Global Issues

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Bangladesh

• Bangladesh missing an estimated 3.7 million women due to preference for male children.

• In 2010, 556 reported incidents of rape against females during the year, including 308 against female children.

• Of the 556 rape victims, 93 were victims of gang rape; 30 were killed after their rape.

• Source and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking.

• Discrimination and violence against women including rape, dowry-related assaults, acid attacks, and sexual harassment continue.

• NGO report indicated brothel owners and pimps coerce Bangladeshi girls to take steroids to make them more attractive to clients. The drug is reported to be used by 90 percent of women between the ages of 15 and 35 in Bangladeshi brothels

• 48.7% of women in Bangladesh report intimate partner physical violence in their lifetime.

• 17.8 of women report sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime.

• World Health Organization study showed in some provinces 2000-2003 that women reported a 61.7% rate of physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence and 59.9% rate of intimate or non-intimate partner violence. 29.9% reported forced first sex and 12.4% reported abuse during pregnancy.

Advocacy:

• Government of Bangladesh established a trafficking task force with India.

 

Sources: UN Women Violence against Women Prevalence Data: Surveys  by  Country 2011; Stephan Klasen and Claudia Wink, University of Munich: A Turning Point in Gender Bias in Mortality? (2001); U.S. Department of State 2010 Human Rights Report, U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report 2011; Human Rights Watch World Report 2012