Love, sex and the position of women in Bangladesh

Love, sex and the position of women in Bangladesh


Dhaka , Bangladesh, September 25 — Sex and love are forces that, every day, lead to new problems and new possibilities around the world. In male-dominated societies, like in Bangladesh, women can often be treated as sexual objects. Women experience sexual harassment, abduction, rape, and even murder. The natural desire for sex and love has brought women unknown misery. The fact is, when a woman gets raped, it is not the woman who has sex, but the man who was the active person having sex; yet, in Bangladesh, all the shame goes to the woman. The woman is the one who is suppressed by sexual violence, and who may experience depression afterward, but the man is unaffected.

Sri Guru Granth Sahib said, “Sexual desire and anger are diffused throughout the universe. Coming and going, people suffer in pain.” Religion strictly limits people's mentality and behavior, especially in the Subcontinent.

The major world religions have a strongly conservative stance on sex and love. The Bible starts with the complex idea of humankind's beginning and how the first man, Adam, was satisfied after seeing his mate, Eve. This is how the religion materialized the woman, the religion brings Adam as an adult and eve as tolls of an adult and their main responsibility was to populate the world. This is how the most of the other religion have their own way to treat woman as a sexual tool of reproduction and pleasure.

Bangladesh is heading towards an increase of crimes against women and children that is highly related with sex and sexuality. Crimes are the direct result of the mentalities of the criminals. While most people argue that the number of people who commit crimes are smaller than the number of people who oppose crimes, this remains an open question: why does this majority, which outnumbers the criminals, fail to bring an end to crimes against women and children? Why is it that, every day, the newspaper continues to have headlines like, “A juvenile girl raped by an imam in rural Bangladesh”? Some people argue that a criminal's mentality can be improved through the practice of religion, but, historically, religions have failed to inspire man enough to keep him from committing sexual violence.

In Bangladesh, the conservative religion of Islam dominates the lives of the majority of people and leads the nation into chaos and towards an increase in sexual crime. Islam's views on sex and sexuality are the main tools used to propagate the Islamic demonization that objectifies women; as the Hadith says, "The right of the husband is that when he calls his wife to have sex, she should not deny him herself." (Tialissi).

The root of the problem is society's mentality; it’s not only the mentality of man, but society's understanding of woman that needs to become more positive, especially in regard to violence related to sex and love. Many special laws have been introduced and many criminals were sentenced to death, but, in the end, there has been a failure in deterring sexual crimes.

We need to dig out the rotten root of religions that inspire men to be inhumane towards women. We need a global revival to create a free and fearless world for women, and then the day will come when we will be able live in peace together as men and women.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said “Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, and it is to be humble.” We need to bring forth the religion that inspires us to think and live as human beings, rather than simply as men or as women.