Ah, the great debacle of this century. Is Feminism still relevant today? seems to be the question of a disturbingly large number of people. Some even go so far as to ask “Has feminism gone too far?”
Women complaining about their sufferings, the injustice they face every day, at the top of their lungs- isn’t believable enough for some unforeseen reason.
So, we shall look at some shocking and eye-catching stats in a bit.
It’s true not everyone in the world is affected by sexism in the same way or in the same volume. But in no part of the world have we been lucky enough to have feminism rendered completely or even remotely obsolete.
Unfortunately, Bangladesh isn’t anywhere on the greener side of the scenario and this is not an opinion. The country is ranked 119th in the Gender Inequality Index and 72th in the Global Gender Gap Index.
Let’s take a very brief look at a few of the most vital issues violating women‘s rights.
Violence Against Women
According to the VAW survey of 2011, 87% of currently married women have experienced some form of violence by their husbands and 77% have experienced so during the last 12 months from the time the survey was conducted.
65% of women have reported having experienced physical violence by their current husbands and more than 50% have received medical treatment as a consequence. About 36.5% of the respondents have reported having been subjected to some form of sexual violence by their current husbands. One-fourth of women had experienced such violence within the last 12 months which suggests such incidents are not a thing of the past.
Contrary to popular belief, Bangladeshi women suffer greatly from psychological violence by their husbands, as over 80% have reported having experienced it in their lifetime with 72% in the past 12 months. About 50% of ever-married women have experienced economic violence sometimes in their lifetime, while one third experienced it in the past 12 months.
50% of urban respondents and more than 40% of women on average expressed that they had been pressured into having sex, which is rape, at age 14 or below. 77.8% of women revealed that they had been first raped at age 19 and below.
Child Marriage
Despite Bangladesh having the minimum legal age of marriage (18 for females and 21 for males), the country still has the highest rate of child marriage in Asia. In Bangladesh, 59% of women are married before the age of 18 and 22% are married before reaching the age of 15.
The good news is the child marriage rate for the world is decreasing. The bad news is, despite that, the child marriage rate in Bangladesh is set to increase.
Laws Against Women
Firstly, Section 10 of the 2000 Act titled “Penalty for Sexual Harassment” doesn’t include provisions for what constitutes sexual harassment. This ambiguity is exploited by perpetrators.
On February 27, 2017, Bangladesh parliament introduced a law that virtually sets the legal age of marriage to zero. In a disastrous setback for the country, this law acts as a loophole and permits girls under the age of 18 to marry under “special circumstances,” with permission from their parents and a court. With existing laws not being exercised properly, this vague law provides further scope for exploitation.
Men Need Feminism Too
Feminism acknowledges the humane side of men and allows them to escape toxic masculinity. It also highlights the very important issues of male sexual assault. These things are of crucial importance in ensuring the well being of men.So, feminism does hold utilities for men, yes.
But, feminism still is to be centralized around women. It is not necessary for it to be beneficial for men for it to have permission to exist. That beats the whole point of it.
Is Feminism a War Against Men?
It’s truly tragic that a movement for women became so misunderstood that it’s still thought to be about men.
No, it’s certainly not a war against men.
If you are someone who’s actively or passively enforcing patriarchy, it’s a war against you- a man. If the majority of the male race is actively or passively oppressing women – it’s a war against men as a class.
Does this mean it’s a war against every individual man? No, it doesn’t. If you are someone who feels attacked and gets offended when a woman is expressing her feelings or speaking up about her sufferings, you are shifting the attention from the issue. As you have failed to understand that it’s not about you, maybe don’t be surprised if you get some heat in your general direction.
But Not All Men, Right?
Not every individual man has committed crimes against women, that’s very true.
However, if you choose to remain silent and not call out the men who did commit those crimes, I don’t see how you have the scope to complain about being stereotyped.
If the only representatives of men are going to be the ones being both active and passive agents of patriarchy, and not actively using their privileges to demolish it, then maybe that’s how men as a class will be perceived largely.
We Support Feminists and Not “Feminazis”!
It’s probably not logical to brand women you feel threatened by “feminazi” in an attempt to undermine her voice or experience.
There’s this tendency to use Begum Rokeya as the poster-child for “an acceptable amount of feminism”. This notion is gravely misdirected.
The things Begum Rokeya was doing back in her days were considered extremely radical. She dared to bring young Muslim girls out of their homes defying “porda” . This was unspeakable and consequently, she faced a mountain of backlash.
She was also a savage™ who mercilessly roasted everyone starting from Tagore to British imperialism.
There isn’t anything remotely “traditional “ about her. So, before condemning her successors from today for being “too extreme”, “ too radical “, saying they’re not helping anything by being “difficult”, we should do well to remember substantial and sustainable change can’t be brought with making sure every stakeholder is “comfortable “.
False Accusations
False accusations are truly terrible but according to a study conducted in the US in 2010, only 2-10% of the rape accusations are actually proven to be fabricated. In many instances, investigations fail to prove the occurrence of an incident of sexual assault. Moreover, only 35% of sexual assaults are reported to the police, the US Bureau of Justice Statistics states.
Hence even the previously stated figure is probably not dependable.
The 10MS Fiasco
I think few are lucky enough to be ignorant of the recent incident regarding the popular educational platform 10 Minutes School and the religious extremists of this country. Many insights, opinions, and speculations flooded our newsfeeds and no doubt, much much more may have gone down behind the scenes. In the midst of this confusion, it’s safe to infer that 10MS was forced to take down their videos regarding menstruation and consent, both of which are very much feminist issues.
A certain group of people was demanding these videos be removed as apparently they were spreading “anti-Islamic western propaganda”.
Menstruation is a biological process that women go through and consent is the basic idea that every human has a right to control their personal space and what happens with them. If even in 2020, when the world is possibly on the verge of destruction, these basic things are vilified to the extent people receive overwhelming amounts of death threats for talking about them- feminism has a long way to go.
How Can You Help?
Instead of getting offended by supposed “generalization” maybe try to go after the men that are giving you a bad rep.
Try to acknowledge the unfair privileges you were given and use those privileges to amplify the voices of the women demanding justice. This is not to be confused with inferring sexism in your own way and completely ignoring what the victims are actually voicing. The trick is to not make it about yourself.
Some Takeaways
If you are a male who doesn’t rape, sexually assault, or subject women to any other kinds of violence or disturbance- I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news but that’s how normal people behave. You are not deserving of glorification for this simple and easy feat.
If you are a man, please have the decency to not give the verdict “equality has been achieved” or “feminism is not necessary”. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, you benefit from the system of oppressing women. You are in no position to decide if this system has been abolished or if it’s harmful. You are not supposed to be affected by it and just because you are not affected by something, doesn’t mean it’s not harmful.
If I were to summarize this entire article to make sure the message doesn’t go unnoticed because of my questionable writing quality, it would be- “Human rights are not up for debate”.
In conclusion, I think It’s absolutely great that it’s 2020 and the world is possibly ending and I still have to explain that my rights are not up for debate by presenting a researched and (hopefully) well-crafted argumentative document.
