FOR 16-year-old Rabeya* living in a small city in Sylhet, the introduction of the web used to be a blessing in lots of approaches. With strict dad and mom who didn't permit her to head out of the condominium on my own, she used to be pleased to have access to a different world where there was once nobody overseeing her interactions or telling her what to do. Before long, she developed a relationship with a man who claimed to be working in a financial institution in Dhaka, with whom she shared intimate important points of her existence. After a number of months of chatting, he demanded that she send him express photos of herself. When she refused, his whole demeanour in the direction of her transformed; he started to send her incredibly inappropriate pictures and movies and make derogatory feedback about her look and persona. As Rabeya tried to dam and delete him from his buddy list, he threatened to name her mothers and fathers and inform them what a “whore” she used to be.
The portraits, threats and calls grew to be extra common and extra offensive as days handed, and with nobody to ask for aid, a traumatised and scared Rabeya, who blamed herself for it all, finally reached her breaking factor and tried suicide.
Despite the fact that she survived, the episode left a deep scar in Rabeya; she developed a distrust of each person around her and persevered to endure from clinical despair. Her parents, upon studying what had occurred, forcefully married her off to a person 10 years older than her.
Incidents like this – and far worse – take place in Digital Bangladesh day-to-day. A disproportionate quantity of ladies and women who use digital structures are littered with some form of cyber harassment over their lifetime. But in a country where sexual violence of the most seen varieties in public spaces, properties and workplaces go unpunished, incidents of cyber sexual harassment and/or cyber bullying are infrequently publicly highlighted by means of victims, activists or lawmakers, or mentioned to the police.
What does cyber sexual harassment appear like?
Cyber sexual harassment can variety from lewd comments on facebook and Twitter to importing a girl's image on a public discussion board with out her consent, from exhibition of unwanted sexual attention to distribution of pornographic substances online. The harassers are not always whole strangers, however can also be friends or pals from off-line social interactions.
“once I used to be doing my O stages, there was once this team of four-5 boys who appreciated me at the same time. That they had all requested me out separately however I wasn't interested. They made up our minds to take revenge with the aid of taking my picture on MSN, photoshopping a naked body to my face and sending it to each person in the class, and to my brother,” says Nawsheen Zaman*, a young professional. “The photograph seemed so actual that my brother just about threw up. I couldn't go to category for roughly two weeks after that seeing that every person known as me a slut and made enjoyable of the whole factor. One among them additionally threatened to ship the image to my father and mother if I didn't reply his calls at all times. In addition they opened a false fb account with those pix.”
When such incidents occur, most girls do not document it to the school authorities or tell their households for worry that they'd be blamed, and their characters wondered. In a nation where intercourse is a taboo topic, some are too embarrassed to convey up the obstacle with elders or even their same-age cousins, and are left to take care of the harassment – or the subsequent trauma precipitated by way of it – themselves. They don't seem to be conscious of the types of dangers they are uncovered to online, or of the authorized and institutional support that are on hand to them (if any).
Rita Haq*, pupil of sophistication IX, talks about why she never shared her story of harassment with someone: “I used to Skype with an in depth male buddy who used to be dwelling at UK. Someday, I don't know if he was under the influence of alcohol, however he became on his digital camera and he used to be naked, displaying me his factor! I could not tell someone about it. We had many normal buddies and that i used to be afraid that men and women would exaggerate and say dangerous matters about me. Probably they might have said I had engaged in cyber intercourse.”
The dissemination of portraits of a lady without her consent has come to be a pervasive type of sexual harassment. These is also explicit images or videos that have been shared with a boyfriend, that are then circulated once the connection turns sour, or profile portraits which might be taken out of context and put in exclusive disreputable web sites.
A vocal younger females's rights activist says, “there's a facebook web page with an extremely offensive title. Any individual (a fake profile) took portraits of me, from distinct areas – buddy's albums, my own profile photographs, pics from public routine – and posted them on the page. My friends and i have tried to get facebook to take the web page down, and eliminate the graphics, however they've continually spoke back that the page does not wreck any of their group principles, although the page as a rule has pornographic pictures on it. I decided to quit after sometime.”
Sexual harassment online that most in most cases goes unheeded is offensive feedback and images distinctive towards targeted women or women most often, in most cases to position them “in their position”. After the sexual assault incident(s) in TSC on Pahela Baishakh, we witnessed a horde of such remarks, together with public proclamations that women must be raped. Take for instance, the publish of a user named Arefin Ahmed Shehim, who, implying that the ladies deserved much more than groping, wrote: “i will openly rape you [girls] on the streets. I feel in direct motion… as long as you show [your skin] we will be able to contact you.” On photos of a prominent young leftist activist, people left images of penis, explicit photoshopped photos and comments that are so appalling that they can not be repeated on a national daily. “this is how Shibir should f*** her” underneath a manipulated photograph was among the many extra “civilised” of posts.
Female bloggers and writers who're vocal on social issues and women's rights at the moment are being targeted peculiarly for their views, with entire on-line businesses ganging up on one girl. The editor of feminist blog, WomenChapter, says that her whole fb wall two days ago was once inundated with offensive feedback utilizing the “F” phrase in retaliation to a couple of her posts. “i do know who the humans are but in a country where police beat activists protesting sexual assaults, what justice am i able to expect?”
Reporting cyber sexual harassment most likely, ladies feel that reporting the incidents would no longer convey them any justice; instead, it might supply upward thrust to intrusive questions about her persona and carry shame to her and her family. If the incidents are of a much less extreme nature (such as offensive comments on facebook), they think that authorities would brush aside them as insignificant.
“we do not typically get cases of cyber sexual harassment, and even in the rare situations that we do, ultimately, ladies don't want to go to court, for worry of societal and institutional discrimination,” says Salma Ali, the manager Director of Bangladesh national woman attorneys organization (BNWLA).
Nina Goswami, Senior Deputy Director, Mediation and rapid Response Unit of Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), notes that females have to undergo further victimisation and harassment when they try to document or file cases. For instance, if a girl goes to the police with complaints that specific portraits of her are being disseminated, the police (may just) look extra serious about listening to the main points of her relationship and ogling at the snap shots than in helping her.
In the meantime, even though a woman is courageous sufficient to document the crime, it doesn't mean that justice will prevail finally. Barrister Sara Hossain, Honorary Director of Bangladesh authorized support and services trust (BLAST), offers the instance of a feminine school pupil who filed a case both with the police and told the tuition. “Astonishingly, the university expelled the girl, claiming that they have been in possession of obscene portraits of her carrying out immoral activities. The case went to the excessive courtroom, and eventually the excessive court docket, in a bench headed by way of a 'revolutionary' choose, located in opposition to the lady on the basis that she had consented to having her pics taken at one point in time,” she feedback. “What the court failed to note was once that even as she may just or won't have consented to the relationship initially, and might also have consented to images of her being taken for their personal use even as they had been in a relationship, she had by no means consented to the distribution of the snap shots in public.”
Entrenched patriarchal attitudes of institutions that are supposed to preserve women from such harassment mean that ladies shy far from seeking redress. Additionally, regulation enforcement corporations commonly would not have the technical information or the political will to address cases of cyber sexual harassment.
Nina Goswami states that in many instances it can be problematic to establish the perpetrators as they use false profiles and addresses. The police are rarely valuable in tracking them, she provides.
Nevertheless, if regulation enforcers can hint men and women from throughout the county for making derogatory comments about the top Minister online, then it follows that they have the capability to take action for other threats, together with from sexual harassers. No legislation enforcement company, nonetheless, as of now, displays content on the web to identify cyber sexual harassers proactively. Handiest when circumstances are filed (if then) do they transfer ahead.
On April 21, two Supreme courtroom legal professionals filed a normal diary with the Banani Police Station towards Arefin Ahmed Shehim for the put up highlighted above declaring that he would rape any lady who suggests skin.
With social media inundated with such messages, the lawyers state they desired to inspire different residents to take authorized movements in opposition to the perpetrators as a substitute of simply elevating their voices on social media.
“brazenly threatening rape and inciting others to take part in rape are crook acts that can and need to be brought to justice,” says one SC lawyer.
When contacted on could 14, Banani Thana OC Bhuiyan Mahbub Hasan advised that “investigation used to be underway” and that they have been working with the DB to identity the perpetrator. He added that he was once now not beneath liberty to disclose the development they had made because it would “impede” the investigation.
Stating that this was once the first time a cyber sexual harassment crime had been mentioned to his Thana, he promised that each one such cases would be dealt with in an efficient and sensitive manner. “we can use our pleasant IT experts to resolve these circumstances,” he delivered.
Rights activists urge affected ladies to break the silence and record such instances. Salma Ali asserts that human rights firms would do the whole lot of their energy to defend ladies's privacy, conducting the lawsuits in a closed courtroom and making sure that they don't must endure additional harassment from state associations.
Are existing laws adequate?
Legal gurus be aware that circumstances may also be filed under the prevailing women and kids Repression Prevention Act 2000 (amended 2003), understanding and Communications technological know-how (ICT) Act 2006 and Pornography manipulate Act 2012. However, there is not any complete law or section adequately coping with sexual harassment in social media and different digital structures.
“The problem is that our laws have not been easily updated to handle offences that use digital media, and our proof laws are still so archaic that they don't allow to be used of electronic evidence,” argues Sara.
Section 57 of the ICT Act states that any one can be penalised for “any false and obscene posts online” for a highest of 10 years and maximum excellent of 1 crore. Nevertheless, it does now not define what constitutes “obscene”.
She notes, “only one or two instances have been filed using the ICT Act for online sexual harassment. As to why the law is not being used to handle such cases as diligently as it's for defamatory feedback made about religion or political figures stays a query. The police, too, do not seem to be utilising their powers to handle such hateful content.”
experts notice that legal guidelines can be utilized as soon as the crime has been dedicated, however some regulatory measures need to be put in location to prevent these crimes and hate speech from being generated on social media structures in the first place.
Bangladesh Telecommunication regulation commission (BTRC) has the authority to observe hateful content material, such as demise threats and derogatory feedback specified in opposition to precise communities. Nonetheless, they do not seem to be focusing on these problems, argues Sara. “Of direction, the question then arises: what do you prioritise extra, the instant demise threats in opposition to bloggers, for example, or the final hate speech on social media? The obstacle is that our regulators do not look to be doing either.”
it can be a nice stability between wanting more legislation of social media and wishing it to remain a free house where persons can converse their minds. “humans have to have an understanding of that freedom of speech does not mean freedom to assert hurtful and offensive matters,” says Nabila Chowdhury, a blogger.
The cyber house is an extension of the real world; as such, the jingoistic attitudes and patriarchal norms we face on a every day groundwork in private and public spaces are mirrored in the cyber domain as well. Without any safeguard or systematic help increased to female customers, Digital Bangladesh, like actual Bangladesh, will continue to be a male-dominated area where women stay prone. Writer:Sushmita S. Preetha, thedailystar