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Sexism: An obstruction for better Bangladesh

Published : Thursday, 24 December, 2020 at 12:00 AM  Count : 457

Sexism: An obstruction for better Bangladesh

Sexism: An obstruction for better Bangladesh

A couple of weeks ago, a video of a girl smoking in public place went viral in social media. Smoking publicly is prohibited in Bangladesh for all, not only for girls. Despite that, why it should be a girl who is underestimated and offended publicly for smoking? Is it not more of sexism than of a protest against irregularities?

"As I commute every day, I see dozens of men smoking publicly on the streets but not once have I ever heard of any man being harassed for doing so. Conversely, how many women do you see smoking outside publicly- very few. A women being attacked on the streets merely because of smoking just reveals the ugly truth of misogynistic society where women are still subjected to sexists and unpleasant taunts whereas a man gets a free pass for the same incident." said Mrs Tanzila Rahman Anita, a finance expert in Bangladesh.

Smoking is contraband for both men and women. And when it comes to a young educated couple who is going to be the future leaders, this is unexpected from them to violate such laws. But at the same time, this is not something to be exaggerated as has occurred in the social media.

More noticeably, it has nothing to do with any specific gender. The incident of making a girl viral is certainly ridiculous. "It is quite common to pin the blame on women, which is one of the key factors that have fuelled gender discrimination in this society Thousands of people have sacrificed their lives for the freedom of this country but ironically the bitter truth is that this liberty applies to only certain fraction of society as women are not free to make their own choices without being stereotyped by others" Mrs Anita added.

Admittedly, these kinds of incidents not only imply the prejudice prevailed in our society around women and girls, but also indicates something beyond that. As a result, it represents the long existing sexism in the country. Yelling at a couple where one was smoking unveils that. Then again, does this indicate that citizens are now more conscious than ever before? Magnifying little issues cannot hint something closer to that unfortunately because it impacts on someone psychologically.

It is conspicuously more of an interruption of the privacy of the girl than protesting against the violation of law. So, this kind of gender stereotypical binaries has little to do to make any meaningful decision of our country and society as a whole. People have got no rights to offend others and affecting their privacy making them viral for nothing. What if it causes the girl lots of unnecessary suffering?

Isn't it more important to bring other severe form of irregularities into spotlight? Did anyone make  OC Pradip or Shahed viral before they had been revealed by the journalists and police? The answer is simple-no. Nevertheless, the number of people running after identifying women's fault is endless while they often overlook mountains of corruptions in society.

However, don't they realize they are implicitly creating an unequal world by stereotyping women? Should they be termed as 'toxic'? Probably yes, because the economic growth is made by not only the men but also the women. For example in RMG sector, almost half of the labours are women. And they are substantially contributing towards the economy. A fair share of profit of GDP growth is generated from the RMG sector persistently.

Undoubtedly, multiplying mistakes when they are made by women is an absolute foolishness. Mistakes can be made by any gender. Why it should be highlighted only in terms of women and girls? Women's participation in all key stages is inevitable in order to ensure a gender equal Bangladesh. In fact, women are playing a very crucial role to represent Bangladesh in the outside world.

If I take the role of a woman into account in moving Bangladesh forward, it can be observed that our Honourable Prime Minister, Speaker of the Parliament and the Education Minister are also women, who are leading Bangladesh from the front and setting an excellent example of sound leadership.

Sexism: An obstruction for better Bangladesh

Sexism: An obstruction for better Bangladesh

In addition to it, cricket is arguably the most popular game in Bangladesh without any doubt. Mysteriously, it's not the men's cricket team, but the women's cricket team who have first won any ICC trophy defeating India in T-20 world cup.

Ironically, the incident that took place around the girl who was smoking publicly is not a sign of consciousness but a sign of long existing sexism in Bangladesh. Bullying women every now and then, assaulting them and stereotyping them have been a very common scenario as of late. But this could lead Bangladesh to an unequal Bangladesh resulting in least prosperous Bangladesh.

Even though it has been 50 years of independence, women and girls are not still safe outside, nor are they free from being bullied and assaulted. Hence, it is worth pondering are they independent in this country or 'in-dependent'? Nelson Mandela once told, "Freedom cannot be achieved unless women have been emancipated from all kinds of oppression." Forming a better society is, therefore, necessitates fair treatment of women and girls.

Who should play the key role to get rid of this heinous issue? Regrettably government alone has little to do to address this problem. Instead, it's the people who should ensure prodigious effort in making a gender-equal Bangladesh rather than stereotyping women and thus limiting country's overall progress.

It's time to change our mindset towards women and girls. Let the seed of a better Bangladesh be planted by not tagging women as women, but labelling 'women' as 'we are men'-we are all men beyond any gender identity; and hence, a batter Bangladesh is possible only by collaboration not by competition between men and women. We are heading towards a New Year, but let's start the New Year with a new mindset: we are as stronger as our female counterparts are, and as vulnerable as our females are; we will collaborate, not compete with each other.
Mahde Hassan is a student, Department of English,  
East West University









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