Eve teasing is very common social problem and every day women come across some form of eve teasing. And women should be empowered to fight back due to end this evil act.
Introduction
Eve teasing is one of the social Abusement in Bangladesh.Eve teasing is an attempt to irritate the girl or catch her attention by whisteling, an unwanted bump, passing unwanted comments to the girls, a well time lapped, display of indecent snaps or videos in the cell phone, a seemingly casual touch, giving missed call, giving unwanted call or unfare text message.The term “Eve Teasing” means young men involves annoying or disquyieting girls or women by making sexual innuendos agains them in the public or open place.Eve teasing reffers to any act that upset the modesty of the women, like sexual in nature including gestures words ant acts that are unwellcome.This problem received a public and media attention on 1960,but it creats a mass problem from the 1980’s.People are started to go to school and other educational institute from 1960[1], so the contribute with men in the society by joining in the workplace so they started to expose with peole in the business organozation or in the outside or readside. Though people were not habituated this situstion they use to comment on the women by watching them in the outside. It’s a common sence that those people were uneducated because they think that “women” are a product or material.The term eve teasing is not popular in the western word or in usa or any orher countries except the indian subcontinent.So the roots of eve teasing is originated from the indian subcontinent. It is becasuse these countries mainly India. Pakistan and Bangladesh are mainly male dominated society. male are the head of the society and family, male have the physical strength than women.So men’s have their inverinmental benefit to take any action against women. Other hand women are staying under the men and do what their husband says to him, or her father or boyfriend said to her. They are followed by their parents of fathers guidence. Women don’t have such much freedom like western girls. Childern grow up in this kind of a society they have the intension to dominate the girl also.Specially among the treenagers and the youth are the Eve teasers. They can’s resist their physical need or the eagerness to explore.So the eve teasing only happening in thease countries.The stranges thing about the eve teasing is it’s prove. Every day so many girls/women are die in cause of eve teasing. So it is a social problem in the south asian countries which is increase in a very alarming reate.
Recent Scenario of Eve Teasing In Bangladesh
The present situation in Bangladesh is not so satisfy able. Eve teasing is increase here in very alarming rate. Last year so many women and girls were affected in Eve teasing. All over the country it is rising both in ferocity number and recklessness. Civilian of the country is anxious and facing this brutal and depraved of eve teasing. 62% of the school going girls becomes victim of eve teasing of different types[2]. And eve teasing is increase 39.6% in 2010.[3]From the statistical data shows us that apart from suicide 13000 women become victim of Eve Teasing from January-July in 2010. This 13000 women’s teasing case was reported yet most of others are ignore this or don’t want to report this because fear factor and not to be a part of social “gossip”. Here terms “Fear factor” is used because people from the dominant society give the life threat to the victims family, also in some case police didn’t received the complain as they received the order from the high end as well as the lack of provinces. So moreover the number of the victim is huge. So it can have argued that no girl has been spared from being a victim of eve teasing in one from to another.
Few months later huge price was paid by the protestor who have spoken out against sexual harassment have been murdered. A 50 years aged mother was died while she was protest against the bullying of her daughter .A college teacher was also died for speak out against the eve teasing.Everywhere the pattern is the same. Simi of Charukola, Fahima of Mirpur, and many other girls – students, workers and slum dwellers – were found to have been preyed upon by depraved and brutalized males while the state society took all for granted, as it were.[4]
Various forms of Eve Teasing
Eve-teasing has attacked our society in various forms. With all its forms it is destroying the society.
1. Eve-teasing with school going female students: At the adolescent age, male students while passing by a school make many indecent remarks hurting the female students. An adolescent young boy follows a girl from her school to her residence just to attract the attention of the girl. Such other ways of eave-teasing are passing bad comments and writing indecent letters etc. In some cases, some eve-teasers venture themselves to make a relation with a young girl forcibly. It puts the concerned girl into such a mental trauma that it is hard to bear. Following such mental trauma some young girls take their lives and thus a potential life comes to an end.
2. Eve-teasing on mobile: Eve-teasing on mobile phone has become the most popular form. A stalker, getting a mobile phone, starts teasing a girl in many ways. At first, he sends SMS in ornamental and rhetorical language to which a young girls easily falls victim as she is also an adolescent. Becoming a victim to this, a young girl develops a relation, on which that particular boy capitalizes. Some intimate moments are captured by hidden camera or video recorder and these are later on circulated through the internet. That is a reason why mobile phone sometimes becomes a curse despite its multiple benefits.
3. Sexual harassment by internet: Of late the young boys and girls in the cities are used to chatting through internet by which they come closer to each other. Being adolescent, the boys and girls fall victim to their sensuality extreme world.
Causes behind the Eve Teasing
A large part of young generation has gone at the verge of astray now a days. Following might be the probable causes behind this suffocation situation for the whole civilization:
— Exotic Culture achieved from abroad (in is miserable that we usually copy the bad things, not good things).
— Depression.
— Lack of social and family bondage.
— Unemployment, the stalkers’ brains are the Devil’s asylum.
— Negligence from and of the family.
— Bad associations.
— Dominating mentality over the physically weaker sex.
— Satellite and Mobile culture.
— Political involvement and abuse of power.
— Detachment from the family.
— Ignorant and defying of the law.
— Lack of Respect upon the opposite sex.
This heinous attitude towards female sect should be prevented from the family, from the beginning.
Corollary of Eve Teasing
There is several consequence of eve teasing. It affects the women’s life horribly that the effected women should need to take the necessary steps for his life. Some of the consequences are given below.
1: Suicide: Suicide is the ultimate path for some woes. Like simian who was a student of the institute of fine Arts Bangladesh at Dhaka University was victim of the local boys regularly and choose the path of death by selecting suicide.
2: Lost the mind: Many girls lost their mind and go abnormal or cause mental disease from fast ration. After the victim she don’t go out from home and live in a nightmare of eve teasers, and then followed by depression and atlas lost their mind.
3: Early Marriage: In local village of Bangladesh the local school going girls, garments workers and college girls are victim of eve teasing, so the common scenario of their family is to give marriage of that girl. It also a reason of early marriage and pregnancy related death.
4: Reduce the mobility of the women: In fact, within the patriarchal social fabric, eve-teasing is a weapon to weaken, hurt or force women to consign to domestic affairs. It restricts women’s mobility in the public sphere, which contributes to their diminishing participation in outdoor activities.
5: Security: Given the strict patriarchal social system, it is almost daring for a woman to protest against teasing in public places. That may further endanger her security, on the one hand, and there is possibility that she herself will be held responsible for the incident. In our society, it is usually the girl who is finally held responsible for such incidents.
Laws Against the eve teasing in Bangladesh
And our country, yet now there is no strict law that can effectively curb eve teasing. Article 76 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance 1976 of the Penal Code of 1860 affirms that any acts, conducts or verbal abuses that are used to disgrace women are punishable by law. However, these provisions seem minor compared with the crimes they commit. [5] Bangladesh was one of the first developing countries to establish a Ministry if Womens affairs in 1978.[6] His constitution of Bangladesh ensures the equal rights for every citizen in the country. But violence and discriminatory treatment against women has remained widespread across the country IN women and children “Repression and prevention Act 2000 an excellent provision was included in section article 10 that greasing a woman like making obscene comments or gestures was an effort covered by it providing for up to seven years of simple imprisonment or meticulous imprisonment for two years.[7] But the act was amendment in 2003 where no one could be charged with sexual abuse of women until it is physical.[8]The change is fuming the women rights activists. The change has come at a time when harassment of women has increased in Bangladesh. But one can enforce her right under section 509 of the Penal code where it is clearly stated that if anybody intending to insult the modesty of any women, utters any word, make any sound or gesture or exhibits any object, intending that such word or sound shall be heard, or that such gesture or object shall be seen, by such women, or intrudes upon the privacy of such women, shall be punished with simple imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or with fine or with both.[9]
Recommendations to stop eve teasing
Education system must be premeditated in a way as to promote positive relationship between girls and boys, especially at a younger age. Co-education encourages competition, but the curriculum must target at building a healthy environment of learning rather than encouraging male-female contact unnecessarily. Boys from conservative backgrounds tend to follow girls more often than boys from rather liberal backgrounds.
Parents’ role is very significant. They should keep their children from bad influences. Parents must educate their children ‘what to’ or ‘what not to’ watch. They should adopt friendly relations with their children rather than being harsh with them.
Teachers must play their role to repeat moral teachings in the young minds in a more rational and modern way.
Policemen must be deployed and conscious. They should not create a kind of deterrence against such offensive acts and to punish such vagabonds where necessary.
The boys should respect the opposite sex, as morality demands it, adding that they should not be unaware to the fact that they have families too.
The parents should put utmost trust in their daughters, for this trust will give them the confidence to face the eve teasers bravely and not to be frightened by them.
Overall the most important is the consciousness of the women themselves. The girl should not ignore the teasing of eve teasers and don’t think what the people think of her if she give objection to such activities. They should protest strongly against such boys otherwise nobody can do anything against such eve teasers.[10]
Empowerment of women to fight back against Eve teasing
Women come across some form of eve teasing on a daily basis. While the women forum and NGOs are trying to do something about it and media shows no sense of responsibility toward it (in fact some dramatists and directors are so blind that they make Bengali dramas which rather motivate youngsters to involve themselves in such abhor able act like eve teasing) – should women speak up or remain quite? Read on the article and fight back the eve teasers. Women should be empowered to fight back, and then only this evil will be weeded out.[11]
So what’s a woman to do: Many have resorted to carrying pins, pen-knives and even daggers as a deterrent? Others have taken self-defense classes and don’t hesitate before landing a karate chop on the offender’s shoulder blade.
Fight back: This doesn’t mean you have to sock your offender in the face – no matter how tempting it may be. But being too shy and reserved to speak up is just going to work against you. You’ve got to look your offender in the face and speak up as loud as you can. The crowd will automatically be on your side and you’ll have the satisfaction of watching the ball of slime mumble a denial and slink away.
If you’re being followed: Nothing psyches your follower as much as this: Just walk up to him and start yelling at the top your voice, without letting him gets a word in. Ask him for the name of his employer. Drop the ‘You don’t know who I am and who you’re messing with’ line. Tell him
you’re going to sic the police on his ass if he doesn’t do the vanishing act. (Not recommended if you’re talking to a 6 ft muscleman or to a group of hooligans, but a wimpy, skinny male will rue the day he crossed your path.)
Walk in well-lit and frequented areas: Don’t walk through a dark, lonely street or you’re only inviting trouble. In a well lit area you’ll be able to see and avoid potential offenders. Be Street smart: Don’t daydream and don’t look lost – even if you are. Look as if you know exactly where you are going.
Dress appropriately: If you are going to spend the day in crowded areas, don’t wear a mini skirt. True, women in salwarkameezes get harassed as well, but there’s no need to call attention to you. Save your skimpy clothes for the nightclubs, when you’re the one who’s on a prowl!
Know thy enemy: Is the guy across the street waiting for you to pass by? Does he look like he’s out for some ‘fun’? Is he huddled with other men and just hanging out, doing nothing in particular? Then it’s best to…
Avoid potential harassers: If you see a group of men hanging out, or a man who’s making eye contact with you and trying to get your attention, take a detour. Better safe than sorry.
Travel with a male escort: Though this may not always be possible, try and work out some arrangement where you have a male escort. Eve-teasers by and large target women who are without a male escort. Of course, if they are very frustrated, even the presence of a man may not deter them – so better safe than sorry. Take the necessary precautions, drive with your cell phone handy, don’t walk outdoors at night, and learn karate![12]
Conclusion
Eve teasing is increasing in very alarming rate in our country. We need to take a necessary step to prevent eve teasing from the root. We need to focus the prevention of eve teasing from the family. Everyday so many women are the victim of the eve teasing in several ways. Many of them commit suicide. So it takes the lives of the young girls and women’s. If people are more aware about it, if we can make the people believe that Eve teasing is a social crime this rate could be goes down.
Bibliography
· “Combat the Scoundrel,” written by MD. AnwarulKabir posted on daily star 22/5/010
- “Eve teasing protirodh”, November 3, 2010 Prothom Alo, column 8, P.1.
- “Modhukhali” Prothom Alo, October 28, 2010. column 2, P.1.
- Prothom Alo, October 29, 2010, Column 5, P.1.
- “Eve Teasing-Karon o Protikar”, November 04, 2010 Amar Desh, column 7, P. 9.
- ” Too many cases of ‘Eve teasing’ by EnamulHaquehttp://www.thefinancialexpress-bd.com/more.php?news_id=123173
- “Mass protest against eve teasing”, The financial express Bangladesh, October 31,2010.
· “How to fight Back Against Eve teasers” written by SK. Arefin in BD tips on 24th November.
· Resources.,lawyersnjurists.com
· “Eve teasing a punish able offence” written by AdvocateSadekaJahan on October 1,2005
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