Video of men harassing a woman for smoking in public goes viral

[Smoking is injurious to health.]

A young woman, sitting with a man, was smoking near Rajshahi's Circuit House Road -- a public space where people go to unwind -- on Sunday morning.

All of a sudden, a man appeared on the scene and started shouting at the woman, asking her to leave immediately.

Soon, some other men joined him in rebuking the woman for "smoking in a public place".

A video of the incident that went viral on social media yesterday showed the man repeatedly and rudely telling the woman to put out her cigarette and leave.

The young woman tried to argue, asking the man who was shouting what it was that she had done wrong. She pointed out that there were several men nearby who were smoking just as she was.

The mob that formed around the woman and her friend started getting louder and at one stage she had to leave, humiliated.

While she was leaving, someone in the mob was heard saying that "this kind of insolent behaviour is a reason for rape".

The video also shows a youth standing up for the woman and questioning the men verbally abusing her, asking whether they have any authority to stop the woman from smoking.

He also faced the mob's wrath.

The man who started harassing the young woman for smoking was identified as Shahid Hossain Barek, organising secretary of the city's Rajpara unit of Awami League. 

Talking to The Daily Star later today, he denied harassing the woman and said that he had "politely asked her to put off her cigarette and leave the spot". 

"The situation turned worse when she reacted badly," he said. 

Barek also said that he went to ask her to leave on his own and he was not directed to do this by anyone, adding that some of the locals had complained to him about her smoking. 

He said he works as a contractor at Public Works Department and the incident happened in front of the PWD office. 

"We, PWD contractors, usually sit there. I felt disturbed, seeing her smoking. In our society, women don't smoke," he added.

Women's rights activists in Rajshahi are saying that the incident was not an isolated case; rather, it was part of a growing, disturbing trend happening in different city areas over the last few years.

Men, either in groups or alone, are targeting women and harassing them for not following what they refer to as "socially acceptable behaviour", they said.

Initially, such incidents of harassing women were limited to Rajshahi University campus but gradually, similar incidents started happening in Uposhohor and Lakshmipur, said Prof Mahbuba Kaniz, general secretary of Rajshahi University unit of Bangladesh Mohila Parishad.

In early November, Rajshahi's Rabindra Sangeet Sammiloni Parishad general secretary Monira Mithi posted on Facebook, stating that some women in burqa harassed her in public for not covering her head.

Talking to The Daily Star, she said she was harassed three times in the last two years.

"I have been living in this city for several decades. The recent harassments are quite new to me," she said.

She described her latest experience at Uposhohor New Market on November 7.

When she was buying vegetables, she noticed some women in burqa were looking at her.

When she looked back at them, one of them asked her if she was a Hindu.

She replied that she was a human being.

The woman then rebuked her for not covering her head despite being a Muslim, she said.

Under Mithi's Facebook post, some 88 persons -- mostly women -- commented and many of them shared their experience of being harassed in different city areas in the span of the last two-three years.

One Mitalee Sarker wrote that she and her mother experienced similar harassment while shopping at Shaheb Bazar. 

Nibedita Chatterjee wrote such incidents happened to her despite wearing shankha -- bangles which Hindu women usually wear. 

When contacted, Rajshahi Metropolitan Police's spokesperson and Additional Deputy Commissioner Golam Ruhul Kuddus said such incidents were never reported to the police.

"Rajshahi city is comparatively safer than other cities in the country and the city's police are active in maintaining this status," he said, wondering why such incidents have not been reported despite occurring for years. 

Harassing people and verbally abusing them are serious crimes as per law, he said and added, if reported, police will take action.