More than 300 community people, including young men and women, have taken an oath at Subarnachar in Noakhali to create a safe Upazila for women. Despite sudden stormy weather, the participants joined the dialogue event today.

This Open Dialogue was organized on Monday, December 6, 2021, at the Subarnochar Pankhar Bazar High School Premise as part of the global campaign of 16 Days of Activism. The event was jointly organized by Participatory Research Action Network- PRAAN, Nijera Kori, Bandhan in collaboration with ActionAid Bangladesh and UNFPA.

Char Jabbar Police Station Officer in Charge Ziaul Haque, Vice-Chair of Sunornochar Upazilla Salma Chowdhury, Pankhar Bazar High School Headmaster Mr. Akter Hossain Babul other that of joined the event.

Char Jabbar Police Station Officer-in-Charge Ziaul Haque, Subarnachar Upazila Vice-Chair Salma Chowdhury, and others joined the function as guests. The event was hosted by Nurul Alam Masud, Chief Executive of Participatory Research and Action Network-PRAAN.

The open dialogue began with the national anthem.

The dialogue was held between the participants and the guests with various questions and answers on the causes, actions, and remedies of the ongoing violence against women.

The participants said that dowry, child marriage is one of the main issues of violence against women in the Subronochar. It is often seen that in the case of birth registration, false registration is done with age. In the ongoing Corona epidemic, the incidence of child marriage has risen alarmingly. In many cases, with the help of the administration, the wedding arrangements was be stopped, but this formality is completed by going to the court. They also say that there is not one kind of oppression in this region, but there are many other kinds of oppression that are mostly political. It is time to question these practices. Many women do not want to sue because of the lengthy legal procedure. As a result, many are reluctant to seek legal help. They also said, “If there is any kind of violence against women, we go to the elders of the area. When they advise us to seek legal help, it was later found that no one in the area spoke during the investigation. In this case, more complications are created.’

One female participant, who did not want to be named, said that by creating a major barrier for women, the society-women are not allowed to speak. Violence, when it comes to persecution, has to be repeated, the intensity of this violence is sometimes greater than the first time.

The speakers also questioned what kind of immediate assistance the administration could provide to women if they were abused.

Mr. Akhter Hossain Babul, Headmaster of Pankhar Bazar High School, said: Many times, we have stopped child marriage with the help of police administration. But somehow the marriage took place later, in the court using affidavits. The union council has said it will not work twice if someone wants to change the age they can trace for the marriage, which has also reduced many child marriages. But overall, we lack knowledge, we need to know more about the policies, laws. In his speech, he expressed hope that the violence against women in the region would be reduced through the expansion of education initiatives, human rights, and women’s rights programs.

Salma Chowdhury, the vice-chairperson of Subarnachar Upazila Parishad, said hitting a woman means hitting the whole family. Although the contribution of women in various fields of society and family is immense, it is not recognized in that way. She called upon the administration and the people’s representatives to take refuge in any incident of violence against women.

Ziaul Haque, Char Jabbar Thana Officer-in-Charge, said that the main reason for violence against women was the inability to disclose incidents of violence. In a family where child marriage, dowry, violence, oppression takes place, there is a mother, there are other women in the family. The ignorance of these close people is also responsible for the violence against women. According to a survey, 87 percent of all violence against women is in women’s own homes. The administration must look into the legal issues, but there is no alternative to being aware of the culture of being abused in one’s own home. Regarding the completion of the marriage with an affidavit, he said that it was just a promise, not a marriage. Many times, responsible people themselves get involved in all these activities. In fact, in every aspect of a woman’s life, there is more or less violence, which we may not realize, or talk about. And as long as we don’t talk, there will be violence. We need to increase family education and social awareness to stop all forms of violence.

Nurul Alam Masud said that the number of injured in the land battle in the Subarnachar area are women, the contributions of women are remarkable. But over time, violence against women has increased rather than decreased. The discussion came up that most of the people here do not know even the hotline number here, those who do know have never used the hotline to seek legal help to stop the violence.

Landless movement leader Marina Akhter said, “Many of us are seen to be victims of torture. Even if our son tortures his wife, we do not stop him.” We have taken violence as normal. Domestic abuse, like dowry, is a product of greed. The more indulgence is given, the more it grows. To stop violence against women, women have no choice but to become self-reliant.

More than two hundred women, men, youth, civil society representatives, public representatives, development organizations working in Noakhali, NRDS, Sagarika, Dwip Unnayan Sangstha, Eso Gari Unnayan Sangstha, Pracheshta Nari Unnayan Mela, FPAB, Noakhali Women’s Rights Alliance, Gandhi Ashram Trust, SDP, Domestic Violence Prevention Coalition, Disaster Violence Against Women Platform-Protest, Resistance Building participated in the event as a co-entrepreneur.

The event concludes with an oath to work individually and in unison to prevent gender-based violence.

Subarnachar has come under discussion a significant number of times in the past years due to various incidents of violence against women. Multilateral Dialogue was organized in Subarnachar in 2019 and 2020 by Participatory Research & Action Network-PRAAN as part of the campaign to change the negative attitude towards women and create a culture free of violence.