It became the first day of Hemanta, when the cool, crisp air of early winter whispered through Dhaka’s streets, indicating the leisurely shift of seasons.
The final day of the workweek had ended, and along with three of my pals —two male and one female— we made up our minds to grab some food at an originate air restaurant beside Dhanmondi Lake.
The laughter, the food, and the comfort of acquainted faces washed away the fatigue of the week. But then the sky without notice broke originate, unleashing a downpour. With easiest one umbrella between us, we scrambled for shelter.
My fair correct friend, the girl, had sustained rupture from a brutal attack all around the mass uprising on 19 July.
Her spine nonetheless damage, making it sophisticated for her to stand for long, so we found a wood desk beneath a tree for her to lean on and took shelter there, hoping the rain would ease.
An hour passed, and we were nonetheless waiting, evening changed into to nighttime. The rain confirmed no indicators of forestalling. , out of nowhere, a community of 10-12 boys (I’m calling them boys as none were above 20 years ancient) looked, transferring in direction of us with aggression in their strides.
One boy, eyes flashing with authority, shouted at my male pals, “Maye manush niye ondhokare oi chipay keno gesen, eidike eshe daran” (Why are you standing at center of the night nook with two ladies folks? Attain to a more considered web web content online).
The phrases stung, now not true this ability that of their condescending tone, but this ability that of the underlying assumption — that as ladies folks, we easiest exist when it comes to males.
The boys hadn’t even bothered to tackle us at as soon as as if we were lesser beings whose existence did now not topic.
Our male pals straight away reacted with anger, annoying, “What execute you imply by that? What trade is it of yours?” The community approached nearer, fists clenched, their presence menacing.
We had heard of a same incident true days before, where a community of males attacked three others for looking out for to guard a girl from harassment within the identical dwelling.
Gleaming that the discipline may possibly moreover escalate immediate, my pals calmed down and tried reasoning with the boys.
What struck me most, nevertheless, became that the boys, even in their misplaced downside, perceived to possess they were acting because the protectors of societal advantage.
Of their minds, it became their duty to invent stoop nothing “crude” became happening in their neighbourhood. But their sense of duty had erased the actuality of two ladies folks standing correct before them, with their indulge in company and autonomy.
We weren’t being “safe.” We were being diminished.
This stumble upon became now not an isolated incident. Or now not it is fragment of a bigger phenomenon of mob violence rooted in patriarchal mindsets that permeate put up-uprising Bangladesh.
It gave the affect even over 100 years after Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain penned her notorious “Sultana’s Dream” depicting a feminist utopia, the essence of it stays elusive.
Whereas now we indulge in come shut to solar energy, equipment farming and rapidly, even flying autos, a safe dwelling for women folks is as far as it has ever been.
Mob violence patterns against ladies folks
A document by Mahila Parishad in The Each day Smartly-known particular person finds that violence against ladies folks increased by 27% in September 2024, indicating a piquant rise in gender-primarily primarily based aggression within the put up-revolution climate.
One other incident in Savar, where the dismembered physique of a housewife became found, highlights the alarming brutality ladies folks face across the country.
From analysing social media posts, a lot of patterns emerge:
1. Social conditioning and victim-blaming: Posts like Anjila Jerin Anjum’s deliver how local males blame ladies folks for the violence inflicted on them. A safety guard’s commentary, “Old to, they ancient to rape and go ladies folks alive; now they homicide them to handbook stoop of publicity,” reflects a chilling normalisation of violence and the scapegoating of girls folks.
2. Peril of public spaces: Ila Lala’s put up outlines how ladies folks lift the constant burden of inconvenience in public spaces, armed with tools like scissors for self-defense and fighting internalised expectations to dwell vigilant. Her lived experiences resonate with limitless other ladies folks who in actuality feel unsafe in a society that doesn’t spy them as equals.
3. Institutional failures: Sifat Khan’s detailed critique of societal complicity in re-embracing identified rape apologists reflects how entrenched misogynistic views are, even internal academic and expert spaces.
Mapping the patterns
From Dhanmondi to Savar, the patterns of mob violence against ladies folks practice a chilling consistency:
Dehumanisation: Girls are reduced to symbols of honour that must be controlled.
Misplaced morality: Mobs operate beneath the guise of preserving cultural norms.
Absence of loyal repercussions: Historic legislation enforcement emboldens perpetrators.
As the country continues to navigate the aftermath of the original upsurge, we spy how societal structures are leisurely to replace. Rather then progressing in direction of equity, stoop negative dispositions—such as mob violence and violence against ladies folks—indulge in radically change even more profound.
Whereas the uprising itself sought to dismantle forms of discrimination, it moreover unintentionally reinforced stoop energy dynamics.
Men, notably those with a misplaced sense of social accountability, spy themselves as enforcers of cultural norms. These norms, which spy ladies folks as inherently subordinate, consequence in public shaming and mob assaults within the title of “protection.”
Structural Functionalism explains how every fragment of society has a characteristic that contributes to social balance. Nonetheless, in a patriarchal structure, that characteristic typically entails keeping ladies folks in a subordinate set up to defend favorite energy dynamics. Mob violence, notably against ladies folks, serves as a machine for reinforcing these roles, notably in a society experiencing immediate change after the uprising.
As societal norms are puzzled, those who serve from the web web content online quo—predominantly males—utilize violence to defend management. In put up-uprising Bangladesh, this energy fight has resulted in gender-primarily primarily based violence as a system of upholding male dominance.
One in every of primarily the most unsettling parts of this behaviour is how immediate groups of males invent to “put in pressure” these norms, successfully acting as a patriarchal police pressure. They possess they are preserving morality, but in actuality, they are perpetuating management over ladies folks.
Symbolic Interactionism helps us realize how these mobs are fashioned. Collective interpretations of “deviant” behaviour—such as ladies folks simply existing in public spaces—consequence in community punishment. The mob sees itself as a collective, acting to “correct” behaviour that deviates from patriarchal expectations.
Within the aftermath of the upsurge, cases of mob violence indulge in disproportionately focused ladies folks. The Dhanmondi incident wasn’t an exception—or now not it is fragment of a sample.
In limitless eventualities across the country, mobs of males are stepping in, to now not guard, but to management the general public behaviour of girls folks, lowering them to symbols of honour that must be guarded or punished.
Breaking the chains of lack of expertise
Within the shadow of a rising nation, one thing stays unshaken—patriarchy’s grip on society. Most favorite incidents of mob violence against ladies folks must now not anomalies but rather the gruesome, unrelenting face of a machine designed to restrict and management.
This systemic repression has deep historical roots. A century ago, when Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain began her revolutionary work in female training, she stood against a society where patriarchy dictated every aspect of a girl’s life.
Training for women folks became considered as pointless, even harmful. The imposition of these beliefs stemmed from a inconvenience of disruption—of animated the gender norms that saved ladies folks confined to the home sphere.
Rokeya, born in 1880s Bengal, became an anomaly in her time. Increasing up in a conservative Muslim family, she saw firsthand how ladies folks were denied obtain admission to to data and company. Her elder brother, defying family norms, secretly taught her Bengali and English—tiny acts of arise that can possibly form her lifelong mission.
Rokeya’s writings, in conjunction with “Sultana’s Dream”, presented a utopian vision of a world where ladies folks’s mind and autonomy were notorious. But her resistance prolonged beyond literature.
In 1911, she established the Sakhawat Memorial Girls’ College in Kolkata, a sanctuary for women from conservative families, offering them training against all societal odds.
This wasn’t true an act of defiance; it became a declaration of warfare against patriarchy.
Her braveness impressed a generation of girls folks to study training as a course to freedom, now not a betrayal of tradition. Her efforts laid the groundwork for women folks’s increasing participation in public life, paving the system for the personnel dynamics we see this day.
The parallels between then and now
Rapid forward to fresh-day Bangladesh, whereas ladies folks now possess roles in every sector—science, journalism, politics—the echoes of Rokeya’s struggles are far from silenced.
Patriarchy, though weakened, is nonetheless resilient. The mob violence we see—such because the incident at Dhanmondi where ladies folks were attacked for his or her mere presence in public and thousands of others continuously—is now not now not like the societal backlash Rokeya faced. Each are born from the identical patriarchal impulse to management and dominate.
Rokeya’s lifelong hasten became a conquer lack of expertise and oppression. Her work reminds us that correct development requires now not true policy changes but a shift in cultural values. Her vision became now not restricted to training; it became about empowering ladies folks to dream, to possess, and to handbook.
The cultural and psychological underpinnings
Our culture has long devalued ladies folks, main to traditional impunity for many who engage in violence. That is now not totally a non secular discipline, as many would scream. Quite, it is about a patriarchal social expose that sees ladies folks as possessions—be it of their families or, on this case, the general public at immense.
Psychologically, mob violence taps into deeper parts of human behaviour. Groupthink, the must adapt, and the dread of social rejection play severe roles in how folks behave internal these mobs.
The menace of being ostracised for now not defending favorite values pushes folks to participate in violence. Cognitive Dissonance moreover comes into play, where folks reconcile the contradiction between their violent actions and their perception in a “true” cause by dehumanising any individual, notably ladies folks within the job.
This mindset is further solidified by the socialisation of gender roles, where males are taught to dominate, and girls folks are conditioned to put up. In moments of mob violence, these psychological pressures—blended with social expectations—compel folks to act aggressively toward ladies folks.
The murders of Tofazzal and Renu, though masses of within the conditions, fragment a general thread rooted in patriarchy’s characteristic in mob violence.
Tofazzal, a particular person with mental disabilities, became overwhelmed to death at Dhaka University on 18 September 2024 after being suspected of theft, whereas Renu, a single mother, became lynched by a mob in Dhaka’s Badda after being falsely accused of child abduction on 20 July 2019.
Each incidents are prime examples of how patriarchal norms gas mob mentality, where suspicion or deviance from social norms results in brutal enforcement of “justice” by self-appointed guardians of society.
In Tofazzal’s case, the mob consisted of males who, beneath the guise of preserving the community, acted violently without evidence, reflecting the patriarchal perception that males must uphold legislation and expose.
Equally, Renu’s homicide demonstrates how mobs, influenced by patriarchal views of girls folks as either mothers or criminals, without notice changed into against her. The mob dehumanised her in step with unverified rumours, reflecting the entrenched patriarchal theory that ladies folks, notably when considered originate air their favorite roles, are suspect and unworthy of protection.
In each and every cases, patriarchy performed a severe characteristic in emboldening the mobs.
For Tofazzal, his perceived violation of societal norms allowed the mob to place in pressure their indulge in model of justice. In Renu’s case, the reality that she became a girl — and thus considered as inherently weak — made her a easy target for collective violence.
Each tragedies expose how patriarchy now not easiest sanctions violence but moreover perpetuates a machine where largely males in actuality feel entitled to management, and girls folks and marginalised, typically considered as powerless, are left to endure its consequences.
This psychological underpinnings of mob mentality, typically mistakenly attributed totally to non secular orthodoxy, are more deeply rooted in social structures that toughen collective behaviour and energy dynamics.
Patriarchy, as an overarching machine, fosters a sense of entitlement and dominance, notably amongst males, who in actuality feel compelled to place in pressure societal norms through violence or coercion. This mindset is pushed by psychological components like conformity, where folks internal the mob align their behaviour with the community’s perceived social norms, even when those norms consequence in peril.
Whereas non secular orthodoxy can support as a vehicle for justifying these actions, the core discipline lies in how society values management, dominance, and protectionism, notably over ladies folks. The mob acts now not out of loyal non secular conviction but from a must uphold patriarchal expose, the usage of religion as a defend to legitimise actions which are deeply entrenched in social management as an alternate of religion.
The surge in mob violence after the uprising is a reflection of the express’s failure to tackle the deep-seated societal tensions which indulge in long festered beneath the surface. Incidents like these occurred even before the uprising, but the upheaval that adopted created a volatile atmosphere where frustrations, uncertainties, and fears intensified.
The express, in its focal point on political management and balance, lost sight of the need for indispensable social reform—failing to dismantle patriarchal structures and neglecting to educate the general public on justice, equality, and human rights.
As the social fabric frays, folks in actuality feel abandoned by a machine they now not belief, main them to rob matters into their indulge in palms. Without correct loyal recourse or a functioning justice machine, mobs radically change enforcers of misguided “justice,” typically concentrating on ladies folks and marginalised folks as scapegoats. The express’s failure to execute protection, put in pressure regulations, or discipline wicked cultural norms has allowed this cycle of violence to develop unchecked, with tragic consequences.
The resolution lies now not true in addressing the prompt incidents of mob violence but moreover in animated the deep-seated cultural and psychological roots of this behaviour.
In a society where patriarchy silently pulls the strings, mob violence is now not in actuality true an isolated act of chaos—or now not it is miles a reflection of how deeply broken our social fabric is. Or now not it is now not true about males declaring energy over ladies folks or defending tradition; or now not it is about a collective inconvenience of change, of shedding management over a world that is evolving beyond ancient, rigid structures.
Within the aftermath of the revolution, as Bangladesh stands on the precipice of transformation, or now not it is heartbreaking to see that, for many, the instinct to suppress as an alternate of uplift nonetheless prevails.
I possess lend a hand to that night by the lake, sheltered beneath a tree with my pals, and the chilling realisation that, no topic the rain, what in actuality soaked through became the cold indifference of a machine that reduces ladies folks to lesser beings. The rain felt like a metaphor for the storm of indifference and management ladies folks face every day.
We had executed nothing unsuitable, yet we were considered as one thing to management, one thing to query, one thing to guard—now not as folks with company but as mere extensions of males. And that’s the reason what must change.
That is now not in actuality true about one incident or one mob—or now not it is about every girl who has ever been made to actually feel like she is one thing less, one and all who has been brutalised by a society that adheres to its ancient suggestions.
Substitute may possibly moreover now not come through silence. It is going to moreover now not come if we continue to avert our eyes, hoping the storms of violence will circulate. This may occasionally easiest come after we mosey down the structures that allow mobs to thrive after we discipline the mindset that sees ladies folks and the weak as targets, and after we rebuild from the roots with compassion, empathy, and, most of all, equality. That is the fight that stays long after the revolution—and or now not it is one we can now not indulge in the funds for to lose.
