Freedom of speech is for the birds and beasts

The monkey-god hanuman in Ramayana was an ardent devotee of Rama, but the common monkey, or hanuman, in Bangladesh seems to be a passionate devotee of the police. And the hanumans of Keshabpur, Jashore are particularly well known for this exemplary devotion and loyalty. When a little monkey was beaten and bruised by some local people there, its mother went to the local police station with her fellow primates, probably to protest. The students of Bangabandhu Science and Technology University around that time had demonstrating and demanding the resignation of their vice chancellor. The Keshabpur hanumans, perhaps, had seen the protests on TV at a local shop and followed suit. After sitting in for several hours, the hanumans deemed they had protested enough and returned home. Of course, they returned only after the police assured them of action!

But what will the oppressed humans do? Worse still if the oppressed victim is a woman. This is another Jashore incident. Four policemen including a sub-inspector (SI) one night approached a woman whose husband was behind bars. He had been charged in a phensidyl-related case. The police said they would make things easier for him in exchange of Tk 50,000, or else things would turn ‘complicated’.

Then again, what if even money doesn’t solve a problem? These great policemen were furious and indignant that the woman could even pose such a question. These ‘valiant’ men took the matter in their hands. While two of them stood on guard outside, the SI and another man entered the woman’s house and raped her.

According to the Bible, God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah for such sins, but alas, the earth did not shake beneath the girl nor did any thunder strike the rapists. No one came. The next day the woman, on her own, managed to get her medical test done at the Jashore General Hospital. The diagnosis confirmed the rape, but the court is yet to prove the identity of the rapists.

Apprehensions abound. Will this case continue in uncertainty like the case of Aysha in Barguna? It was the same for Feni’s Nusrat too. Aysha’s father still complains that the police are protecting the culprits.

Perhaps such incidents led Rajshahi college student Liza not to trust the police. She went to the Shah Makhdum police station last Friday after a quarrel with her husband, but left as she was not reassured by their words. But where will she go now? Her in-laws have already used the local chairman to make a phone call to her parents, threatening that she would be killed if she returned to them. She did not find refuge at the police station. She has no place in her home either as she was an adopted child. She was an ostracised by her family as she married without their consent. The police were her last resort, but that crumbled under her feet too. Seeing no way out, she simply doused herself in kerosene and set herself on fire on an open road. She is now fighting for her life with 45 per cent burn injuries at Dhaka Medical College Burn Unit. Miscreants set Nusrat on fire, but what frustrations set Liza ablaze?

Then there was the woman who was raped by five policemen at Khulna Government Railway Police (GRP) station. The police detained her on 2 August inside a Khulna-bound train from Benapole and took her to the Khulna GRP station. The five policemen including the officer-in-charge (OC) raped her there in turns throughout the night. This was not the end. She was produced before the court in the morning, accused in a case of phensidyl smuggling. A case has been filed against five people including the OC and SI.

These women could not be as confident as the monkeys. Through their excruciating losses they learnt that the police station was not a place for refuge. According to a 2018 survey of Transparency International, 72.50 per cent of the people were victims of police corruption at varying degrees. The condition of the rural people was the worst among the victims.

One cannot even talk about such a situation. Videos of police harassment and oppressions often pop up on Facebook. The cries of sufferers are heard here and there, but there’s no way to speak out.

Recently in France there were protests concerning the right of a rooster to crow. A couple filed a case over a neighbour’s rooster, claiming it disturbed them by crowing loudly at daybreak. Protests broke out across France over the issue. Public opinion grew in support of the rooster. The court verdict stated roosters had the freedom to crow at any time.

A rooster’s crow is the sign of a free society. There’s a legend that the people of a community were woken up by the rooster’s crowing at dawn. This allowed them to see the approaching enemies and build defence in time.

Can we raise our voice in that manner? Does our slumber break in time? The French rooster may have the freedom to crow, but do our people have the freedom of speech? Can the people of Bangladesh protest in the same way the angry hanumans did?

*Faruk Wasif is an author and assistant editor of Prothom Alo. He can be reached at faruk.wasif@prothomalo.com. This opinion, originally appearing in Prothom Alo print edition, has been rewritten here in English by Nusrat Nowrin.