‘Rape cases are mostly fake cases!’ -- On the Logic of Feminist Struggles and Legal Battles
Abstract
In contemporary Bangladesh, rape is a serious crime, legally punishable by the death penalty (or life imprisonment). In practice, however, most cases filed under this section result in no punishment because the cases are either withdrawn, disposed of for other reasons, or the accused is acquitted. In fact, many people in Bangladesh assume that rape cases are mostly ‘false cases’ that do not results from actual experiences of sexual intercourse against the will of the complainant. Moreover, many, including judges and lawyers who deal with these cases, suggest that even almost all ‘women's cases’ are false cases, or what are known in Bengali as mithyā māmlā.
The Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act 2000 (1995) and its various amendments aimed to make it easier for female victims to get justice in cases of rape, domestic violence, undue dowry demands, and other crimes. The Act was initiated in part as a result of Bangladeshi feminists and women's rights activists, as well as international pressure, calling for laws that not only provide for severe punishment for violence against women but also include provisions that made it easier and safer for women to actually file successful cases (e.g., introducing the right of women to be examined by female doctors, laws making it more difficult for police officers not to register such crimes or follow up certain cases, entitlement to free legal aid, etc.). While many issues, such as the high number of cases that remain pending for years, continue to impede the pursuit of justice, this presentation will focus on the notion that women are filing ‘fake cases’ and argue that, paradoxically, it is not the ineffectiveness but the successful implementation of the provisions of The Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act 2000 that gives rise to such notions. In providing crucial protection for women, the Act has also had unintended side-effects that have made it vulnerable to being used in ways that people perceive as false and fabricated. While such ‘fake cases’ often involve false or distorted allegations, they are most often the result of a criminal offence or, alternatively, actions that are not legally punishable but place women in highly problematic situations. Based on the preliminary findings of this ongoing research, the presentation suggests that while The Prevention of Women and Children Repression Act does not necessarily provide women with justice in the form of legal punishment, it is a crucial tool for many women to improve their situation.
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Mascha Schulz is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Department of Anthropology of Politics and Governance at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany. She has published extensively on the state, political parties, student politics, atheism, secularism and aspirational politics in South Asia. Schulz is also co-editor of Global Sceptical Publics: From non-religious print media to 'digital atheism' (UCL Press, 2022) and the special issues 'An Anthropology of Non-religion?' (Religion and Society, 2023) and 'Ethnographic Perspectives on the State in Bangladesh' (Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2020). She is currently working on two different research projects. As part of the ERC project 'Religion and its Others', she is investigating the causes of violent attacks on non-religion in Bangladesh. Her most recent research explores the politics of legal cases and false accusations.
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