"Safety of women: An issue of concern"

  

“Safety of women: An issue of concern”

 

What does the safety of women mean? Why should we be more concerned about a woman’s safety than a man’s? The safety of women refers to the places where women feel safe to live, work, commute, and access without any fear in any circumstances. But despite living in a digital and developing country, unfortunately, women of Bangladesh are being violated and harassed at any place. For example- it can be their working place, educational institutions, shopping mall, public transport, and even their home! Yes, even their own home is not safe for a woman. How pathetic it sounds!

Being a citizen of a liberated country, men and women are supposed to have the same security. Then why women are not as safe as men? If we go deeper into the question to find the solution, we see domestic violence, social and moral degradation, lack of empathy, knowledge, and education about women, gender discrimination, misuse of patriarchal culture,
lack of access to government law, and weak prosecution for culprits, etc. are mainly responsible for the women’s safety crisis. Day by day these issues are increasing which is resulting in crimes like- rape, harassment, murder, and physical abuse towards women. A 2022 online survey of more than 5,000 women in 24 districts found that 87 percent of Bangladeshi women had at least once encountered harassment, 36 percent regularly experienced sexual harassment in public transportation, and 57 percent thought that public transportation was the most dangerous place in the city. [1]

 

If we look over the places where women do not feel safe, firstly, it can be their workplace or any educational institution. This is an issue of concern since being unsafe has been an excuse to discourage or directly prevent women from seeking economical stability. Many surveys have revealed the increasing rate of women workers being sexually harassed due to their weak position in society. Besides, a lot of students are facing similar types of harassment by their teachers in educational institutions which is affecting their mental development. Moreover, when a woman goes to public places like shopping malls, amusement parks, fairs, or restaurants they need to go through a bunch of bad touches and bad gazes. Who is to blame for bad gaze and touch? We all know the answer!

Again, many surveys and interviews have revealed that public transport has been considered one of the most unsafe places for a woman. It is because most of the men in our country are unaware of women’s respect, safety, and responsibilities towards them. They couldn’t acknowledge the simple fact that when a woman is alone around them at night hours or any hour of the day at any place, it becomes their responsibility to give that woman safety instead of becoming a danger to her. 

Additionally, in public transport women’s seats are not enough in proportion to the increasing woman passengers, which is why women need to face bad touches by some perverts. Recently, a gang of robbers disguised as passengers boarded a bus from Kushtia to Dhaka, took control of the vehicle, robbed the passengers, and gang-raped a woman. [2]

 

Nevertheless, when it comes to solving these issues the whole of society seems to accuse women of their dress up, characteristics, social position, and behavior being appealing. They do not look upon teaching men how to respect and give safety to a woman regardless of how she’s dressed up or her character. If it’s all a woman’s fault then the biggest question arises when they get assaulted by their family members (male members). Her family should be her safest place then how can she get raped or harassed by her closest ones? It all draws to the fact that women are not safe anywhere now since some men are less cooperative and disrespectful.

 

Besides, no woman deserves to be harassed or assaulted regardless of her dress up, character, social position, or weakness! No woman wants to feel unsafe because of being a woman. They are also citizens like men and so they deserve all equal rights including being safe. Although all these discussions do not mean that men are not unsafe at all, instead, their ratio is very less compared to the ratio of women’s insecurity. Because if we look around, we hardly find men facing these types of harassment issues. To sum up, we all deserve to feel safe anywhere we go at any time. Even if safety cannot be given, at least women should not feel danger from men to lead a peaceful life.