Secretary General of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami and former Member of Parliament Professor Mia Golam Porwar issued a statement on March 9 expressing deep concern over the increasing incidents of rape and violence against women and children in the country.
In the statement, he said, “On the night of March 5, an 8-year-old girl was brutally raped while visiting her elder sister’s house in Magura Sadar. She is now in critical condition and fighting for her life.”
He further mentioned, “On the night of March 9, in South Keraniganj, Dhaka, a four-month-pregnant woman was entrapped and taken to an abandoned house in the Pangaon Rishipara area under the pretense of providing shelter and food, where she was gang-raped by several perpetrators. She has been subsequently admitted to Dhaka Medical College Hospital in critical condition.
In another incident, on March 5, at around 1:30 PM, a female student of Dhaka University was harassed near the Raju Vashkarja on campus when she was taunted for not wearing her scarf properly. These incidents demonstrate the alarming rise in sexual violence and harassment against women in the country.
He added, “The rapist of the 8-year-old girl in Magura and those who aided him in the crime are equally guilty. They must face the harshest punishment. These vile criminals should be swiftly arrested and brought to justice with exemplary punishments to deter future offenders.”
He stated, “Women and children are no longer safe anywhere—whether on buses, trains, launches, offices, homes, schools, colleges, or madrasas. What the media reports is just a fraction of the real situation; in reality, the crisis is far worse. Rape and violence against women have become a severe national crisis.”
To address this, he called upon imams, khatibs, religious scholars, and conscious citizens to build a strong social resistance against rapists. He urged society to ostracize and boycott such criminals, showing them zero tolerance.
He further added, “The rising cases of rape, murder, abduction, acid attacks, and other crimes have been originated from moral decay. This deterioration is fueled by an unethical education system, co-education, drug addiction, and the spread of vulgar content in films and television dramas. The only way to rescue society from this crisis is to introduce an Islamic education system based on the teachings of the Quran and Sunnah. By instilling moral education, we can awaken human conscience, cultivate ethical values, and instill the fear of Allah in people’s hearts. Society must embrace the principles of the Quran and Sunnah at all levels to put an end to these crimes.”
Finally, he calls upon the concerned authorities to immediately ensure exemplary punishment for the rapists of the young girl in Magura and take urgent, and effective measures to put an end to the rape and murder of women and girls across the country.
