Laws alone cannot cure the misogynistic mindset
Saturday, 6 June 2009
Ameer Hamza
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case, filed by the Bangladesh Women Lawyers' Association against sexual harassment, has recently been won and the relevant bill is expected to be passed by the Jatiya Sangsad soon. One would have thought the 1995 Act, pertaining to protecting women and children against all kinds of abuse would have sufficed against sexual harassment and curbed men of the leering kind. But, clearly, laws alone cannot cure the misogynistic mindset, and the psycho-social compulsions of some male members of the human species who can make the environment quite unsafe for vulnerable children and women.
The said Act, duly amended, has provisions up to capital punishment. Most governments in Bangladesh have, in fact, sought to curb crimes against these sections of the population with equally severe legal provisions. Yet all degrees of crime continue to be committed against women and children. Obviously there are too many loopholes in the law that help criminals escape exemplary punishment. It is vitally important that such loopholes be effectively plugged. But this, we all know, can apply only where the legal and political system itself is without holes.
This is not to say that the law has not worked at all. It does benefit those victims who are fortunate enough to catch the attention of legal welfare organizations, such as BWLA, Ain o Shalish Kendro (ASK) and the like that have been actively seeking to abolish all kinds of abominations in human relationships. There are hundreds of thousands of women and children across the country who end up being treated like vermin, at home and in the community, and get traded as commercial commodities. Can anything be effective enough to restore the lost humanity in these areas ?
A great deal of serious 'social engineering' must be put in place at both micro and macro levels to 'deconstruct' attitudes prejudicial to women. The public must be sensitized to concepts of mutual respect, cooperation and equity between genders. This is a tall order, but short of a sea change in the attitude towards female human beings in general, and the poor and powerless in particular, there can be no end to the violation of their beings ------- their rights and their bodies.
The socio-political environment everywhere is so vitiated by sickness -----the proliferation of violent, mind-polluting commodification of women and related stimuli ----- that it is hardly conducive to the cultivation of a wholesome gender relationship. The lethal mix of drugs, delinquency and unemployment compounds the problem, resulting in dangerous distortions of the mind in susceptible populations, such as the immature and unenlightened. Consequently these victims-of-mind-pollution are found to respond to their own sexual needs and desires in depraved and perverted ways, as is manifest in the increasing incidence of sex-related crimes.
To cure this sickness, or at least limit the damage, we must begin at the beginning. Start with fairer gender concepts in school text books and institute strict guidelines for the entertainment media, television and film industry included. Some welcome move has been coming from sections of the latter which hopefully can drive out both home-made and imported trash that pass as entertainment. But apart from positive role projections in the media there is a greater need, and that is, to implement the constitutional promise of universal basic education and employment for all. Productive employment and sharing of responsibilities, both at home and outside, can certainly contribute to mutual respect and take us on the road to healthy human relationships where the human status of neither is considered superior or inferior to the other.
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) case, filed by the Bangladesh Women Lawyers' Association against sexual harassment, has recently been won and the relevant bill is expected to be passed by the Jatiya Sangsad soon. One would have thought the 1995 Act, pertaining to protecting women and children against all kinds of abuse would have sufficed against sexual harassment and curbed men of the leering kind. But, clearly, laws alone cannot cure the misogynistic mindset, and the psycho-social compulsions of some male members of the human species who can make the environment quite unsafe for vulnerable children and women.
The said Act, duly amended, has provisions up to capital punishment. Most governments in Bangladesh have, in fact, sought to curb crimes against these sections of the population with equally severe legal provisions. Yet all degrees of crime continue to be committed against women and children. Obviously there are too many loopholes in the law that help criminals escape exemplary punishment. It is vitally important that such loopholes be effectively plugged. But this, we all know, can apply only where the legal and political system itself is without holes.
This is not to say that the law has not worked at all. It does benefit those victims who are fortunate enough to catch the attention of legal welfare organizations, such as BWLA, Ain o Shalish Kendro (ASK) and the like that have been actively seeking to abolish all kinds of abominations in human relationships. There are hundreds of thousands of women and children across the country who end up being treated like vermin, at home and in the community, and get traded as commercial commodities. Can anything be effective enough to restore the lost humanity in these areas ?
A great deal of serious 'social engineering' must be put in place at both micro and macro levels to 'deconstruct' attitudes prejudicial to women. The public must be sensitized to concepts of mutual respect, cooperation and equity between genders. This is a tall order, but short of a sea change in the attitude towards female human beings in general, and the poor and powerless in particular, there can be no end to the violation of their beings ------- their rights and their bodies.
The socio-political environment everywhere is so vitiated by sickness -----the proliferation of violent, mind-polluting commodification of women and related stimuli ----- that it is hardly conducive to the cultivation of a wholesome gender relationship. The lethal mix of drugs, delinquency and unemployment compounds the problem, resulting in dangerous distortions of the mind in susceptible populations, such as the immature and unenlightened. Consequently these victims-of-mind-pollution are found to respond to their own sexual needs and desires in depraved and perverted ways, as is manifest in the increasing incidence of sex-related crimes.
To cure this sickness, or at least limit the damage, we must begin at the beginning. Start with fairer gender concepts in school text books and institute strict guidelines for the entertainment media, television and film industry included. Some welcome move has been coming from sections of the latter which hopefully can drive out both home-made and imported trash that pass as entertainment. But apart from positive role projections in the media there is a greater need, and that is, to implement the constitutional promise of universal basic education and employment for all. Productive employment and sharing of responsibilities, both at home and outside, can certainly contribute to mutual respect and take us on the road to healthy human relationships where the human status of neither is considered superior or inferior to the other.