Tackling violence against women

We fully share the sentiments of our sisters who are demanding justice for those women victims of violence for whom justice has remained a distant dream. It is astonishing that only a handful of 2 lakh cases of violence against women filed between 2002 and 2013 have been cleared till now. And what better way than to ventilate their grievances at the slow progress of these cases than holding a demonstration on February 14 with the theme, "Demanding Justice" under the banner of "Uddome Uttorone Shotokoti." While we would like to assure the organisers that they are not alone in their effort to establish rights of women we would suggest that they focus on the entire gamut of the issue of violence against women while invoking the help of the highest judiciary.We would like to flag an important aspect of the issue, as we have done in the past, that to combat the menace of violence against women and girls we need a collective approach straddling the supposed gender barrier. Unfortunately, the system in Bangladesh is heavily weighted against women. And it needs both systemic and attitudinal change, in the collective psyche of the male-dominated society that takes the matter of men dominating women as not only given but also a fait accompli, to tackle the problem. That, along with strident measures to deal with the perpetrators of violence against women can ensure that the phenomenon is done away with for good.