Will you still cheer when it is your sister?

I have come to believe that, in this country, the easiest thing for a man to do is beat a woman. And that too just about any woman, whether it is his own wife, a stranger on the street, any woman. He can do it behind closed doors or out in the open. Not just that, many believe it's their right to beat.

Yes, in today's Bangladesh, a man who assaults a woman in public doesn't just walk away unpunished. He's often hailed as a "real hero". And if you think I'm exaggerating, just look at what happened last night at the Munshiganj river terminal.

A 35-second video, now viral on social media, showed two women dragged out of a launch cabin by a man named Nehal Ahmed Jihad. He proceeds to whip them forcefully and repeatedly with a belt in front of over a hundred people.

And what did that crowd do? They cheered. They clapped. They filmed the assault on their mobile phones. They hurled obscenities at the women while standing there grinning, as if they were watching a street performance. That belt wasn't just in Jihad's hands—it was held by every pair of eyes that stared and did nothing, it was held by the silent men who stood by pretending they saw nothing.

Thirteen times that belt struck. Thirteen times a mob celebrated. Last night, Jihad didn't just assault two women—he instilled fresh terror in every woman of this country, the same terror that has kept them trapped within the so-called safety of four walls. He reminded them, yet again, why women hesitate before stepping outside, why every journey comes with the question: "Will I be safe?" And for this act, Jihad received a hero's applause, and society didn't just witness his crime—it endorsed it.

Let us be very clear. What Jihad delivered last night wasn't a lesson for women—it was a threat. A loud, violent threat that says, "Stay silent, stay home, or suffer the consequences." And what about the authorities? As always, the police did nothing initially although Jihad had assaulted two women in broad daylight (figuratively), on camera, in front of countless witnesses. While there has been an arrest, one can't help but wonder if even that would have happened without the strong reaction on social media.

It's time we stop asking why this keeps happening. The real question is: Why are we still silent? Why do we tolerate a society where violence against women is not just normalised, but celebrated? Unless we stand up today, unless we hold the perpetrators along with the cheering mobs accountable, tomorrow it could be our daughters, our sisters, our mothers standing helpless before such a crowd, while we turn our faces away in shame.

I refuse to believe that this is the Bangladesh we fought for. And if we don't fight this culture of violence and impunity today, there may not be a safe tomorrow left for the women of this country.