‘Govt alone cannot stop violence against women’

Since the government alone cannot stop violence against women, cooperation and participation of all is needed to make the country safe for female residents, speakers said at a webinar on Tuesday.

Through the webinar, titled Towards Creating a Future without Violence, ActionAid Bangladesh highlighted the ongoing situation of violence in the country and discussed possible ways to overcome it, reads a press release.

“Women need to understand that it is not the woman's fault becoming a victim, but the perpetrator is to blame, said, Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kori.

“We need to be united to prevent violence against women by bringing about a change in our thoughts,” she added.

Describing the trend of marrying rapists as tragic, Taslima Yasmin, assistant professor at the Department of Law, Dhaka University, said if our social mindset cannot be changed, violence against women cannot be stopped by law alone.

Nazneen Akhter, senior reporter of the Daily Prothom Alo, said violence against women will be greatly reduced if people cooperate with the media with information.

"We find indecent and insulting remarks against women in many news published on social media, but we could not take any action. Social media is out of control," Nazneen further said.

Dr Abul Hossain, project director of the Multi-Sectoral Programme on Violence Against Women under the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, was present as special guest in the webinar.

“We all need to launch an awareness and advocacy campaign to prevent violence against women, as well as disseminating information to bring our services to the people,” he said.

Dr Hossain also said five factors are very important: cooperation of representatives of all levels of government; participation of govt representatives and increasing people's engagement; providing information and cooperation through NGOs spread in remote areas; inclusion of civil society; and performing active role of educated and influential people in the society.

Addressing the webinar as its chief guest, Dhaka North City Corporation Mayor Md Atiqul Islam said they have formed a new committee specialised on women and children in the city corporation.

“To increase women's empowerment, we have set aside 20% of the total allocation for urban development for women counsellors. Besides, we are emphasising on what else can be done for women and children welfare,” he said.

In her closing remarks, Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said, "We want no more women to be abused."

She called upon all as well as the corporate sector to come forward to prevent violence against women.

Among others, Sifat E-Rabban, ADC of Women Support and Investigation Division at DMP, Advocate Zannatul Ferdous Borna, Momtaz Ara Begum, executive director of Mukti Nari – O –Shishu Unnayan Sangstha, andM Naseemul Hye, board member of ActionAid International Bangladesh Society (AAIBS), also spoke at the webinar.