Why must the girl change her route?

When a girl is harassed on her way to school, it is usually her routine that changes first. She is told to take another route, come home earlier or walk with someone she trusts. Her parents do what they can. The person making her journey unsafe, meanwhile, may not have to change a thing.

It is a peculiar arrangement. Either the daughter's freedom shrinks or her family begins to provide for her security. And we conveniently look the other way without asking who is actually paying the price. 

But if her family refuses to accept this arrangement? What then? 

In April, a father in Lalmonirhat was beaten for protesting his daughter’s harassment. In Noakhali, relatives of a 14-year-old girl were assaulted and their home attacked when her father filed a case against a madrasa superintendent accusing him of trying to rape the girl. The family said attackers demanded withdrawal of the case. Police arrested the accused superintendent on May 7.

In June last year, a father in Bogura was beaten to death for opposing the harassment of his 14-year-old daughter and an unwanted marriage proposal. Three suspects were detained. These cases cannot establish whether such retaliation is common, but certainly show its dangers.

In Noakhali, before going to the police, the family approached a union parishad official, who tried to settle the matter through arbitration. Alleged attempted rape of a child calls for investigation. It should have been on that front that the union council official offered help. Even the attempt to negotiate the matter only reveals how the girl’s safety is trivialised.

A girl's safety should not depend on her family's influence or their ability to confront a harasser. Speaking up should not invite retaliation either.

In another Lalmonirhat incident in February, a mobile court sentenced a young man to four months in jail for entering a school and harassing a student. The executive magistrate said her father had complained locally without remedy.

We tell girls not to respond to taunts, we tell them not to travel alone or make a scene. Such advice may help in immediate danger. But it does not address repeated harassment or threats.

Part of the problem is how easily we minimise harassment. Calling it “eve-teasing” can make intimidation sound like a prank. Instead of asking why someone feels entitled to stalk a girl, the questions often turn to her: Why was she alone? Why did she answer back?

According to the Human Rights Support Society, 1,621 women and girls were subjected to violence between January and June this year, compared with 1,042 in the same period of 2025. They included 404 rape victims, including 238 children and adolescent girls, and 473 sexual harassment victims, including 173 children. Based on news reports and monitoring, these are documented incidents, not necessarily a rise in violence nationwide.

On October 8, the body of a 15-year-old schoolgirl was found in Cumilla. Police said an arrested auto-rickshaw driver confessed to raping and killing her. That account remains untested in court. Now telling other girls not to stray out of home only compounds the injustice.

Fear may also cost a girl coaching classes, visits to friends or the chance to attend a college farther away. Families may restrict her movements out of “care”, but she loses opportunities while the threat remains.

In 2009, the High Court directed educational institutions and workplaces to establish sexual harassment complaint committees. Yet a 2022 assessment by the Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association found only 44 percent of committees effective. The assessment does not show how they function nationwide today.

Justice can also be delayed. According to Supreme Court sources, 1,16,392 cases were pending before 101 Women and Children Repression Prevention Tribunals as of June 30, including 26,249 unresolved for more than five years. 

The cases cover offences beyond those involving girls. A monitoring cell ordered by the High Court in 2016 to oversee delays had yet to be formed. Families need protection while cases proceed, not only verdicts years later.

Law enforcers must act on complaints of stalking and threats before they turn violent. A girl who reports harassment should know whom to contact, what action has been taken and how she and her family will be protected. 

Schools, colleges and madrasas must offer confidential complaint procedures and investigate allegations against staff independently. 

From this International Day of the Girl Child, families must stop excusing sons who stalk or threaten girls; they must stop silencing their girls.

Arafat Rahaman is a journalist at The Daily Star. He covers education and writes on governance, rights and public accountability. He can be reached at [email protected].