Group of students walk 100km to protest rape

Published at 11:32 pm October 13th, 2020

Group of students standing with their banner and posters against rape who walked 100km from Kishoreganj to Dhaka on Tuesday, October 13, 2020 Collected

The protesting students also carried posters that read, “Perverted mentality and impunity are responsible for rape,” and more

A group of students, including four students of Rajshahi University (RU), have walked nearly 100 kilometers from Kishoreganj to Dhaka to join the demonstrations in Shahbagh, the flashpoint of the nine-day long anti-rape movement.

The students staged the unique demonstration expressing their protest against the alarming rape incidents across the country.

The four RU students – Tanvir Saklain Uchchhwas, Iftikhar Alam Ananda, Ashfaq Anik, and Raihan –reached Shahbagh at 4:15pm on Tuesday after walking nearly 100 kilometers from Kishoreganj carrying a banner.

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The protesting students also carried posters that read, “Perverted mentality and impunity are responsible for rape”, “Women’s clothes are not responsible for rape”, “Ensure highest punishment for rapists” and “Rapists are stigma for men”.

“We want an end to blaming the victims of rape. Their attire and their character should not be questioned. Rather it is speedy justice that should be ensured for them and their families,’ said Raihan, one of the demonstrators.

Raihan said the team commenced their walk from Kishoreganj on Saturday afternoon and reached Shahbagh to join the movement on Tuesday.

“We campaigned against rapes among different people, including shoppers, pedestrians and tea vendors,” added Raihan.

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Another student, Ashfaq Anik, said: “There can be different ways to protest. We planned to have our protest in a different manner. We decided to take a walk.”

“With this attempt, we were able to exchange our views and conduct awareness campaigns among huge numbers of people,” he mentioned.

On October 5, anti-rape demonstrations erupted across Bangladesh after video footage of five men stripping a woman naked and gang-raping her in Noakhali’s Begumganj upazila went viral on social media the day before.

The heinous incident took place at Joykrishnapur village under Ekhlaspur union of Begumganj upazila in Noakhali on September 2.

According to Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), nearly 1,000 rape cases were reported between January and September this year, including 208 gang rapes.