NEW DELHI: Demonstrations against sexual violence are spreading across south Asia as anger over the gang rape and death of a 23-year-old medical student in Delhi courses through the region.
Inspired by rallies and marches staged across India for nearly three weeks, protests have been held in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh — countries where activists say women suffer high levels of sexual and domestic violence.
In Nepal, the case of a 21-year-old woman who says she was raped and threatened with death by a police officer and robbed by immigration officials prompted hundreds to converge on the prime minister’s residence in Kathmandu. They called for legal reforms and a change in attitudes towards women. “We had seen the power of the mass campaign in Delhi’s rape case. It is a pure people’s movement,” said Anita Thapa, a protester.
Sultana Kamal, of the Bangladeshi human rights group Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), said the protests in Delhi had given them fresh impetus to demonstrate.
On Friday, a teenager said to have been repeatedly raped in a hotel died in hospital in Dhaka of injuries sustained when she subsequently tried to take her own life.
Although police arrested suspects and investigations are under way, activists fear that corruption and deep-seated misogyny among investigating officers and the judiciary make a conviction unlikely.
According to ASK’s statistics, at least 1,008 women were raped in 2012 in Bangladesh, of whom 98 were later killed.
Khushi Kabir, one of the organisers of a “human chain” in Dhaka, said although past demonstrations were dominated by women, men were now protesting too. “We had lawyers, schoolchildren, teachers, theatre activists and personalities, industrialists,” she added.
Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury, the Bangladeshi minister for women and children’s affairs, said her government was “taking this issue very seriously”.
“Just on Thursday, a sex offender was given a very high punishment under the law,” she said, “but sometimes the delay and the whole process of the trial takes a bit of time to ensure justice.”
Protests are expected in Bangladesh following the news of the rape and killing of a 14-year-old who had left home to bring in her family’s cows.
By arrangement with the Guardian
