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Walk tall

Naira Khan
I am not a feminist nor do I wish to be labeled as one. In fact I would even go so far as to voice my protest against such celebrations as "Women's Day" because it makes me feel as though all other days are "Men's Day."
Even Valentine's Day I feel was invented by men for men to redeem all the birthdays and anniversaries they forgot and Hallmark was assigned the task of making it logistically impossible to ignore it, let alone forget it.
Another such Hallmark invention would be Friendship Day -- an insult to all friendships whereby vou need to set aside a day to commemorate them.
Coming back from the tangent I seem to have strayed off into, my proclamation of not being afeminist was mainly because for the next few paragraphs I'm going to harp on about women's issues.
Well not so much women's issues as there is a plethora of issues therein, but rather about the tribulations faced by women on the streets of Dhaka city. As for women's issues, as long as we live in a male dominated world, there will always be room for improvement.
Having grown up in Dhaka city I find that there are some discrepancies in terms of the gravity with which the problems faced by women
in the streets on a daily basis are presented.
There seems to be a socio-cultural demarcation between women who take to the streets because they have no other option and those who are so apprehensive to do so that they don't mind their mobility being limited due to the lack of availability of their private vehicle.
A friend of mine labeled the latter as bubble-girls -- women who live in a bubble created by the paranoia of their parents and perpetuated by themselves. I was once a bubble girl myself. I was only able to break free from the shackles of my parents' stronghold by literally taking to the streets, using public transportation, and showing them that it is quite alright to do so.
The apprehensions seem to be three fold: a) the state of roads and traffic conditions, b) the staring, c) the eve-teasing. To the extent that
are completely unusable and women only deign to use them despite the conditions described.
In actuality, however, this perspective is rather extreme. Women can indeed walk the streets of Dhaka -- and average women do. In fact I think it's rather elitist to say that the streets of Dhaka are no place for women and women don't use them.
For the full version of this article please read this month's Forum, available free with The Daily Star on Monday, May 4.
Naira Khan is a lecturer at the Department of Linguistics, Univefsity of Dhaka