Additionally, they sought more gender-sensitivity while using language to establish women’s empowerment properly.
The insights came up at an event titled ‘Shobde Jobdo Nari’ (“Women shackled by words”) arranged by ActionAid Bangladesh ahead of International Women’s Day-2019 with a view to abolishing the use of abusive words against women at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy (BSA).
The event, an exhibition displaying the obscene and vulgar words that are used in social media, textbooks, films and daily life, saw the gathering of media personnel, social workers, academicians and journalists.
Following the exhibition, Kashfia Firoz, ActionAid Bangladesh Manager presented a research paper done by the organisation as part of ‘Safe cities for women’ campaign. According to its results, 88 percent women get harassed through the use of abusive words in streets.
ActionAid Bangladesh Country Director Farah Kabir termed the scenario as ‘alarming’ and said language is the first tool used to abuse women at home and outside.
“We abuse women through words even without our realisation. To bring a change about it, women need to think of themselves as human,” she added.
Later, in an Interactive dialogue session, Daily Ittefaq Editor Tasmima Hossain said that our social structure has confined most of the women in a maze of abusive words.
“Gender insensitive words are frequently used in media. This could have been restricted through a proper policy,” she added.
Professor Salma Akter, Department of Sociology at Dhaka University patriarchal family structure is a reason behind most of the abusive words being female-centric and mass media promotes them.
Publisher Mahrukh Mahiuddin said it is necessary to include men in internal change of the society as men and women complete with each other.
ActionAid Bangladesh Executive Committee member Dr Khalilur Rahman, Nijera Kori coordinator Khushi Kabir, News24 Chief News Editor Shahnaz Munni also spoke at the dialogue.
To ensure that women are not shackled by words, the speakers put forward a set of proposals which include raising awareness in representing women in textbooks, bring change in socialization, and create and implement policies about proper use of language in corporate sector and beyond.