24 rapes in 9 days: How rising violence against women has become an epidemic in Bangladesh

Bangladesh has been rocked by multiple rape cases in just over a week. Violence against women has become increasingly common in the South Asian country in recent years.

At least 24 incidents of rape were reported in Bangladesh in nine days between June 20 and 29, as per a Dhanka Tribune report. Recently, a video of a woman being sexually assaulted had caused a huge uproar in the country. The rise in rape cases has been described as a “pandemic-level crisis.”

Let’s take a closer look.

Recent Rape cases in Bangladesh

On Sunday (June 29), a woman was allegedly gang-raped after her husband was held captive and tortured for two days at the house of his third wife in Bhola district in south-central Bangladesh.

Seven people, including local leaders of Bangladesh Nationalist Party-affiliated organisations — Sramik Dal, Jubo Dal, and Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal — have been arrested as per a Prothom Alo report.

Another rape case has horrified Bangladesh. Last week, a woman from the Hindu minority community was allegedly raped in central Bangladesh’s Cumilla district. As per the police, the survivor was visiting her father’s house when a neighbour broke in and assaulted her.

The woman told local media that the accused, identified as 36-year-old Fazor Ali, “entered the house with bad intentions and tortured her”.

Four other people were arrested for filming and sharing the videos of the sexual assault.

The incident sparked outrage in Bangladesh, with students of Dhaka University staging protests on the campus.

Bangladesh’s rape epidemic

One woman was raped every nine hours in Bangladesh from January 2020 to September 2024, according to Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a national legal aid and human rights organisation.

This means two women were raped each day in the country just on the basis of media reports.

The ASK data found that a total of 4,787 rape cases were recorded during this period, as per Asia News Network. Of these, 2,862 victims were children aged 18 and below.

Of these cases, 47 per cent of the victims were aged 13 to 18.

In March, Chief adviser Muhammad Yunus called the reports of violence against women “deeply troubling”, saying they were a deviation from the vision of a “New Bangladesh”.

Legal experts say many cases remain unreported in the South Asian country. Senior Supreme Court lawyer ZI Khan Panna told Asia News Network, “I believe the actual number is much higher. We rely on newspaper data, and when necessary, verify cases with the police. Naturally, the numbers are lower if victims don’t come to police.”

Of the more than 4,000 rapes reported by Bangladesh media, cases were filed only in 3,419 cases.

“There’s no guarantee that a victim will get justice even if they file a case, so why would they bother? Rape cases often remain unresolved beyond the mandated 180-day timeframe, and convictions are rare,” barrister Jyotirmoy Barua told the news outlet.

“The court alone cannot deliver justice, as 99 per cent of the process — filing the case, conducting investigations, and presenting witnesses — is carried out by state authorities. The public’s lack of trust in the entire system which is severely flawed, discourages victims from filing and reporting cases, ultimately undermining the court’s ability to deliver justice.”

On Thursday (July 3), Sharmeen S Murshid, Bangladesh’s adviser to the Ministry of Social Welfare and the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, told reporters that the ministry’s toll-free hotline has received 281,000 complaints over the past 10–11 months.

What is the govt doing to address the ‘rape crisis’?

Addressing a press briefing, Murshid said that the government has decided to form quick response teams at the upazila (district) level, led by the upazila nirbahi officers (UNOs), to curb the crimes against women.

“Following the rape of a housewife in Muradnagar, Comilla, a quick response team has already been deployed under the local UNO’s leadership,” she said, as per Dhaka Tribune.

“I have been working on violence against women and children for 40 years. Governments have come and gone, but none have been able to tackle the issue. The roots lie in politics, drugs, technology, and social degradation. The unchecked access to mobile phones and pornography is distorting children’s minds.”

She added: “A 10-year-old child has sexually assaulted a two-and-a-half-year-old girl. How can we even explain this? The child doesn’t even understand what he has done. Are we truly able to protect our children? We can no longer hide from this complex social problem, which demands both counselling and medical attention.”

Murshid also called for regulating access to pornography for children.

She suggested monitoring madrasas in relation to child sexual abuse. “Madrasas often remain out of sight, but child sexual abuse is taking place there too. We’re not getting the data. Our officials will now go directly to schools and madrasas to ensure accountability,” the adviser said.

She promised to implement permanent initiatives to prevent violence against women and children.

With inputs from agencies