Women who smoke in Bangladesh Public | Smoking is the problem or that women do it?

TUE 4 MAR, 2025 12:28 PM
Last Update to: TUE 4 MAR, 2025 09:27 PM

TUE 4 MAR, 2025 12:28 PM Last update to: TUE 4 MAR, 2025 09:27 PM

Protesters burn the effigy of the internal business counselor, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, near Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, in Dhaka, on March 3, 2025, asking for his resignation. Photo: Amrar Hossain

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Protesters burn the effigy of the internal business counselor, Jahangir Alam Chowdhury, near Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban, in Dhaka, on March 3, 2025, asking for his resignation. Photo: Amrar Hossain

An endless chat over a cup of tea and a fast smoke has hardly an unpleasant ring or suggests an associated danger – other than the consumption of tobacco and sugar, of course. However, this is exactly what has proven to be a nightmare for two people at a tea stand in the Lalmatia area in Dhaka on Saturday. The only reason was that they were women.

An elderly man offended and noted that women should not be allowed to smoke there, to which the two women were properly offended. An altercation took place with slurries that turn quickly into slaps. In a terrible return of events, the persecutor, a man in the 60s, managed to incite a crowd, calling the women “sluts” for smoking in public. The mumble threw women. Were abused, harassed and assaulted. Were injured and parts of their clothes were snatched. Everything because they smoked in public. Taken in police custody, the two were then told not to file a complaint.

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Asked about this issue later, Internal Affairs Councilor LT Gen (RETD) Jahangir Alam Chowdhury noted properly Smoking in public is a crime – if the laws against public smoking applied in this case could be a debate issue – and that people should refrain from this habit. He also noted that there was a space between women and the old man and that one of the women apparently sprayed the man, thus triggering the whole incident.

Photo: Amran Hossain/Star

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Photo: Amran Hossain/Star

However, the home adviser did not notice, for once, the criminal nature of what the men of those women did.

The Criminal Code, in 1860, from Bangladesh, criminals sexual aggression against women, the criminal force with the intention of not incorrecting and the attempt to incorrect women (sections 354, 355 and 375), all applying to the crowd and old age – all men, and maybe many men.

It is not about the consumption of tobacco (chewing, for example), but about the act of smoking by women who are generally associated with the western rebellion, which is almost automatically granted to the “bad character”. Women who smoke are frequently labeled as “distant”, which implies that they do not have traditional values. Not for men, though. For them they could be regarded as an added call layer – a show of masculinity, even.

This double standard is deeply rooted in subcontinental gender norms, cultural expectations and moral police, which dictate that women should embody ideals of modesty, virtue and domestication.

In a spectacle justified by outrage, people protested, many women among them. On Monday, the protesters under the flag “Bangladesh against rape and oppression” staged a demonstration In front of Jatiya, Sangsad Bhaban, protesting about what happened in Lalmatia, burning an effigy of the home adviser and asking for his resignation. They claimed that while smoking in public can be subject to legal restrictions, it does not justify the physical attack. They also criticized the counselor because he did not recognize the criminal actions committed by the attackers against the two women in Lalmatia.

It is not at all about encouraging women – or men – to smoke. Smoking is harmful to both men and women. Increases the risk of lung cancer, other forms of cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), chronic bronchitis and emphysema, cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, stroke, hormonal imbalances and fertility problems for both male smokers and women. No, this is the male chausist mentality that sets unreasonable standards for one gender and not for the other. The same mentality is poured into other spheres of public life – participation in sports, held or even the nature of employment – with equal toxicity.

What happened in the Lalmatia and response of our home adviser who followed had no connection with smoking. They have been shown only that two other copies confirming the stereotype that is easily threatened. It is quite discriminated. The same transformation of events would have been quite far beyond the question if there were two men.

It was never about smoking. Only women were doing it and probably seen to invade what is considered to be a territory of men. The feminist movements, the urban youth cultures and the change of attitudes are pushed slowly against these outdated norms, but the incidents like the one in Lalmatia show that there is still a long road. But we will continue to raise our voice against the injustice and violence based on gender.

With or without cigarette between your fingers.

Naziba Basher He is a journalist at The Daily Star.

The opinions expressed in this article are of the author.

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