https://arab.news/r8xfa
- Police data shows that more than 11,000 women and children faced different types of repression in the first six months of 2025, up from just over 9,000 in the same period last year
DHAKA: Bangladesh’s leading women’s rights group reported on Wednesday a dramatic surge in rape cases it blamed on worsening security, with police calling the general law and order situation a “crisis.”
Fauzia Muslim, president of Bangladesh Mohila Parishad group, said the number of sexual assaults in the first six months of 2025 nearly equalled the total for all of last year — a period that also included the turmoil during mass protests that toppled the government in August 2024.
“Violence against women increases when there is a deterioration of law and order,” Muslim told AFP, warning of “a deliberate attempt in society to create an ‘anti-women’ atmosphere.”
The rights group based its findings on sexual assault cases published in national newspapers.
According to those reports, 364 rapes were recorded in 2024, compared with 354 cases in the first half of 2025. The group said that the real figures were likely much higher.
Police data shows that more than 11,000 women and children faced different types of repression in the first six months of 2025, up from just over 9,000 in the same period last year.
Police did not comment specifically on the rise of sexual assaults, but said a wider deterioration of the security situation was troubling.
“This is a crisis situation, and the police are trying their best to rein it in,” police spokesperson A H M Sahadat Hossaine said.
Another rights group, Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), reported similar trends.
“The situation is undoubtedly alarming,” said ASK coordinator Abu Ahmed Faijul Kabir.
“What we are seeing is very different from what we have expected after a revolution overturned the governance structure.”
Muslim said that women were facing increased pressure.
“Inciting communalism and hatred toward women is making them more vulnerable to violence,” she said, without naming any specific group.
Women’s rights activists have expressed concern at the rise of hard-line Islamist groups, which have gained strength since the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian government.
The Muslim-majority nation of 170 million people will hold national elections in February, the first polls since the mass uprising last year.