Cyber Violence Is Silencing Women in Bangladesh

There's no denying that Bangladesh has stepped firmly into the digital age.

- IBRAHIM KHALILULLAH

Mobile screens now light up village homes; remote banking, online education, telemedicine-what once felt futuristic is now ordinary. The country, once constrained by analog limitations, has rapidly built its digital scaffolding. And yet, in the spaces between the milestones, something unsettling is happening.

Women, far from being lifted equally by this transformation, are increasingly under threat. Not from the technology itself, but from how it's being weaponized. Cyber violence against women isn't just a growing problem-it's a quiet epidemic.

Recent figures from the Cyber Crime Awareness Foundation show a sharp spike: cybercrime more than doubled in a single year, and nearly 60 percent of the victims were women. The Police Cyber Support for Women (PCSW) received over 9,000 harassment complaints in 2024. And those numbers barely scratch the surface. Most cases never make it to any formal system. Many women don't report-some fear retaliation; others have simply stopped expecting justice.

The forms of abuse are not abstract. They are precise and deeply personal. Hacked profiles, revenge porn, doctored images, threats delivered through messaging apps-each method tailored to degrade and control. For many women, the screen has become a source of dread, not freedom.