Street Harassment in Bangladesh:Women’s Experiences and Perceptions in Urban Settings

Abstract

This research contributes to the limited body of literature on street harassment in Dhaka. The analysis is based on qualitative semi-structured interviews with forty-five women aged between 18-28 years old residing in Dhaka. The research had three central aims, and achieving those aims forms the unique contribution of this thesis. Firstly, this thesis explores the nature of women’s street harassment experiences. By re-engaging with Kelly’s (1988) concept of the ‘continuum of sexual violence’, this research builds connections between ordinary encounters in women’s everyday lives to grievous forms of violence which are recognised by society and law and, thus, draws attention to the fact that the socially normalised behaviours like street harassment have a cumulative harmful effect on women and need to be recognised by society and law. By using Kelly’s conceptualisation in the context of Bangladesh, this research has advanced the understanding of street harassment beyond the context of the global North where this concept has primarily been used. Secondly, the research investigates women’s negotiations and coping mechanisms to prevent or minimise their future risks of victimisation. The thesis also explores the role of women’s informal support networks and the factors contributing to the underreporting of street harassment to the police. Finally, the thesis uses the concept of intersectionality to understand how women’s varying social identities, like gender, social class, religion, marital status, and age, can influence the frequency and severity of their street harassment experiences. This thesis asa whole makes an important contribution to our understanding of street harassment by producing a new body of evidence regarding the nature and experiences of street harassment in public places and argues that women’s accessibility and street harassment experiences need to be understood by intersecting not only with gender but other multiple social identities too, aswell as the patriarchal socio-cultural norms which are firmly embedded in the society.