Are Women Still Not Equal To Men?

Dear Members of Worldplus,

I support your vision and aim of helping women and children worldwide to stand up against injustice and immorality.

My name is Mehzabin Sanam and I am a student from West Island School (ESF - English School of Foundation) located in Hong Kong. I am doing a dissertation for my Extended Project on: “Why are women still not equal to men in undeveloped countries like Bangladesh?”

In this project, my hope is to investigate the reason behind this, and if possible, then find solutions. As I am a Bangladeshi myself, I understand a lot of the difficulties that women go through in their daily lives in Bangladesh, for example – sexual harassment and discrimination. Every day many teenage girls endure verbal insults, violence, rape, sexual abuse and injustice in the society. So does working women who goes through unfairness and discrimination in their workplace. Married women are also not spared in Bangladesh because a lot of them needs to go through physical violence and mental abuse from their husbands. We also cannot forget those young and beautiful ladies, who's lives are ruined by those evil men each year by throwing acid in their soft and naive skin.

I hope to examine and research matters like women injustice in Bangladesh, what is the reason behind this unlike other developed countries? Is it morale, religion, culture, environment, education or opinions?

The reason I chose this topic is because, despite many years, the situation still is not improving and now this is our time to speak out and raise awareness of the importance of woman in these societies. I understand that these things do not just occur in Bangladesh, but also in countries like India and Pakistan. I realize that not every person sexually harassment women, it is a few uncultured people, who might lack education and manners.

This led me to understand that most women in well established countries enjoy more freedom and fairness, because the people around them are all well educated and have different opinions from us, they have already moved on with the times and generation. I think the people around us in Bangladesh should be more knowledgeable and bring changes to their opinions. They should be more educated and informed in order to know that women can also be equal to men these days, and they are not objects forced to endure continuous unfairness and harassment.

I would like to know your opinions on this? Why you think this happens in uncivilized countries like Bangladesh? What can we, as normal people, do to improve this situation? Have governments in Bangladesh tried enough to stop this injustice and prevent these harassment? I have been hearing from a very young age that \"Now comes the time when we need to stand up against those evil men,\" but my question is \"Have we stood up against those women? or are we still just showing sympathy for them? or are we waiting for those wicked men to do similar violence with us or our closed ones? Sympathy is not enough!\"

It would be grateful if you could share your perceptions on these essential matters and I am eagerly waiting for your reply. It doesn't need to be specifically Bangladesh, you can share any opinions you want and let me know any information or details you have regarding this topic.

Thank you,

Mehzabin Sanam

Year 12, West Island School

Hong Kong

\"I decided it is better to scream, rather than being silent. Silence is the real crime against humanity.\" - Nadezhda Mandelstam, Russian writer.