage. The local mul-
lahs (religious leaders) alleged, however, that
her second marriage was not performed in ac-
cordance with Islamic law. A local salish (in-
formal village court) found the second mar-
riage “un-Islamic” and sentenced Nurjahan
and her husband to death by public stoning.
According to the fatwa (religious opinion),
Nurjahan was to be buried in the ground up to
her chest and stoned publicly for allegedly
having an adulterous relationship. Nurjahan
survived the stoning but allegedly committed
suicide in humiliation. Her husband received
the same punishment, but survived the inci-
dent (“The Case of Nurjahan,” 1993, 1994). It
is important to note here that fatwa is a reli-
gious opinion by clergies based on their inter-
pretation of the Koran; however, fatwas do not
have any legal sanctions in Bangladesh.
Women’s groups, particularly Mahila Par-
ishad, a women’s organization that has been
active at the grassroots level since 1970, brought
up the case of Nurjahan at the national level.
Later on, nine religious fundamentalist leaders
were arrested and each sentenced to 7 years
imprisonment (“Nine Religious Fundamental-
ist Leaders Imprisoned,” 1994). Nurjahan’s case
caused anger and uproar in Bangladesh and a
number of groups worked collectively on her
case. Eight local lawyers (all male) worked
without any fees, because Nurjahan’s family
lives in poverty. Women’s groups organized
protest meetings, and sent a representative to
the remote village where the incident hap-
pened. In addition, the national media repeat-
edly raised the issue of religious violence. Be-
cause the law-enforcing agencies were inactive
until nationwide publicity of Nurjahan’s case,
the perpetrators would undoubtedly have gone
free without the collective efforts of these
groups. Another result of this case is that Ma-
hila Parishad published a poster saying: “Re-
sist Fundamentalism: Stop Killing Women.”
The female leaders of the two major major po-
litical parties appeared indifferent to Nurja-
han’s case. Farida Akhter, a leading feminist
and activist, appealed to them in her column:
“Honourable Prime Minister and Leader of
Opposition Party [both are women], fatwa is
not given only to Nurjahan . . . , fundamental-
ists are also issuing fatwas to you . . .” (Akhter,
1994, p. 4, my translation).
Call for Taslima Nasrin’s death
The case of Taslima Nasrin, the internation-
ally famous Bangladeshi feminist writer now in
asylum in Sweden, is a classic example of the
threat of violence from rising fundamentalism
in Bangladesh. A physician by profession, Nas-
rin has been writing on women’s issues in
Bangladesh since the mid-1980s. A recurrent
theme of her writing revolves around the sex-
ual discrimination and violence prevalent
against women in Bangladesh. Nasrin attracted
international attention after the publication of
her book Lajja (Shame) (Nasrin, 1993). The
book depicts the agony of a Hindu family dur-
ing the riots in Bangladesh after the demolish-
ing of the Babri mosque in India in 1992.
 Violence Against Women in Bangladesh
Hindu fundamentalist parties in India used the
book to further their cause by distributing cop-
ies of an unauthorized translation all over In-
dia. The Indo-phobic quarter in Bangladesh
propagated the rumor that Nasrin received a
large sum from Bharatiya Janata Party to write
the book and destabilize communal harmony
in Bangladesh (Riaz, 1995). The Bangladesh
government banned the book in July 1993.
The situation took a dramatic turn at the
beginning of June 1994. On her way back from
Paris, Nasrin visited Calcutta and was inter-
viewed by a local English daily, The Statesman
(May, 1994). In the published article (Wright,
1994, p. 21), she was reported to have said that
the Koran was written by a human being and
that she wanted the Koran to be totally re-
vised. Nasrin denied that she made such re-
marks and issued the following clarification: “I
hold the Koran, the Vedas, and the Bible and
all such religious texts determining the lives of
their followers as out of place and out of time”
(Riaz, 1995, p. 23). The religious right in Bang-
ladesh launched a campaign against her, issued
a fatwa sentencing Nasrin to death, put a
bounty of Taka 50,000 (US $1,250) on her head,
and demanded her trial on charges of blas-
phemy. The Government of Bangladesh brought
a case against her and, due to pressure from in-
ternational organizations, provided her security
and protection. She fled the country in 1994.
Nasrin’s case was supported by some
women’s groups. Fazl (1994, p. 7) reported
that 22 organizations had signed up with Rok-
eya Kabir, director of the Women’s Develop-
ment Forum, who declared: “The case of
Taslima must be withdrawn. It is the mullahs
who should be put on trial for committing re-
pression on women through fatwas and unau-
thorised Islamic courts.” However, for various
geopolitical reasons, the government’s actions
instead strengthened religious fundamentalists’
solidarity (Zaman, 1997). With support from
international groups, such as Amnesty Interna-
tional, the International Writers’ Association,
and the National Federation of Indian Women,
however, Nasrin’s lawyers were able to negotiate
with the government for her exile in Sweden.
WOMEN ORGANIZING FOR CHANGE:
ACTIONS AND STRATEGIES
In the last few years, there has been a signifi-
cant increase in awareness of violence in Bang-
45
ladesh, particularly by women’s groups and
NGOs. Women’s groups (such as Mahila Par-
ishad, UBINIG [Women and Development
Policy], Bangladesh Women’s Journalists Fo-
rum, Proshika, the Institute of Democratic
Rights, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Com-
mittee [BRAC], Grameen Bank, Nijera Kori,
Women for Women: Research and Study Group)
as well as international NGOs (for example,
Oxfam-Canada) are working not only to im-
prove women’s socio-economic situation but
to empower them. Indeed, the NGOs have set
women’s empowerment as their priority. For
example, since 1986, UBINIG has organized
12 workshops pertinent to women’s issues, in-
cluding one on violence against women. Using a
feminist analytical tool, the workshop explored
issues while creating grounds for raising aware-
ness among a cross-section of women (UBINIG/
Women and Development Policy, 1986).
Both BRAC and Grameen Bank have a
long history of working with women in rural
areas. These two organizations have had suc-
cess in developing skills and consciousness
among rural women. Rahman reports:
One women’s group in BRAC’s program
was not only able to defy the salish, which
ruled against their activities, but also to call
for a separate salish of its own. This example
demonstrates women’s groups’ successful chal-
lenge to the hegemonic ideology of the society
and defiance of the existing male-dominated
power structure. (Rahman, 1994, p. 439)
Recently, NGO activities in many rural ar-
eas in Bangladesh have met with considerable
resistance from Islamic religious leaders, who
made various attempts to shut down activities
of the so-called “foreign” agencies. In re-
sponse, thousands of women from various
groups and women’s organizations marched
the streets of Dhaka in April 1994 to demon-
strate against the fundamentalists’ attempts to
shut down NGO activities supporting clinics
and schools for girls.
In addition to the roles of women’s groups
and social activists, the media in Bangladesh
have been playing an important role in recent
years in raising awareness about violence
against women. Although news about crimes
and violence against women (e.g., rape, sui-
cide, murder) was sporadically published by
various newspapers before 1985, media cover-
46 Habiba Zaman
age since then has created awareness about
systemic violence against women, which was
treated earlier, at all levels, as individual acts.
Brutal rape and murder of Yasmin
by policemen
The story of Yasmin, a 14-year-old girl, is
typical. Her mother, Sharifa Begum, out of
desperate poverty, sent Yasmin to Dhaka from
Dinajpur to work as a domestic. Yasmin was
returning home to visit her mother. She ar-
rived by bus at a small market place early in
the evening on her way home. Three police-
men volunteered to walk her to the village sev-
eral kilometers away.
Three policemen, including one officer,
raped Yasmin that night, murdered her, and
dumped her body in a rice field. The villagers
discovered the body and reported it to the po-
lice. However, word soon got out that it was
the police who had escorted Yasmin the night
before. Suspecting that the police were respon-
sible for this brutal murder, the public was out-
raged. The incident led to a tense situation in
the area and the public demanded a full-scale
judicial inquiry into the case. The police ad-
ministration fabricated their own story, label-
ing Yasmin a prostitute in an effort to disasso-
ciate themselves from her and avoid any
responsibility. The local people continued to
be outraged with the inaction of the district ad-
ministration. A mass protest and demonstra-
tion, supported by women’s groups and orga-
nizations, was arranged, and some people from
the crowd stormed the police office. The police
opened fire indiscriminately, killing eight per-
sons and injuring many more during the dem-
onstration. The nation was shocked and fur-
ther outraged, since Prime Minister Khaleda
Zia was attending the Fourth World Women’s
Conference in Beijing. Diverse women’s groups,
including NGOs funded by international do-
nor agencies, formed an action forum called
Sammilita Nari Samaj (United Women’s Fo-
rum). While accepting various agendas to stop
violence against women, they simultaneously
denounced further atrocities and inaction by
state agencies. The headings of the media re-
flected public reactions: “People’s Revolution in
Dinajpur” (1995) and “NGO Forum in Beijing:
Denounce Yasmin Murder in Beijing” (1995).
Prime Minister Khaleda Zia was criticized for
her irresponsibility and lack of action and this
question was then raised: How dare she partic-
ipate in an international women’s conference
to solve women’s issues while a young woman
was murdered by police? To save face for the
government and respond to the public’s de-
mands in some way, the Prime Minister, after
returning from Beijing, immediately flew to
Yasmin’s village and met Yasmin’s mother.
The Prime Minister also accepted the 7-point
demand of the public in Dinajpur, which in-
cluded compensation to Yasmin’s mother and
those killed during the demonstration; a public
inquiry and investigation into police conduct
in the rape and murder of Yasmin; the transfer
of senior police officials for negligence of duty;
and appropriate and exemplary punishment of
those found guilty.
The Yasmin case created massive public
awareness about the ineffectiveness of the
state, systemic police brutality, and violence
against women. The protests in the form of a
mass (mainly women’s) movement did not
happen accidentally, but were the result of
prolonged injustice, exploitation, and brutal-
ity entrenched in the socioeconomic and politi-
cal structures of Bangladesh. Protests against
the murder of Yasmin produced a mass upris-
ing that shook the country and brought
women’s groups together to challenge struc-
tural and systemic violence. The prosecution
of the Yasmin case has been transferred to a
special court in Dinajpur. At the time of this
writing, the hearing has not been completed.
Women’s groups and the media are closely
monitoring the case.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
In this article, I have explored the issue of vio-
lence against women in Bangladesh from a so-
cialist feminist perspective by linking socioeco-
nomic structures and ideology to gender
violence. The analysis and the case studies pre-
sented here demonstrate that violence against
women in Bangladesh has both structural and
systemic dimensions. Gender relations that fa-
vor men and discrimination against women, to-
gether with state and institutional biases,
clearly establish that pervasive violence against
women is a serious social and development is-
sue. The response of women’s groups and their
strategies to counter violence is an emerging
trend in Bangladesh. Several women’s groups
have joined the Sammilita Nari Samaj (United
 Violence Against Women in Bangladesh
Women’s Forum), a collective organization
with an agenda to push for new legislation
aimed at improving family laws concerning
marriage, divorce, and inheritance rights. Most
significantly, the Forum is campaigning for the
enforcement of laws to protect the rights of
women, recognition of the prevalence of vio-
lence, and making real efforts to mitigate vio-
lence as a development issue. To date there is
no national agency to provide support, to mon-
itor, or to rehabilitate women on whom vio-
lence has been inflicted. There are still no na-
tional statistics on violence and no visible
women’s shelters in Bangladesh. The United
Nations Human Development Report now
regularly uses violence as a development indi-
cator to assess quality of life as a process of de-
velopment. Therefore, information about and
analysis of violence against women should now
be a part of development as integral as social
and policy analysis. More importantly, the
women’s groups, with their determination and
collective efforts as a political constituency,
will bring the kind of qualitative change neces-
sary to establish the rights of women in Bang-
ladesh.
ENDNOTES
1. This interview was taken in the summer of 1996 while I
was conducting research for my project “Women, Work,
and Social Change.”
2. This and all other newspaper articles cited in this article
were written in the Bangla language (Bengali). For the
purposes of this article, I have translated the titles into
English.
3. I have cited this personal example to show how societal
structure systematically condones violence against
women.
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