A Crime Unpunished: Bangladeshi Gang Rape

fore speech fore spee foreign Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated and impoverished countries in the world while its emerging economy is riant on garment Manufacturing in the cities the majority of the population live in rural feudal communities according to a recent un study Bangladesh has one of the highest levels of rape in the world with more than one in8 men admitting to the crime often these rapes are committed by groups of men and in the most extreme cases the victims are murdered even though rape can be punishable by death perpetrators are rarely investigated or convicted so they remain free to do it again instead of finding Justice these victims of horrific violent acts are instead ostracized from their families and communities and live in a constant state of fear I'm on the road to cette to investigate gang rates that have been happening throughout the region the celette region has a population of over 10 million but there are no official statistics for the number of rape cases I went to meet the local police commander on his daily Patrol to hear what steps he' taken to protect women in his community forre reped reported reported fore he said that when the rapes happen majority of the time it's the woman's fault and that a man's attraction will be limited based on how the woman is portraying [Music] herself I was concerned by the Commander's claim that rape was not a problem in his district this culture of denial means victims rarely receive Justice and rapists remain free and unpunished one NGO in selette is trying to intervene by educating perpetrators attempting to persuade them that rape is wrong hi M theas Hello nice to meet you nice to meet you too can you tell me a little bit about how bad the situation is for for women in Bangladesh this rape situation have been on a constantly on a rise but the situation is that women that the cases are very un very much under reported and what step has the government taken to to address this issue the police they say okay we need proof to file a case and that the proof has to come from the medical examination which is highly stigmatizing highly terrifying for the girl or girls family so where are we headed to right now we are going to meet three of the perpetrators who have agreed to You Know cover their face but talk with us about their experiences and how do they feel about meeting a woman do they know they're meeting a Bangladeshi American woman I'm sure that where they are not comfortable especially with a woman what compels them to rape women I think it's the the manhood in them they think they can what they can do whatever they like if they find a woman in a situation have you ever gang raped women spe foreign speech and how were the women that they gang raped okay this way okay this way so why haven't mtas since you know who they are why haven't you gone to the police to turn them in no that's our strategy I mean the basic strategy to of us is like engaging with any man you can acknowledge whatever you do so what you guys have sympathy for them no it's not of course not sympathy it is the arge to change how can you trust that they're not going out and doing it again yeah um the police is deny the cases happened the the system is not functioning the police Authority law enforcement is not functioning the society is not supporting so what else we could do according to Bangladeshi law rape is illegal and punishable by life in prison or even death but there appears to be little respect for this law as it is rarely enforced by the police what does command great respect here are the teachings of Islam local imams play a key role in shaping the cultural values and attitudes of men we're about to meet with an Imam outside of the mosque in rural selet they don't let women inside women aren allowed to pray over here so we're going to hear his perspectives on gang rape and women that's the m he seems nervous he doesn't he not telling me where he wants me to stand why aren't they praying why are they staring at [Music] allum I'll Stand he wants me to stand away from him for fore spe for I just want to get out of [Applause] [Music] here all the male authority figures that I have spoken to have been rationalizing why rape happens and Shifting the blame onto the women themselves it seems that the men in charge are trivializing rape in their communities and projecting the image of a pure God-fearing Society but rape is a violent crime no matter how you try and justify it and there's always a victim and a perpetrator often victims don't speak about their experience for fear of shaming and retaliation with community members pressuring them not to tarnish the family honor we were told that a victim named rahima was willing to share her story we're on our way to meet a woman who was allegedly gain raped by five men and we're going to hear about her experience but she lives on the other side of this River so we have to take this motor booat to get to her in order to do anything in Bangladesh you need the approval of respected local men we were forced to bring with us half a dozen ch Bron who despite having nothing to do with rahima's case had to be present for us to be able to speak to her we're picking up someone else here from here us it's not too many people [Music] right this is where they live it seems strange that so many men had to be present and that the politics of the community were more important than rahima's dignity we're getting permission from the village leader to talk to her and he's saying it's a very sensitive issue and our fixer is trying to use his mind [Music] [Music] for fore [Music] foree spee [Music] foree fore [Music] [Music] spee for spee spee [Music] speee fore speech fore [Music] foreign [Music] fore outside side the crowd of men was growing with more showing up all the time asking what was going on we were worried that one of them might know the rapist for it was heartbreaking to go in there and speak to her it she was treated worse than an animal and it made me realize how vulnerable women are in this [Music] country the victims of rape are primarily the poorest members of society while the perpetrators often come from more powerful families rahima was targeted because she is poor and her rapists could assume they would get away with it having spoken with two perpetrators who admitted to gang rape and rahima whose rapist had not been convicted I had to go back to the police Commander to confront him with what I had found J rap fore rapist criminal convicted monthly no numbers number oh okay okay the police are supposed to be public servants for this community but instead of protecting the women I think they are blaming the women by saying that they're not covering enough and that's why the men are getting aroused in raping the women and I also find it hard to believe that they have no unreported cases because they only have 50 officers to patrol and take care of 1 million people within this District by continuing to lay the responsibility firmly on the woman for attracting gang rape on herself too many of those in power are complicit in allowing men to rape freely and without consequence continuing a destructive cycle of violence on its women children and National psyche until there is a cultural change Shifting the responsibility on the perpetrator there will be no justice for rape victims

Channel: VICE News

Views: 5,493,949

Keywords: Rape, Gang Rape, Bangladesh, UN, Men, Islam, Sylhet, Police, Victim, Perpetrator, Sex, Sexual Violence, sexual assault, VICE News, news, VICE, VICE Magazine, documentary, interviews, world news, breaking news, happening now, documentaries, interview, culture, wild, lifestyle, world, exclusive, independent, underground, videos, journalism, vice guide, vice presents, vice news, vbs.tv, vice.com, vice, vice magazine, vice mag, vice videos

Id: XY7QOlqirns

Length: 20min 35sec (1235 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 21 2014