Bride burning is a form of torture murder practiced in countries located on or around the Indian subcontinent. A form of dowry death, bride-burning occurs when a woman is murdered by her husband or his family for her family's refusal to pay additional dowry. The wife is typically doused with kerosene, gasoline, or other flammable liquid, and set alight, leading to death by burning. Kerosene is often used as the cooking fuel for small petrol stoves, some of which are dangerous, so it allows the claim that the crime was an accident. It is most common in India and has been a major problem there since at least 1993.
Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), is violent acts primarily committed by men or boys against women or girls. Such violence is often considered a form of hate crime, committed against persons specifically because they are of the female gender, and can take many forms.
The Acid Survivors Foundation is a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation dedicated to raising awareness and preventing acid attacks and providing survivors with medical and legal aid.
Monira Rahman is a Bangladeshi human rights activist. She was born in 1965 in Jessore, East Pakistan. Due to her movement, acid and petrol attacks on women in Bangladesh have been reduced by 40 fold. She has changed laws. She has ensured prompt, competent help even in remote areas, and has built model psychological and other follow-up services. Rahman won Amnesty International Human Rights Defender Award 2006 for her courageous activism. She worked with the founder of Acid Survivors Foundation (ASF), Dr John Morrison and subsequently worked as executive director from 2002 to 2013. Rahman was commended by the World's Children's Prize in 2011 for her courageous fight to put an end to acid and petrol violence in Bangladesh. Rahman became Commonwealth Professional Fellow in 2012 and Ashoka Fellow in 2013.
Statistics on rape and other acts of sexual assault are commonly available in industrialized countries, and have become better documented throughout the world. Inconsistent definitions of rape, different rates of reporting, recording, prosecution and conviction for rape can create controversial statistical disparities, and lead to accusations that many rape statistics are unreliable or misleading.
Human rights in Bangladesh are enshrined as fundamental rights in Part III of the Constitution of Bangladesh. However, constitutional and legal experts believe many of the country's laws require reform to enforce fundamental rights and reflect democratic values of the 21st century.
The Constitution of Bangladesh includes secularism as one of the four fundamental principles, despite having Islam as the state religion by 2A. Islam is referred to twice in the introduction and Part I of the constitution and the document begins with the Islamic phrase Basmala which in English is translated as “In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful” and article (2A) declares that :"Islam is the state religion of the republic". Bangladesh is mostly governed by secular laws, set up during the times when the region was ruled by the British Crown.
The Cambodian Acid Survivors Charity (CASC) is a non-profit, non-governmental and non-religious organization located in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, committed to empowering and supporting survivors of acid burns and eliminating acid violence through legal reform and preventative education.
An acid attack, also called acid throwing, vitriol attack, or vitriolage, is a form of violent assault involving the act of throwing acid or a similarly corrosive substance onto the body of another "with the intention to disfigure, maim, torture, or kill". Perpetrators of these attacks throw corrosive liquids at their victims, usually at their faces, burning them, and damaging skin tissue, often exposing and sometimes dissolving the bones. Acid attacks can lead to permanent partial or complete blindness.
Saving Face is a 2012 documentary film directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy and Daniel Junge about acid attacks on women in Pakistan. The film won an Emmy Award and the 2012 Academy Award for Best Documentary Short Subject, making its director, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Pakistan's first Oscar winner. The film was inspired from the life of acid victim Fakhra Younus, who died by suicide in 2012.
Domestic violence in Pakistan is an endemic social and public health problem. According to a study carried out in 2009 by Human Rights Watch, 10-20% of women in Pakistan have suffered some form of abuse. Women have reported attacks ranging from physical to psychological and sexual abuse from intimate partners. A survey carried out by the Thomson Reuters Foundation ranked Pakistan as the sixth most dangerous country for women while India ranked 1st as the most dangerous country for women. Given the very few women's shelters in the country, victims have limited ability to escape from violent situations.
Nicole Westmarland is a British academic and activist in the area of violence against women. She is currently a professor at the University of Durham, where she researches rape, domestic violence and prostitution. With Geetanjali Gangoli, she has edited two books: International Approaches to Rape, and International Approaches to Prostitution: Law and Policy in Europe and Asia. Originally a taxi driver, Westmarland’s first publication focused upon security issues for female taxi drivers, following her finding that female drivers were significantly more likely to face sexual harassment from customers than their male counterparts.
Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association is a lawyer's association based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was established in 1979. Its main goal is "to create equal opportunities and equal rights for every woman and child in the country."
Violence against women in India refers to physical or sexual violence committed against a woman, typically by a man.
Gender inequality has been improving a lot in Bangladesh, inequalities in areas such as education and employment remain ongoing problems so women have little political freedom. In 2015, Bangladesh was ranked 139 out of 187 countries on the Human Development Index and 47 out 144 countries surveyed on the Gender Inequality Index in 2017. Many of the inequalities are result of extreme poverty and traditional gender norms centred on a patrilineal and patriarchal kinship system in rural areas.
Feminism in Bangladesh seeks equal rights of women in Bangladesh through social and political change. Article 28 of Bangladesh constitution states that "Women shall have equal rights with men in all spheres of the State and of public life".
Natalia Ponce de León is a Colombian woman born in Bogotá. A crime victim and survivor who successfully campaigned for a law targeting perpetrators of acid attacks in her country, in 2016, she was listed as one of BBC's 100 Women. She holds a bachelor's degree in Film Studies from Politécnico Grancolombiano University in Bogotá, Colombia.
The legislative assembly of Pakistan has enacted several measures designed to give women more power in the areas of family, inheritance, revenue, civil, and criminal laws. These measures are an attempt to safeguard women's rights to freedom of speech and expression without gender discrimination. These measures are enacted keeping in mind the principles described by the Quran.
Ros Sopheap is a Cambodian women's rights activist. She is the founder and former executive director of Gender and Development Cambodia (GADC), a non-governmental organisation involved in preventing domestic violence against women and promoting women in leadership roles. During her 20-year career with GADC, she advocated on behalf of women in Cambodia and was central to the Cambodian women's rights movement. Sopheap also served as the president of the Committee to Promote Women in Politics.
Fawzia Karim Firoze is a Bangladeshi advocate at the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. She was recognised as an International Woman of Courage in 2024. She has supported changes to the law that garment workers, those effected by acid attacks and by sexual harassment.
