Tonu murder: Rape culture as we name it

Sohagi Jahan Tonu was a college student who was murdered in Comilla recently. Her nick name is Shohagi (adorable). A teen who was returning home after coaching her students in an evening was not only raped but also brutally murdered after rape in the cantonment area. She was an undergraduate student of History. Her body was recovered from Moinamoti, Comilla Cantonment.
It is not comprehensible how could a girl be raped and killed in a protected and safe area.
People from different walks of life demonstrated at Shahbag, at the Teacher-Student Centre of Dhaka University and even in Danforth, Toronto, Canada. Protests and condemnation pour in through facebook, and media. The people from different walks of life are expressing their condemnation. Tonu's fellows at Comilla Victoria College, and activists of different socio-cultural platforms are joining in protest and seeking justice.
As we are informed human chains were formed, processions brought out and demonstrations staged in different parts of the country and abroad including Toronto and other parts of the world. Everybody is demanding justice for Tonu. We have lost so far many daughters like Tonu.
There is nobody to talk about the rape issues: how we can reduce rape and help victims. Thinking of the rape victims last year we worked with other social and online activists regarding the rape culture. We, a few organisations, arranged a conference among the Torontonian Bengali community members and tried to sort out a number of issues and the root causes of why rape has become prevalent across the world.
To the readers, this article does not offer any solution rather analyses a significant issue and then asks some rudimentary questions. It does not accuse any single media apart from us for being so banal. There is no intention to criticise any particular body through our write-up. We have taken the initiative to write only to express how disturbed we are and how frustrated we feel regarding the indifference attitude on the issue of rape in the current social and political system in Bangladesh.
For the past few days we have been out focussing on this critical issue: RAPE. News concerning this four-letter word has paralysed our thoughts, and we consider the people concerned to be also anxious of this heinous crime. And yet, we are acting irresponsibly and insensitively. The act itself has been instrumental and has become a fundamental issue that requires attention from the society.
A few bold steps have been taken by Marie Sophie Pettersson and Faria Shabnam, and Mahbuba Nasreen in publishing articles in the media and that is something worth paying attention to. The recent works of Patterson, Shabnam, and Nasreen are commendable. This article, however, does not respond as a follow-up of their articles but it borrows the fact Nasreen states: we live in a romanticised society (with the advent of information technology).
We have seen that obnoxious trends continued over the years as far as we recall: first, there was a trend in commanding Fatwa, through which mostly young girls and adult women were tortured with Dorra (whip) to death, many people voluntarily took part (only a few protested, most of them kept quiet for a while). We would name it Fatwa culture. It is important to note that the Fatwa is used on the poor by the rural uneducated local leaders and illiterate clerics of rural mosques largely. Ignoring the Bangladesh constitution and its law, Fatwa is being implemented often in the name of so-called Shariah law, which has no significance in authentic Islam and Islamic life and living of Bangladeshis. This Fatwa culture lasted for a significant period until the social governance acted against this barbaric tradition. By the term 'social governance' we mean the governance of the society as a whole that includes but not limits multi-stakeholders at the local and state levels. Then the trend of throwing acid became vigilant. The acid issue has been taken care of for some time by the social governance and media. The country was managed to tackle this issue to some extent for the time being.
Since the past several months we have been focusing specifically on the news that covered rape incidents for two reasons: first, we try to impossibly count the sheer number of incidents that have been taking place on a continuous basis throughout the country, and second the language being used in reporting those incidents. We ask why we have been sitting idle without taking any bold steps in sweeping out this rape culture once and for all from the society. What is stopping us? What is the role of the media here? What are the roles of the media reporters here? Why are government and non-government organisations not involved that much in addressing the issue?
We see various groups and political parties evincing their interests in the verdicts on war crimes - we ask why? Our friends say that issue has significance in the contexts of our freedom and democracy. We cannot enjoy our freedom when our mothers and sisters and daughters are being raped on a regular basis. The definition of 'Freedom' loses its meaning.
Another question is why it has to be always women in our society left at risk of getting raped, hijacked, dragged under a car, battered mercilessly and killed brutally. There are so called non-government development organisations in the country. They are working on women empowerment. There are women leaders in the government as well as in the opposition, and also we have a woman Speaker in the parliament.
Still we are not in a state to provide safety and security to our women while we claim that we have empowered women in the community.

Kevin S Boiragi is MA1 at the Department of Geography, York University, Toronto, Canada and Pamelia Kahaled is a Doctoral Candidate in Curriculum Studies and Teacher Development at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto