“What would you do if all men disappeared from the world for 24 hours?” In response to this question, a young woman said, “I would walk alone at night. I’d walk around at 3:00am and see what it feels like.”
The young woman’s response in an interview that went viral on social media last year reflected women’s desire to move around freely and safely. Yet, instead of discussing women’s safety, they are often blamed themselves.
A 15-year-old girl who recently died in a paddy field in Lalmai, Cumilla, was not spared such victim-blaming either. Her rape and murder should have prompted a discussion about women’s safety. Instead, some people on social media have been posting obscene comments and mocking the girl herself.
A Facebook group called ‘No More Silence’ has taken a different approach to counter such comments. The group publishes photographs, identities and links to the Facebook profiles of people who post obscene comments about women under news reports and posts about widely discussed incidents.
How the group started
As soon as one visits the Facebook group, one sees photographs, identities and links to the profiles of people who made obscene comments about the girl from Cumilla. Some of them live abroad, while others are physicians, employees or students. The list includes men of different ages. Some of their comments are so obscene that they cannot be reproduced.
The group was launched on 2 November last year, nearly a year ago. It now has more than 30,000 members.
The group claims to have exposed the identities of more than 100 people who made offensive comments about women. In several cases, screenshots of the comments were sent to the individuals’ workplaces, educational institutions and embassies. According to the group, some of the individuals were subsequently warned by their employers or educational institutions.
The group’s founder, Abir Ahmed, is a writer and online activist. He told Prothom Alo that ‘No More Silence’ is a Facebook group dedicated to raising social awareness. Its purpose is to bring public attention to instances in which people’s dignity is undermined through derogatory, insulting and hateful comments on social media.
One of the group’s two moderators is Umme Suraiya, who has completed a master’s degree in political science. The other moderator, Zakia Hossain, is a second-year higher secondary student.
The group was formed following an incident of sexual harassment of women at a concert in Habiganj. The concert was organised at Jalal Stadium in Habiganj to mark the silver jubilee of the Management Department of Brindaban Government College. Disorder broke out at the event, and news outlets reported that women attending the concert had faced sexual harassment and molestation.
Amid the reports, a Facebook account described in vulgar language an incident in which a woman had been touched inappropriately. The post received ‘ha ha’ reactions. Angered by what they saw, Abir Ahmed and his two associates decided to set up the group.
Exposing the identities of ‘offenders’
On 30 September, a television channel published a news card about the recovery of a woman’s body with her throat slit in a hotel bathroom in Cox’s Bazar. The woman had filed a case against her husband over a family dispute. She had checked into a hotel in Cox’s Bazar to attend a hearing in the case, accompanied by her two-and-a-half-year-old child and a man. Her body was later found in the hotel bathroom. The child was in the room, while the man had fled.
‘No More Silence’ published the photographs and identities of six people who made obscene comments under the news card about the incident.
On 15 January, a television channel reported allegations that several people, including a bus driver and his assistant, had gang-raped a passenger inside a bus in Savar. The group published the photographs and identities of five people who posted comments supporting rape under the report.
According to the group, police detained a young man from Faridpur after it posted about him making videos of himself behaving inappropriately with his own sister. The young man later appeared on Facebook to apologise and pledged not to make such videos again.
Need to raise awareness
While the initiative seeks to establish social accountability for obscene comments, publishing people’s identities also carries the risk of misidentification.
After the mother of the girl from Cumilla spoke publicly demanding justice for her daughter’s murder, a man posted an obscene comment under a news report about her statement. He identified himself as a sales employee at the Bishwo Rang showroom in Sunrise Plaza in the capital. However, after the group published his identity, Bishwo Rang issued a statement saying it had no employee by that name.
The incident highlights the importance of verifying information before exposing someone’s identity online. If someone makes a comment using a fake account in another person’s name, publishing that person’s identity without confirming who is behind the account could lead to an innocent individual being harassed.
The law provides for punishment for obscene comments targeting women, sexual harassment, and the creation and distribution of sexually abusive material by manipulating women’s images. Section 25 of the Cyber Security Act 2026 provides for punishment for publishing harmful or intimidating material through digital platforms for the purposes of blackmail, sexual harassment, revenge pornography, digital child sexual abuse material or sextortion.
Manisha Biswas, focal person for the Cyber Support for Women and Children (CSWC) platform of the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), told Prothom Alo that women rarely seek legal remedies over offensive comments and image manipulation. This emboldens those responsible for such offences.
Social media has become a space where even insulting comments can attract more likes and comments, she said. People need to be held accountable for what they post, and public awareness should be raised by informing people about the penalties prescribed by law.
However, Biswas advised caution when publishing the identities of people accused of wrongdoing. She said it was essential to verify whether someone else might be posting comments using a fake account in another person’s name before disclosing their identity.