More than a hundred protesters held a protest rally on Friday demanding removal of the home adviser, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, from his post.
The protest rally was held under the banner of 鈥榃omen against Violence against Women鈥� in front of Jatiya Sangsad in the capital at around 3:00pm.
They also demanded taking appropriate and immediate measures to guarantee safety of citizens including women, holding the government and law enforcers accountable for their failure to prevent ongoing mob attacks, lynching, targeted assault, harassment, and rape of women, and for the media to stop spreading misinformation and taking responsibility for shaping public perception.
Nasrin Siraj, who read the key statement, said, 鈥楾he interim government which has come to power through a mass uprising and people鈥檚 demands for justice, freedom, and ending of discrimination in which many women were active leaders, organisers, and participants including many of us, has failed to honour those promises and aspirations.鈥櫬�
She said that in recent months the country witnessed alarming incidents of harassment, abuse, rape, lynching, and cyberbullying against women, emphasising that these are not isolated cases but part of an established pattern of intimidation and violence against women.聽
The government鈥檚 failure to take meaningful measures to stop and address these events, as well as to bring those involved in repeated attacks against women to book, has only emboldened the perpetrators of such hate crimes, she said.聽聽聽
鈥楽tatements from the home and environmental advisers, Jahangir Alam and Syeda Rizwana Hassan have failed to reassure women under attack and living in fear because they are riddled with misinformation and misunderstanding of the law and events, which effectively minimised the gravity of the situation, attempted to absolve the government of its responsibilities, and failed to bring to justice the perpetrators,鈥� she added.
She mentioned incidents, include attacks on sex workers in Shyamoli, public harassment, assault on two students in Lalmatia, harassment of a student by a library staff member at Dhaka University, attacks on the hijra community in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, attack on girls in football fields in Rangpur and Jaipurhat, continuous oppression of indigenous women, and everyday harassments and vicious mob attacks on women in different areas of Dhaka city.
鈥楧espite a pattern of normalisation, we refuse to accept these conditions as normal and we demand all women from all classes, backgrounds, religions, ethnicities live and exercise their rights without fear,鈥� she said.
The Bangladesh Students鈥� Union and Bangladesh Juba Union, meanwhile, on Friday evening jointly brought out a torch procession in the Paltan area demanding removal of the home minister.