Can we ever seek justice for sexual violence?

Yet another recent incident highlights the lack of security that haunts women and children in Bangladesh. We share the sentiments in Manusher Jonno Foundation’s (MJF) statement condemning the attack, vandalism, and threats against the family of a teenage girl in Noakhali’s Subarnachar after they filed a case against a madrasa superintendent for attempting to rape her. On Saturday afternoon, a five-minute video of the incident went viral on social media, showing a large group of people attacking a house, with many of them carrying sticks. The victim’s family members were seen crying, and the attackers were asking them to withdraw the case. How deep does the rot in our systems go that such groups feel emboldened enough to attack and demand the withdrawal of an attempted rape case?

According to the case statement, when the grandmother of the teenage girl went to visit her in the residential madrasa, the superintendent told the guardian that the girl had been “attacked by an evil power.” Then he took the girl to his room under the pretext of performing an exorcism and tried to rape her. When the survivor’s family members informed their union parishad’s acting chairman, he pursued social arbitration instead of helping the family take legal action. Following the filing of the case around two months after the incident, around 100 people assaulted family members.

Given that such heinous incidents are disturbingly common and frequent across the country—only a month ago, a teenage rape survivor in Narsingdi was abducted and killed for seeking justice—how is it that rape survivors are still not receiving the protection they need? Even more worrying is that, according to the Subarnachar survivor’s father, his daughter is not the sole victim of the accused. But others have not come forward due to the fear of social stigma. Of course, mob attacks such as the one this family had to endure will only silence survivors further, especially since police protection after filing a case is next to nil.

All three arms of the state must realise just how systematically unsafe women and children are in Bangladesh. There must be a strict protocol for the police to follow when a rape case is filed, so that survivors do not feel threatened for their lives for seeking justice. Government representatives in union parishads must also be trained to direct survivors to seek legal help, rather than trying to “resolve” through social arbitration.