Rethinking violence against women | Daily Star

When it comes to violence against women, we make a conscious choice and turn our entire focus to sexual violence. This is not because sexual violence seriously harms women, but perhaps because we think that a woman’s dignity and chastity are taken away through rape or other forms of sexual violence.

Rape is perceived as a humiliation and stigma not only for the victimized woman, but also for her family and society. This dynamic applies not only to the daily sexual violence experienced by women in Bangladesh, but also to survivors of wartime rape during our War of Liberation. In the post-independence period, to address the stigma and shame that these women might have faced due to the perception that they had “lost” their dignity, the then government ‘honored’ them with the title of Birangana. Although the aim was to recognize them in the national imagination, over time the title came to symbolize a loss of honor, which further marginalized and stigmatized these women. The honor-shame duo attracts our attention so much that we do not see sexual violence against women as a violation of their physical and spiritual integrity.

Central to such conceptualization is an overreliance on the idea of ​​female sexual subordination and the male sexual dominance that comes with its consequences. In this framework, women and sexual agency are opposed to each other. This regressive view maintains a constant state of fear to which we often respond, either by punishing women who transgress ideal female-like roles or by overcriminalizing sexual activities even when women practice them consciously.

Based on this understanding of honor, our society fixates on sexual violence against women, especially rape, and turns to the highest punitive measures of the state to punish the perpetrators. In response to widespread protests and public outrage over rising incidents of sexual violence, the government ultimately approved the death penalty for rape in 2020. While harsh penalties may be perceived as a strong stance against crime, they do not necessarily result in addressing or ultimately reducing the root cause of sexual violence. Instead, the imposition of harsh punishments may seem more like an act of revenge on the part of the state for failing to protect women’s (“honor”) than a meaningful solution to address the problem. In this process, other forms of violence/harm that women are exposed to in life do not receive enough attention.

Moreover, our obsession with sexual violence often overlooks the general context in which such violence actually occurs. For example, consider the issue of obstetric violence, which generally implies the mistreatment of women in health care settings, including neglect, abuse, and coercion, especially in relation to obstetric and gynecological care. Obstetric violence is understood as a form of gender-based violence faced by women rather than a case of medical malpractice. An important example of obstetric violence is performing a cesarean section (C-section) without the patient’s informed and voluntary consent. According to Save the Children’s report, the unnecessary caesarean section rate in Bangladesh increased to 51% between 2016 and 2018. Despite the severe consequences of obstetric violence on women, Bangladesh has yet to take the issue seriously. Obstetric violence is also closely linked to economic abuse by intimate partners or family members, as well as sexual violence. Unfortunately, while these issues are equally pressing, our society often feels that sexual violence only occurs in a vacuum and that broader patterns and systemic incidents of violence are overlooked.

Considering the alarming increase in crimes such as rape in our country, it is extremely important to focus on sexual violence against women. However, it should not be the only category of violence of concern, which has a profound and lasting impact on women’s daily lives and is, in fact, closely linked to and contributing to incidents of sexual violence, which would underestimate other equally critical issues. To develop a broader and more nuanced understanding of women’s experiences of violence, we must move beyond viewing sexual violence, such as rape, in isolation or as the sole form of violence.

The author is a NYU Law graduate