Against an ideal setting of Bangladeshi tradition, one can picture a Bengali belle coyly smiling, peeping out of her Ghumta---the headpiece of her saree. She is the emblem of shyness, and shyness is considered the essence of her beauty. From the time of the Zamindars ( landlords ), women were confined to their Andar Mahal ( an inner chamber exclusively for women ) and were not allowed to to be seen by the male members of the household, Conversations would take place between a woman and a male ( other than her husband ) with a screen of partition in the middle. the honor and self-preservation of women has been the dominant role of society as the honor of the entire community lay on the actions of women. The best way that society could assure itself of protecting a woman's reputation is by confining her to her home. At home, she was the docile homemaker--the cook, childminder and her husband's comforter. Women were supposed to make themselves useful within this given space. Any effort to step outside this limitation is rebuffed by society by disowning her. Women have often been cowered into submission not to question their status in society. The outcome was not only her confinement to her home, but her vulnerabillity to exploitations.
'Marrying Off ' a Girl
A girl child is often looked upon as a burden by her family and there is a rush to take off her responsibility as soon as possible. In poverty-stricken house, parents find the pressure of protecting a girl's 'purity' too overwhelming. This result in child marriages. It comes as a relief to the parents to find just about anyone to pass over their daughter's responsibility. But child marriages is neither a relief nor an escape. In many cases, the young brides are trafficked to neighboring countries or forced into prostitution. For many an unfortunate girl, the husband turns out to be a local brothel owner or a trafficker. Almost in all cases, dowry becomes a crucial issue and it is rather common for a young girl to be returned from her husband's house, sometimes pregnant.
The Curse of Dowry
The system of dowry which requires the parents of the bride to give the bridegroom cash or commodities further weakens the position of women. It is a way of compensating the bridegroom with expensive gifts or cash for taking on the burden of their daughter. The dowry system regards the girl as a commodity. It is a way of encouraging a man to get married for the sake of money alone. If a girl's parents cannot meet the dowry requirements of the groom's family, it is inevetable for the girl to suffer from brutal physical abuse at her in-laws.
The Shunned Victim
One of the tremendous ironies of society is its rejection of a woman who has been wronged. When a woman is sexually abused, society is quick to turn its back on her while the abuser gets on with his life, let alone be brought to justice. Instead, society turns its vengeance on the victims, as their reputation has been tarnished. Swapna, for instance, is an orphan from a very poor family. When she was eleven, her cousin Shoeb forced her to have sex, threatening to kill her if she didn't. He promised to marry her. when she became pregnant, Shoeb ran away. The village lawmakers fined himTk 40,000 of which only 10,000 was paid. It was too late to have an abortion, and Swapna left her baby at the Dhaka Clinic soon after its birth. Swapna now lives with her brother's family. within the family, ahe is made to feel "cheap and dirty". She is known as a "bad girl". Mothers don't let their daughters mix with her. She does not go out of the house. She has no friends. Shoeb recently got married, but nobody wants to marry Swapna. After all, 'Swapna is a girl and for a girl her physical purity is everything'. Swapna's aunt feels that the village lawmakers contributed to Swapna's wretched situation by making the matter public and leaving her reputation tarnished.
Street girls who are sexually harassed and raped give up after a certain stage. They know that society is not sympathetic to their situation and is not willing to reintegrate them into its community. After a painful realization, these young girls earn a living out of the way they are exploited. By the time they are taken into shelter homes, it is already too late. There is no willingness on their part to get a new lease of life after they have been conditioned by the ways of an opportunist, selfish world.
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