Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
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Thursday | 16 January 2025 | Epaper

When politics protect and breed rapists!

Published : Friday, 19 July, 2019 at 12:00 AM  Count : 530
Shahriar Feroze
Shahriar Feroze

Shahriar Feroze

Astonishing as it may appear, there is actually a deep rooted link between rape and the noxious political culture in today's Bangladesh. So far the two conformist reasons behind increasing rape cases in this country are - lower rate of conviction and slow, incompetent investigation of rape cases. The third, otherwise politics is a fairly new phenomenon.

Be it the victims of Madrasa student Nusrat or the nurse Tania raped on a running bus, rapes have seemingly become unstoppable.

Referring to a frightening statistics prepared by Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, earlier this month, around 942 women were raped from January to December last year. But within the last six months of the current year (January to June), the number of officially recorded rape incidents totalled to a staggering 731. Even worse, concurrent rapes against minors have doubled in the second quarter of 2019. At least 164 children were raped in the first quarter of 2019, but the rapes doubled within a short span of three months, ballooning to 332 from April to June. It is an outrageous 102% rise.

The point, however, in almost all the sensational rape cases, recorded in the last six months, politics in some way involved.

Markedly, Political affiliation of the rapists or political intervention in some way has been associated. Several media reports suggest most of the alleged rapists somehow managed to produce a political identity or were political elements of the ruling party. Either law enforcement agencies turned a blind eye or deliberately refrained from taking appropriate action against the offenders. Rapists have no political identity, and to help them get away with their crime by abusing political authority is another grave crime. Reportedly their connections with political god fathers   have protected many rapists or it was political intervention to have paced the call for justice.

Have we become a nation of rapists? This writer sings out the question with a straight "No". Then again why are rape incidents on the rise?

Ranging from moral degeneration, sexual perversion, and anger, frustration to revenge--logical explanations the psychology of rape may be wide and diversified. But how come political authority, intervention or affiliation is so widely linked with the recent rape cases taking place in Bangladesh? Why do the head of state have to intervene in resolving a rape, murder or an extra-judicial killing case?

Our politicians in power must realise, goal of politics is not merely confined within the objectives of economic and infrastructural development or to ensure higher per capita income. At a very basic level, the purpose of politics is to enable the members of a society to collectively achieve important human goals they cannot otherwise, achieve individually. This purpose is addressed through negotiation, ensuring good governance and rule of law, passing legislations through political structures. And most importantly politics guarantees safety, order and general welfare within the state.  On that note, many of you may not like to read it, Bangladesh domestic politics - directly and indirectly - protecting and breeding rapists. Moreover, the modality of rape has changed and has become diversified for the worse.

To this writer, rape is not merely physical - limiting to sexual attraction of a female body - it can also be financial, verbal and psychological. Given your strength, you can also rape your business competitor or your political rivals on respective grounds.   

And rapists of today are not only raping our sisters, daughters, mothers or wives. They are raping our public banks and financial institutions, they are raping our systematic process to obtain government jobs, and they are raping our academic institutions. Our law enforcement agencies have been politically raped to such horrendous degree, that much of the law enforcers have raped their individual morale and professional ethics.  Ex - Sonagazi OC to DIG Mizan have become textbook examples of a morally decaying law enforcement agency.  

The point here, how you decide to rape your opponent depends on your methods. And now political identity or affiliation has become a tool in this country to help you rape and get away with impunity. Moreover, conventional legal loopholes to protect a rapist are all there to aid him.

If you dig deeper, the prevailing disturbing culture of slow investigation and low rate of conviction in our rape cases is also related to the failure of our past and present political leadership in addressing essential human goals of politics.

The country can never meet its SDG or MDG goals -unless it succeeds to deter rape and punish rapists.
Know this for your convenience, numbers 3, 15 and 16 of SDG goals refers to well - being, life on land and peace, justice and strong institutions as crucial parameters to the path to sustainable development.
Has the country fulfilled any of the stated three SDG pre - conditions so far?

Thank god, I don't have a sister, wife or a daughter, but I am worried since I have an aged mother and grandmother. And rapists in this country are far beyond the customary definition of rape. Even sadder, our domestic politics and politicians have clearly failed to deal with the culture of rape and rapists.  In the end, it is the sad tale of how politics protects and breed 'rapists'.
 
The writer is assistant editor,
The Daily Observer




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