Despite political strife, poverty and natural disasters, Bangladesh takes pride in having many women in top leadership positions, including the Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina.
And Bangladesh is probably the only country in the Islamic world where more girls go to school than the boys.
A majority of the 4 million workers in the US$25 billion garment industry are women.
However, it is not all good news when it comes to female empowerment.
Many Bangladeshi women are routinely denied their rights, equality and justice.
Humiliation and denial of justice
A recent upsurge in rape, ongoing harassment of victims and denial of justice constitute the ugly side of what on many levels is still a male-dominated society.
Violence and sexual crimes against women can be met with apathy and vilification by members of the public and the state.
A recent rape case underscored the scale and gravity of the problem. In March, two young university students were allegedly raped by Shafaat Ahmed and two of his friends in a Dhaka hotel during Shafaat's birthday party. His driver and bodyguard allegedly held the women at gunpoint and filmed the entire incident.
Fearing the social stigma associated with rape, and claimed threats from the culprits, the women kept silent for weeks, but went to police when they could no longer bear the torment.
Initially, police refused to register the case when the identities of the alleged rapists were revealed. Shafaat is the son of the owner of a top gold trading company, Apan Jewelers. It was only after a public outcry and street protests that police accepted charges and the accused men were arrested.
A clash of classes
Even though in this case there was an angry public reaction to the rape, the names and photos of the victims were posted on social media, despite it being illegal to do so. Some people tried to portray the victims as "bad girls," who went to a night party wearing "revealing clothes." Even worse, they were accused of trying to extort money by filing the case.
Despite, reported confessions, doctors failed to establish forensic evidence, citing the time that had elapsed between the alleged attack and it being reported to police.
It now appears unlikely that the victims will get justice despite the trauma they have gone through.
Many police investigations and court procedures are so lengthy that poor victims compromise with offenders out of court, avoiding public humiliation.
Until 2010, rape investigations required victims to undergo a ridiculous "two-finger" medical test. To do the test, a doctor would put two fingers into female genitalia to determine whether the victim was "used to" sexual intercourse or not. It was nonsense because for a married woman, for example, the test might well be positive without having any bearing on whether she was raped or not.
The test was so humiliating that some women activists termed it "second rape." The controversial test was scrapped after a court verdict, and a series of objections from rights' groups.
Rape can be portrayed as a "loss of honor" for a girl or woman. In 2013, a schoolgirl, aged 14, was gang-raped over several days. The crime went unreported for weeks because the family tried to keep the girl in hiding to prevent it becoming widely known that she had lost her her virginity.
This girl recovered from the physical trauma after a period, but it seemed all but inevitable that she will face a lifelong social stigma.
Disturbing figures
Rights group Ain-O-Salish Kendra recorded 93 reported rapes, 21 attempted rapes and five cases of murder after rape from January to March, while the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association estimates 3,992 women were victims of rape between 2010 and 2014.
Children are not spared. A total of 446 children were victims of rape and 48 were gang raped, while 21 were murdered after rape, according to the Bangladesh Child Rights Forum.
The rate of trials and punishment of rapists is very low.
Figures from the government-run One Stop Crisis Center, which provides medical, legal and police support for female victims of violence, show 4,361 rape cases were filed with police between 2001 and 2017, of which only 578 cases completed trials and in 68 cases offenders were punished.
Most sexual and other forms of violence go unreported and justice is often denied. Attackers can wield immense social, political and financial influence.
Patriarchal society
In many rural families, a daughter is rarely considered equal to a boy and is often provided with fewer opportunities for education. She is taught not to go outside home alone and never after dusk.
In most cases, the parents of a girl choose a husband for her even if she is under 18 years of age or not wishing to marry. In Bangladesh, one in every three girls marries before 15, and 64 percent of girls get married before they reach 18, making them vulnerable to 'marital rape.'
Child marriage has been a major driving factor behind domestic and sexual violence in marriage. Instead of battling child marriage, the government this year amended the child marriage law, to allow marriage of girls under 18 in "special circumstances" like rape and teen pregnancy. In other words, it legalizes child marriage and even sexual violence such as rape.
Many men, by virtue of marriage, believe that they have unlimited access to their wife's body. Yet, sexual violence or rape in marriage is not considered an offense and is hardly ever talked about.
Often violence against women is seen as a correcting tool. People think a woman was abused because she had done something wrong. Many conclude that a woman was raped because she dared to move about alone or wore "revealing clothes," thus inviting the rape.
In order to eliminate violence against women, especially sexual violence and rape, Bangladesh needs to implement major change.
It must start from the family, with both boys and girls having equal rights and opportunities. Families need to teach their sons to respect women, instead of telling girls what to wear or restricting their movements.
When a woman faces violence, people need to stand up to ensure justice for her, instead taking the side of the culprit.
The state needs to realize rape is no petty crime, but a serious human rights violation. It needs to empower law enforcement agencies and the judiciary further, so that no sexual offender is spared or allowed to repeat their crime.
A humane society is possible only if women have equal rights and are protected from all forms of violence.
END
