They said it important to have discussion among the men on this fact apart from the discussion among the women.

ACTIONISTS arranged the 12th episode of the webinar series with a purpose of a discussion on the various aspects of torture and violences due to gender difference.

The webinar with the title "Addressing Violence Against Women in Bangladesh" was broadcast live from the official Facebook page of "ACTIONISTS".

Aroma Dutta, MP, women's right activist; Selina Ahmed, Psychologist and head of BRAC's Gender Justice and Diversity Program and Mahfuza Akter Mala who is Coordinator of Oxfam's Gender Justice and Social Inclusion Programme spoke at the webinar held on Tuesday.

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Barnana Bhowmick, lecturer of the Department of Mass Communication and Journalism at Jagannath University hosted the programme.

Mahfuza Mala says, "The society has shaped the culture of gender dominance defining and compelling the masculine and feminine activities. Rape and other violences happens not only because of sexual desire, but power relation is also an important factor."

Aroma Dutta says that it is hard to change the social situation only by laws and acts if we cannot change the mentality of our society.

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"Discussion among the men on this fact is more necessery besides the discussion among the women. Because, all we need first is to bring a change to people's psychology."

Selina Ahmed said the struggle with the violence is harder to address in the women of middle-class families due to issues of social respect.

"The lack of good governance as well as law and order system is a factor behind the increase in violence. We need a system with policymakers who will be cooperative to bring the change with accountability."

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The webinar was moderated by ANM Fakhrul Amin Forhad, Founder and Executive director, ACTIONISTS.