DOMESTIC VIOLANCE AGAINST WOMEN IN BANGLADESH

Gender inequality is deeply embedded in the structure of the patriarchal society of Bangladesh.
Male dominance and female subordination are the basic tenets of our social structure. All
Bangladeshi social institutions permit, even encourage, the demonstration of the unequal power
relation between the sexes and try to perpetuate the interests of patriarchy. Bangladeshi families
offer instances of the display of male dominance in intimate relations in the form of marital
violence,” says an impassioned Roushan Jahan, a co-founder and former president of Women for
Women, a research and study group in her book titled Hidden Danger--Women and Family
Violence in Bangladesh. Around the world, women suffer from poverty and discrimination more
than men. However, the problem is particularly severe in South Asia, especially in Bangladesh.
Violence towards women is often ignored as an issue of poverty, even though it results from a
lack of power, resources, and freedom, as well as poor health. 

According to Janet E. Jackson, the former deputy representative of the United Nations
Population Fund (UNFPA) to Bangladesh, Bangladesh ranks fourth among the world's nations
with respect to violence against women (Daily Star 14 Aug. 2008). Jackson observed that "'sixty-
five per cent of Bangladeshi males think it is justifiable to beat up their wives, 38 per cent have
no clear idea what constitutes physical violence and 40 per cent support keeping women socially
dormant'" (ibid.).
In this discussion, we will try to explore the amount of violence women face and the different
forms it takes considering below,
(1) The factors or the causes of violence,
(2) The consequences of violence, and
(3) The awareness program for the abused women.

Before we start discussing these factors, let us first take a look at some statistics on violence
against women in Bangladesh. Below data’s are taken from a recent study by ICDDRB and
Bangladesh Mahila Porishod & Naripokho. Around 2500 women were questioned in both urban
and rural areas and below were observed.
Worryingly high levels of abuse were identified, as the study found that many of the women
surveyed had been physically assaulted by their husbands: 40% in the urban area studied and
41% in the rural area studied. About 19% of the women in both areas had experienced severe
physical violence, which was defined as being hit with a fist or object, kicked or dragged, beaten
up, choked, burnt, or threatened/injured with a weapon or object of some kind.
 
In addition, 19% of the women surveyed in the urban area, and 16% of those in the rural area,
stated that their husbands had physically abused them during the previous 12 months.
Furthermore, a large percentage of these abused women had been attacked repeatedly over that
period (Fig. 1 and 2 in next page).
Apart from physical abuse (common in the low income class), psychological abuse is also
prevalent, particularly in middle class families. The latter, is committed by calling the wife
names in front of the children, verbal threats of violence against the victim or a person dear to
her, forcing the victim to degrade herself, excessive controlling, curtailing and/or disruption of
routine activities such as sleeping or eating habits, social relationship, access to money and
verbal insults.

At a workshop on violence against women organized by the Bangladeshi South-South Center, it

was learned that, Bangladesh stands second in the world in terms of violence against women in
different forms like women battering, wife beating, domestic and dowry-related violence, acid
attack, rape, physical and verbal harassment, fatwa, sexual harassment in [the] workplace,
trafficking and prostitution, polygamy and child abuse (The Independent 12 June 2006).

Identifying what makes abuse more likely, the reasons behind ….

 
Multi-level analysis was used to identify the factors that made abuse most likely to occur. This
revealed that, in both the urban and the rural area, a husband was more likely to abuse his wife if
his father had abused his mother or if dowry demands had been made (as these reflect the
family’s attitude towards the bride). It also showed that the risk of violence fell when there was
better communication between husband and wife and when the husband had been educated
beyond tenth grade.
 
In the urban area specifically, women whose fathers had abused their mothers were more likely
to be abused in turn by their husbands. The risk of violence also increased when women were
younger, and when they took part in savings and credit groups. In the urban area, husbands
educated beyond the sixth grade were less likely to physically abuse their wives. In the rural
area, income-earning by a woman increased the risk of violence. Looking deeply at the causes
we can see two parts of it, the intermediary causes and the underlying causes.
Intermediary Causes

Dowry:

Despite the Dowry Prohibition Act (1980) dowry transactions continue to increase and have
become a socially legitimate part of marriage negotiations. Maleka Begum (1994) in her book
“Jowtuk” (“Dowry”) suggests that dowry is a major factor in violence against Women, starting
from verbal abuse, battering, torture and ending in death for many. Incidents documented by the
ASK Documentation Unit reveal that unfulfilled dowry demands cause brides to be physically
tortured, divorced, abandoned and also burned with acid, kidnapped and trafficking. During
1995-97, two hundred and seven (207) brides were murdered by either husbands or in-laws over
dowry related disputes. Many were burned to death after being doused with petrol or kerosene.
Although reports from the Ministry of Women’s and Children’s Affairs explains this as a lack of
knowledge about women’s rights in general and the lack of implementation and enforcement by
the judiciary and law enforcement agencies (MWCA-GOB, 1997) the women’s movement
contends that it is more a reflection of the total devaluation of women in society whereby she is
considered a burden on the man and his family upon whom she is considered foisted through
marriage.

Lack of Education:

Women in our society are not only economically dependent on male but they do not have much
control over their lives. Lack of education makes women more vulnerable. Though studies show
that years of schooling is inversely associated with prevalence of violence, however, no
statement could be made how and why education or years of schooling has a role in reducing
violence (Hadi,1997, Roy, 1996, Khan et al, 1998). It could be assumed that greater years of
schooling may provide women with an opportunity to gain knowledge and information which
they often lack and as a result become more vulnerable. When Chowdhury (1992) was trying to
assess the impact of education, independent of labour force participation on women's ower
autonomy in Bangladesh, he found that although education and work did not give these women
the power to change the traditional division of labour within household, the most educated
women had more equal power relationships with their husbands, was less dependent upon
husband's approval for self-esteem and discussed family matters openly with their spouse.
Though it appears that education does have a role on women's power and autonomy, he argues
that education alone cannot overcome the power of patriarchy.

Lack of Economic Independence and Income:

Lack of independent income forces many women to stay in violent relationships. The labour
force statistics show that not as many women as men are employed (or even selfemployed).

Their ownership of assets or property is generally much lower. Their inheritance rights to family
assets are discriminatory. Their access to bank loans, for example, is discriminatory. As a result
most women do not have an independent or significant income.

Lack of Security for Women:

Although cultural barriers for women entering the public arena and joining the workforce are
being challenged (in garments factories, small businesses through microcredit schemes and
positive discrimination in State agencies) very few institutions are letting “private” or women
friendly issues enter into the public arena. There is lack of security for women travelling to and
from their workplaces, no transport facilities are provided for women travelling at night, no
housing facilities for migrant workers from rural areas and no institutionalized codes of conduct
to help enable the workplace overcome some of the negative cultural perceptions of women.

Underlying Causes

Poverty:

General or overall economic causes of family violence are considered to be increasing

landlessness, pauperisation, unemployment which have increased the stress and tension in male-
female relations in the poor households and give rise to desertion, divorce and violence
(Jahan,1994). Kabeer (1989) also stated “Violence both systematic and random, is part of the
condition of poverty in as much as poverty is associated with relative powerlessness, and the
poor are least able to defend themselves or to remove themselves from threatening situations”.
Her paper shows that lack of resource especially food in poor rural households and women’s
failure to efficiently accomplish their traditional gender roles lead to gender violence. For
instance, a mother was beaten by her son when his food ran short at mealtime; wives were beaten
by husbands because there was too much or too little salt in the food; a young orphaned girl was
beaten by her uncle when she asked for her share of fruits from family owned trees. A bi-variant
analysis in recent study (Khan et al, 1998) on violence reiterated the strong relationship between
family violence and poverty. There exists a debate on whether participation in credit based
development intervention may reduce violence against women. However, existing literature
shows that getting involved in credit programme and bringing cash home may create tensions
within the household and precipitate domestic violence.

Culture and Tradition:

Child Marriage

This practice continues to be widespread despite the existence of the Child Marriage Restraint
Act since 1983. A girl child is deemed as a burden to poor parents. In the marriage market the
younger the bride, lesser the dowry demand. Parents’ fear for their daughters’ security, especially
when she is an adolescent and capable of conceiving a child out of wedlock, becomes a reason
for marrying them off early. When a young single girl becomes pregnant not only does she stand
to be condemned by her community (in some cases she becomes the subject of fatwas), her
parents and family are also punished with social isolation and shaming. Cultural stigmatization
of sex outside of marriage actually puts the family honour at stake. All these reasons make it
impracticable to enforce the legal provision against child marriage. Although the State has
enacted the law it has taken no other steps to counter the valuation of young girls as sexual
objects and thus the practice of overvaluing younger women as brides continues. Naripokkho’s
Pilot Study (Azim, 2001) found that the age of first marriage is associated with violence in
marital life. The study found that marriage at twenty-five or more years is a protective factor.
Women activists believe that early marriage of girls, usually between the ages of 12-19 years,
along with a wide age gap between spouses results in unequal relationship and invites marital
disharmony. Lack of knowledge about sexual health often aggravates the situation of violence
against women within spousal relationships also.

Extra Marital affairs

Raising voice against the extra marital affair of husband also causes a lot of domestic violence
against women in Bangladesh. By culture sometimes it is seen that a man can have extra marital
affair and the wife should not go hard on her husband for that.

Socialisation Processes

Girls and boys are brought up through discriminatory socialisation processes that result in an
unequal power relationship in their adulthood. This socialisation process also makes women
helpless, deprived and disfranchised as a group. On the other hand abuse of wives was not really
considered as crimes as appeared from discussion with men during Rapid Assessment Study on
violence (Naripokkho, 1998a). They are considered to be the decision makers in the house and
have the right to beat women when they behave unacceptably." Many believe that this right to be
grounded in religious doctrine and some had heard that, according to Islamic texts, the parts of
their bodies beaten by their husbands would go to heaven" (Schuler, Hashemi and Riley, 1997).
Other causes of marital violence or more specifically wife beating include non-fulfillment of
traditional gender role of women, sexual maladjustment or non communication about sex,
interference of in-laws as perceived by couples. Moreover women’s lives are perceived to be less
valuable and they are disempowered in family relationships. Male aggression is explained using
the Social Learning Theory paradigm. On the one hand, men are socialized such that a strong
sense of a male identity develops. Dominance, pride, aggression in the face of threat or assault
and protection of self is part of that identity. Social and cultural mechanisms through customs,
rites, literature and art promote male dominance and gender role segregation. Society also
protects and even encourages men to establish their dominance through violence against women.
Women’s subordination:

The basic cause of violence against women, reinforced by other factors such as religion and
culture, is their subordination compared to men. Violence is a means of reinforcing this
subordination. Women is a manifestation of historically unequal power relations between men
and women, which have lead to domination over and discrimination against women by men and
to the prevention of their full advancement, and that violence against women is one of the crucial
social mechanisms by which women are forced into a subordinate position.

Consequences of Domestic Violence against Women

Violence has long term consequences for both the physical and psychological well being of
women (Sutherland et al, 1998) with fear being the most pronounced effect. Fear of violence
prevents many women from living independent lives. It curtails their movement, makes them
seek male protection and encourages vulnerability and dependence. Furthermore it reduces their
self-esteem that further reinforces dependency (Sultan, 1997).

Health Consequences

Several types of injury and death are the most important health consequences of family violence.
A number of different physical and psychological symptoms and severe illness is related to
violence: pelvic infections, abortions, sterility, chronic pains, gastrointestinal diseases and
symptoms characterised as post traumatic stress syndrome, including depression and suicide
attempts. Most often these symptoms are not regarded as being related to violence.
In Naripokkho’s Pilot Study on Violence Against Women (Azim, 2001) case studies of women
survivors of violence showed that depression, trauma related symptoms (such as sensory
associations, sleep disorders) and suicide ideation were common effects of violence.

Social consequences:

In case of family violence, battered people may batter others in a weaker position, for example
children, domestic help etc. One of the most difficult things for the middle class victims of
family violence is that they are forced to keep up a social front because of social prestige.
Consequences for the next generation

Jay G. Silverman, Ph.D., of the Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, and colleagues studied
1,592 married Bangladeshi women with at least one child age 5 years or younger who
participated in the 2004 Bangladesh Demographic Health Survey. Intimate partner violence was
assessed on surveys given to the men, whereas women reported information about their
children's health.

More than two of every five (42.4 percent) of the mothers had experienced intimate partner
violence from their husband within the past year. Those who did were more likely to report that
their children had acute respiratory infections (19.2 percent vs. 13.7 percent) or diarrhea (11.6
percent vs. 7.6 percent) within the past two weeks. "Importantly, because the present analyses
were adjusted for potential confounders, these effects persist after consideration of
socioeconomic status (e.g., poverty), household characteristics and environmental factors (e.g.,
sanitation)," the authors write.

Both direct and indirect mechanisms may be responsible for the elevated risk of illness among
children exposed to intimate partner violence, they note. Trauma and anxiety are more common
among children in violent households and could lead to suppression of the immune system over
time. The children could also be experiencing direct physical harm from their fathers.

Laws to Protect Women

In recent years, the government of Bangladesh has enacted several laws intended to protect
women who are survivors of violence (UN 3 Jan. 2003). In its fifth periodic report to the United
Nations' Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, the Government of
Bangladesh describes the Prevention of Women and Child Repression Act, which was enacted in
2000:
[The law] was formulated to protect women and children from heinous crimes such as rape,
dowry, grievous injury etc. The law makes provision for the punishment of sexual abuse and
sexual harassment. The law also has put restrictions on the media so that the victims' privacy is
protected. The introduction of the concept of the safe custody is one of the most important
features of the law. This act introduced capital punishment in cases of rape, and grievous
injuries. The important features of the Act are:

 Speedy investigation and trial of cases will be held in tribunals and all crimes under the
ambit of the law are non-bailable, with few exceptions;
 A summary tribunal titled Women and Children Repression Tribunal would be formed
for every district town to dispose of the related cases;
 The tribunal will complete the trial process within 180 days;
 The investigation should be completed within 60 days of the order by a magistrate or
filing of the case;
 Under a provision of the law, a rapist will pay for the upkeep of a child born as
consequence of rape (ibid., para. 3.9).

Law Enforcement
The Government of Bangladesh in 1993 has set up a cell, called “Nari Nirjaton Protirodh Cell”,
within the Police Headquarter, to take specific cases and complaints involving violence against
women. This cell is administered by an Inspector and collects monthly data from all districts
(Naripokkho, 1998a). Whenever any complaint is made in writing or on receipt of any news item
reporting an offence against women brought to the notice of the cell, the Officer in Charge of the
above mentioned cell endorses the complaint to the concerned police station within whose
jurisdiction the crime has been committed with an instruction to inquire into the matter and
submit a report within a specific period. On receipt of the report from the concerned Police
Station, the officers of the cell either file the case or issue instruction for fresh enquiry (Huda and
Sattar, 1996). Similarly the Home Ministry set up another cell as a pilot basis called “Women’s
Investigation Cell” at Mirpur specifically to deal with violence committed against women as well
as monitoring such offences/complaints within Mirpur area. Four women Sub-Inspectors, two
women Assistant Sub-Inspectors and ten women Constables under the Officer in Charge of
Mirpur Thana will perform their duties. The main responsibility is to investigate the case
specially filed under Repression Against Women and Children (Special Ordinance) 1995.

Other Support Services

Women’s Support Centre:

The Department of Women and Children’s Affairs is also running Women’s Support Centres and
shelter homes in Dhaka and in 6 divisional headquarters to provide shelter and other support
facilities, i.e. food, medicine, clothes, legal aid, rehabilitation etc., to distressed, shelter less and
oppresses women.

Jatiyo Mahila Shangstha’s Nari Nirjaton Protikar Cell:

The cell is attached to its central office. It maintains 12 centres in Dhaka and 8 centres in other
divisional towns for vocational skill training and credit services to poor and destitute women.
The organisation maintains 64 district offices, and 50 thana branches, which conduct vocational
training courses (MWC, 1997 SAARC).

NGO Support Services:

NGOs and women’s organizations provide free legal and paralegal services. Some run shelter
homes as safe custody rehabilitation centre’s for distressed women. They provide medical and
other logistic support to women seeking shelter. They also organize training for self-employment
and economic development

Media
The Media has a significant role in information and dissemination of the incidents of violence,
awareness raising and campaigning against the violence. Everyday newspapers bring out a
number of different incidences of violence to the public notice. Newspapers, Radio, TV are
important and effective media for raising public awareness. Recently Bangladesh Television has
aired some information spots on violence against women funded by UNDP and produced by
CDL.
Before we conclude the discussion, the question remains on the mind; will all the attempts to
stop violence against women be successful? Well may be today we don’t have bright lights, but
then a small news published in the Daily Star, hints may be there is light at the end of the tunnel.

In a bid to ensure elimination of violence against women, with the assistance of BITA
(Bangladesh Institute of Theatre Art); Alliance to End Domestic Violence, Chittagong and
Change Makers in Chittagong Division, YPSA (Young Power in Social Action) organized a
fifteen- day long ''WE CAN'' campaign with the slogan “Jege uthi ebong sojore boli amrai pari
Nari'r biruddhe nirjaton bondho korte”, from 25 November 2010 to 10 December 2010 aiming
to stop violence against women and to make the masses aware of the cruelty against women.

Starting on 25 November 2010 with the observance of the International Day for the Elimination
of Violence against Women and closing on International Human Rights Day on 10 December
2010, the campaign was indeed an inspiring effort to stop violence against women. The
campaign included rally, theatre show, distribution of books, leaflets, posters, stickers etc.

The daily Star

When Youth joins hand in elimination of violence against women, we sure can hope for a future
Bangladesh free of violence against women.

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