Violence against women: Reluctance in seeking legal remedy

 The brother of a woman who was abused by her husband occasionally

contacts this correspondent and shares the suffering of his sister. This
correspondent also spoke with the woman, aged 37. Since her marriage in
2020, she has been enduring continuous torture.

This abuse has been inflicted on her sometimes for dowry demands, and other
times over trivial issues. In 2021, when she was 9 months pregnant, her child died
in the womb due to beatings by her husband. Despite these traumatic experiences,
she avoided filing a case due to fear of her family breaking up.

Finally, on 25 July, the police arrived at the woman's residence in the Kachukhet
area of the capital after she informed them of the extreme torture she had endured.
Subsequently, on 28 July, she filed a case under the Prevention of Women and
Child Repression Act at Kafrul Police Station.

 Cases of domestic violence are high

From January to July this year, the National Emergency Service 999 received
15,952 calls about abuse of women and children. Of them, 13,370 are of domestic
violence. Apart from this, 714 are of sexual harassment, 686 of rape, 578 of
murder, 333 of attempted rape, 263 of torture due to dowry and 8 of acid violence.

Professor Muhammad Umar Farooq of Department of Criminology and Policing,

Maulana Bhasani University of Science and Technology has done his PhD on
'Domestic Violence’. He said that only 1.1 per cent cases of domestic violence are
filed while 2.6 per cent of cases are mediated through non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) and arbitrators. Most of them resolve the dispute by
themselves.