Umama Fatema, a student of Kabi Sufia Kamal Hall, Dhaka University, and spokesperson for the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, talks to Naznin Tithi of The Daily Star.

In the past six months, we have seen that the state has completely failed to ensure the safety of women. If the increased oppression of women in society is seen merely as a deterioration in overall law and order, it will only exacerbate their insecurity. Instead, the question of women's safety needs to be addressed with special importance because 50 percent of our population are women, and they are being targeted specifically because of their gender. Whether it's harassment on the streets or the rape of young children, these incidents have increased to an alarming level.

Clearly, many are taking advantage of the deteriorating law and order situation and assaulting and sexually harassing women and girls across the country. However, the government could have taken initiatives to ensure justice in these cases. It could have made an effort to address violence against women and cyberbullying that took place previously. Sadly, the government has been evading its responsibility by putting the blame on the worsening law and order situation. I believe that the current situation has arisen because of a lack of action taken against the perpetrators in previous cases. The situation will likely worsen further in the future if the government does not take responsibility for this.

We have formed a platform named Dhorshon Birodhi Moncho, protesting this situation and demanding justice. We have gone around our university campus calling upon all students to come and join us. Together, we have announced this platform. Our aim is to spread this movement across Bangladesh. We want the students of every university and general citizens of the country to take a stand against persistent violence against women, demanding justice for the rape incidents and proper steps from the government to remove the insecurity faced by women in general. We want to move forward collectively with our demands.

Although women played a significant role in the mass uprising of July 2024, their voices have now become secondary. Whenever women raise their voices about their rights, they are subjected to violence and given various labels. Due to such "tagging," the voices of women have become weaker. We want to make it clear that no matter how much tagging, bullying, or oppression we face, we will stand firm in our demand and end violence against women once and for all. If we, as women, do not raise our voices collectively, no one will come and change the situation for us; no one will come to secure our rights for us. We must unite and make our voices heard.

If women's political participation increases, their opinions will gain importance in policymaking. Greater inclusion of women in politics would also foster sensitivity towards gender issues. However, if women are included in politics merely as tokens, they hold no power within their parties. Even though women hold reserved seats in the government, they often lack importance. Therefore, we do not see any genuine representation of women's voices in the government. Within the existing power structure of Bangladesh, women are still considered secondary. As a result, issues like violence against women, sexual harassment, and rape are not given much importance by the state. A major reason for this is that the state is not sensitive enough towards these issues, nor are its policymakers. So, they do not view these issues as important; they consider them a secondary matter.

We are currently holding protests to demand justice for the existing incidents of sexual violence in society, including the rape of an 8-year-old child from Magura and other cases. Additionally, we are calling for amendments to the existing rape laws.

Follow The Daily Star Opinion on Facebook for the latest opinions, commentaries, and analyses by experts and professionals. To contribute your article or letter to The Daily Star Opinion, see our submission guidelines.