Contextualising sexual harassment of adolescent girls in Bangladesh

Abstract

Violence against women is a social mechanism confirming women's subordination in many societies. Sexual violence and harassment have various negative psychological impacts on girls, including a persistent feeling of insecurity and loss of self-esteem. This article aims to contextualize a particular form of sexual harassment, namely “eve teasing”, experienced by Bangladeshi adolescent girls (12–18 years) which emerged from a study of adolescent sexual behaviour carried out by young people. The study used qualitative methods and a participatory approach, including focus group discussions, key informant interviews and observation. Despite taboos, unmarried adolescents actively seek information about sex, erotic pleasure and romance. Information was easily available from videos, mobile phone clips and pornographic magazines, but reinforced gender inequality. “Eve teasing” was one outlet for boys' sexual feelings; they gained pleasure from it and could show their masculinity. The girls disliked it and were afraid of being blamed for provoking it. Thus, “eve teasing” is a result of socio-cultural norms relating to sexuality, as well as a lack of access to sexual and reproductive health information and services in Bangladesh. These findings underscore the importance of comprehensive sexuality education that goes beyond a mere health focus and addresses gender norms and helps youth to gain social-sexual interaction skills.

Résumé

violence contre les femmes est un mécanisme social confirmant la subordination des femmes dans beaucoup de sociétés. La violence et le harcèlement sexuels ont plusieurs conséquences psychologiques négatives sur les filles, notamment un sentiment persistant d'insécurité et la perte de l'estime de soi. Cet article cherche à contextualiser une forme particulière de harcèlement sexuel avec le nom d'eve teasing, subie par les adolescentes bangladeshies (12–18 ans), qui est apparue dans une étude sur le comportement sexuel à l'adolescence. L'étude a utilisé des méthodologies qualitatives et une approche participative, avec des discussions de groupe, des entretiens avec des informateurs clés et l'observation. Malgré les tabous, les adolescents célibataires cherchent activement des informations sur la sexualité, le plaisir érotique et les histoires d'amour. Les informations étaient aisément disponibles dans des films vidéo, des clips sur téléphone portable et des magazines pornographiques, mais renforçaient les inégalités entre filles et garçons. L'eve teasing était un exutoire pour les sentiments sexuels des garçons ; ils y prenaient plaisir et pouvaient afficher leur virilité. Cette pratique ne plaisait pas aux filles qui craignaient d'être accusées de la provoquer. L'eve teasing résulte donc de normes socioculturelles relatives à la sexualité, ainsi que du manque d'accès aux informations et services de santé sexuelle et génésique au Bangladesh. Ces conclusions soulignent l'importance d'une éducation sexuelle complète allant au-delà d'une simple priorité à la santé, qui aborde les normes sexospécifiques et aide les jeunes à acquérir des compétences pour l'interaction socialo-sexuelle.

Resumen

La violencia contra las muejres es un mecanismo social para confirmar su subordinación en muchas sociedades. La violencia y el acoso sexuales tienen diversos impactos psicológicos negativos en las niñas, tales como una persistente sensación de inseguridad y pérdida de autoestima. En este artículo se procura contextualizar una forma específica de acoso sexual, es decir, eve teasing (incitación de Eva), sufrido por las adolescentes de Bangladesh (de 12 a 18 años de edad), que surgió de un estudio realizado por jóvenes sobre el comportamiento sexual entre adolescentes. Se utilizaron metodologías cualitativas y un enfoque participativo, que incluye discusiones en grupos focales, entrevistas con informantes clave y observación. Pese a los tabúes, las adolescentes solteras buscan información sobre sexo, placer erótico y amor. La información fue fácil de obtener por medio de videos, clips de teléfonos móviles y revistas pornográficas, pero reforzó la desigualdad de género. Eve teasing era una forma de canalizar los sentimientos sexuales de los niños, quienes adquirían placer de esto y podían demostrar su masculinidad. A las niñas no les gustaba y ellas temían que las culparan de provocarlo. Por lo tanto, eve teasing es un resultado de las normas socioculturales relacionadas con la sexualidad, así como de la falta de acceso a información y servicios de salud sexual y reproductiva en Bangladesh. Estos hallazgos recalcan la importancia de ofrecer educación sexual integral que vaya más allá de un mero enfoque en salud, trate las normas de género y ayude a la juventud a adquirir habilidades de interacción social-sexual.

Key Words:

• adolescents
• sexual harassment
• gender discrimination
• sexuality education
• Bangladesh

In 2009 a team of four Bangladeshi boys and four Bangladeshi girls (17–23 years old) were trained as co-researchers to collect data among adolescents on their experiences, needs and concerns in relation to their sexuality and how these realities (mis-)matched their access to sexuality information and sexual and reproductive health services.

The focus group discussions and interviews revealed that among the key concerns most mentioned by the adolescent girls was the experience of sexual harassment in public places, commonly named and culturally constructed as “eve teasing”, originally an Indian-English term. The term is widely used in South Asia to describe the public bullying of girls and women by boys and men, where boys intercept girls on public transport, the street and at workplaces and shout obscenities at them, laugh at them, force them to talk, verbally abuse them, threaten them with abduction, and even touch them inappropriately.¹

In South Asian popular culture “eve teasing” has been represented as a medium of communication between men and women. In Hindi films, for example, the villain or other hero is involved in the flirtatious beginnings of a courtship² and moderate sexual harassment is often treated as being fun and romantic.³ This is particularly problematic because of the role of Hindi films – the most popular entertainment for young people in the entire Indian sub-continent – in shaping social learning, particularly for boys regarding their interaction with girls.

The term “eve-teasing” does not capture the seriousness of the range of behaviours it denotes, however. Baxi² describes it as a mechanism of normalizing violence against women that suggests that women are both a tease and deserve to be teased. The Indian women's movement was the first to challenge this cultural perception by categorizing it unambiguously as sexual harassment.

Historically, “eve teasing” was first documented by Indian women at the beginning of the post-colonial period, when they started joining the public sphere for employment and socializing.² In Bangladesh the practice probably followed similar dynamics since 1980, with free girls' education, women's participation in the garment industry and in the NGO innovation workforce, e.g. in health, education and other development activities.⁴ Whereas girls' education is reported to correlate with improvements in health outcomes and with women's overall empowerment and mobility, certain types of gender discrimination have persisted, such as unequal pay, early forced marriage and gender-based violence.^5,6

Mobility of women and girls is much more common today; nonetheless, only 49% of older women and 38% of younger women feel safe going out within their own neighborhood.⁵ In fact, “eve teasing” of girls walking to school or using public transport is considered to be one of the major causes of dropout from school and also of early marriage of girls in Bangladesh.⁷

In the mid-1990s, the feminist movement achieved a new law in India related to sexual harassment that included “eve teasing”.^8,9 Since 2010, “eve teasing” has also been a crime in Bangladesh and subject to punishment by the Bangladesh state authority. The incidence increased so rapidly that the government decided to employ mobile courts to prosecute people accused of sexually harassing women. Anyone convicted of sexual harassment or stalking of women can face fines from 7000 Taka (US$70) and up to a year in jail. The media periodically covers cases when men are caught and sentenced, especially the more violent cases. Some social movements, e.g. music concerts, are devoted to protest against violence against women, “eve teasing” in particular.

In this article, we abide with a definition of “eve teasing” that has the absence of consent at its core, thus, sexual behaviour lacking respect for the other person, which can be hurtful. Unlike rape, “eve-teasing” belongs to a grey area of sexual violence that comprises less explicit nonconsensual sexual behaviour or expressions that violate sexual autonomy, which may be considered “normal” under dominant sociocultural norms.¹⁰

Local news media say that “eve teasing” is on the rise in Bangladesh and links are made between it and other forms of sexual harassment and violence and their consequences, such as abduction, acid burning, murder and suicide.^5,11–16 In 2010, 28 girls/women committed suicide in Bangladesh, and another seven attempted suicide, in order to escape frequent sexual harassment.⁴ As many as 90% of Bangladeshi girls aged 10–18 years are thought to have experienced “eve teasing”.^14,17

This article focuses on how adolescent girls in Bangladesh (12–18 years) experience “eve teasing” and what meanings they attach to it, and adolescent boys' views on and explanations for “eve teasing” girls. We will argue that “eve teasing” derives from harmful sociocultural norms relating to sexuality and gender. We will look into what the data and insights mean for the promotion of adolescent sexual and reproductive health and rights in Bangladesh, in terms of sexuality education, service provision, and social change.

Methodology

The co-researchers were selected from a group of peer educators active as volunteers for the youth programme of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh (FPAB) to become co-researchers in a participatory research project entitled “Do They Match?”.¹⁸ They collected data on adolescents' experiences, needs and concerns in relation to their sexuality and whether their access to sexuality information and services met their needs. The research was carried out through a youth programme run by FPAB in Jessore, a city in the northwest of Bangladesh. The young researchers came from four different districts where FPAB is working (including Jessore) and were selected on the basis of their performance as peer educators and their letters of motivation. All were graduate students and unmarried. They underwent an intensive two-week qualitative research skills training, and the research plan and interview questions were developed with them.

With the support of FPAB and the first author, the research team collected qualitative data in 28 focus group discussions (FGDs) with 237 unmarried boys and girls; 48 in-depth interviews, with 6 health service providers, 11 adults, 15 girls and 16 boys; two panel discussions with stakeholders, consisting of community leaders, parents, school teachers, health clinic personnel and staff members of the Family Planning Association of Bangladesh; and observations at a youth-friendly service centre, two street locations where street canvassers were selling traditional medicines for sexuality problems, two public parks and two cyber cafes that adolescents indicated were dating places. Adolescent informants (12–18 years) were selected from various socio-economic backgrounds within Jessore municipality and included: urban boys and girls from state and Islamic schools and colleges (Madrasa), slum dwellers, orphans, adolescent sex workers, visitors to youth-friendly services and adolescents from rural areas around Jessore town. FGD's were held with boys and girls separately divided into age groups of 12–15 years and 16–18 years.

Data analysis was carried out with open and axial coding. In addition, a content analysis was done of questions raised by adolescents in the question box of the youth centre and of sources of information on sexuality that young respondents mentioned, including local music, magazines, joke videos, CDs, films and information downloaded onto mobile phones. Data were presented and discussed with a panel of community stakeholders and FPAB staff members, to gain their views, verify preliminary conclusions and formulate recommendations for interventions. Further details on process and outcomes are described in another paper from this study.¹⁹ Final data analysis and reporting were done by the first author, with in-depth input from the youth research team.

During the training and research process the young researchers gained experience and skills and learned to probe more and reflect on how they influenced the information they got from their informants through the choice for questions they asked, the way they asked the questions, the way they interpreted the information, how they drew conclusions and selected what was written down. To reduce bias, they were asked to transcribe their notes immediately following the interviews, and through debriefing and reflection sessions after every day of data collection. These sessions also served to discuss how the data should be understood and interpreted and to get consensus on preliminary conclusions.

Talking about sexuality is challenging; informants were shy to disclose very personal feelings and experiences in the FGDs, and mostly referred to experiences of their friends or cousins, not their own. This did not hamper the research, as we were interested in general patterns of sexual reality among the adolescents. However, data from FGDs tend to be normative and were therefore triangulated as much as possible with the data from the other sources. At a later stage of the project we also developed eight hypothetical cases, separately for boys and girls, based on the findings up to that point, which were presented to youth centre visitors to obtain their opinions (for more details¹⁹).

We were unable to explore sexuality issues among rural illiterate young people, patterns of rural commercial sex, or views of rural parents and rural religious leaders. Also, not enough exploration was done into the experiences of orphans and slum girls, which would have provided a more comprehensive insight into differences between these groups of young people.

Findings

The study reveals differential social position of boys and girls. It shows that if girls do not abide by strict norms pertaining to their sexual behaviour, they risk strong social stigma (much more than boys), reduce their chance of finding a suitable marital partner and risk their families having to pay a higher dowry. This leads many girls to guard their virginity. Social regulation of premarital sexuality is imposed mainly on girls, limiting their mobility and restricting their social interaction with boys. It is also taboo for adults and children to discuss sexuality with each other. Gender segregation and the taboos surrounding sexuality make it difficult to offer sexuality education and services to unmarried people in Bangladesh.

Seeking sexual pleasure and materials on sex

Despite taboos and norms, however, unmarried adolescents actively seek ways to find erotic pleasure and romance. Mostly boys but also girls talk about romance and sex with their friends, older cousins and/or in-laws. Those who have access to computers (at home or at a cyber cafe), look for information and pornographic material on the internet and through other media. Mobile phones were widely used by boys for watching pornographic clips seven minutes long, which cost only three taka (US$ 0.04) from mobile phone shops. They also downloaded pornography from friends' mobiles through Bluetooth for free and had access to local erotic music, joke videos and uncensored clips from movies with erotic scenes. Cheaply printed magazines with erotic pictures and texts were also popular, again mainly among boys. Only a few girls said they got involved in erotic conversations on their mobile phones late at night with boys. Boys mentioned masturbation as a way of getting sexual pleasure. None of the girls admitted to this, the main reason being that they feared losing their virginity if they masturbated.

Boys and girls both liked to watch romantic movies (both Bengali and Hindi) and some engaged in romantic relationships without sexual intercourse. Boys and girls who were involved in a romantic relationship mentioned that it was not easy for them to meet in a public place or hang out together, as they were afraid of being caught by family members, neighbours or relatives. The only public place in which high school and college boys and girls could meet was a park, usually during or after school or college as the girls were not allowed to be out after dark. Urban respondents also mentioned rickshaws, cyber cafés, cinema halls, friends' or relatives' houses and classrooms (after class) as places to meet up. The rural boys and girls mentioned bushes (ara, bash-zhaar), jute/sugarcane/paddy fields and bamboo gardens as their dating places. Only some boys admitted sexual activity; among the latter some admitted that they had gone to sex workers, or had even got involved in rape. Interviews with service providers confirmed that non-married adolescents, including girls, come for services such as abortion, and (emergency) contraception, despite the barriers. Thus, strict norms do not always lead to abstinence but rather to discretion and secrecy.

Access to publications about sex

Young people satisfied their curiosity regarding sex and sexuality, through many sources of information. One of the popular sources were erotic books, commonly known as choti boi, story books with erotic pictures where the characters get involved in sexual acts every now and then and the author gives a graphic description of them, including extramarital sex and incest. Curiously, in a society where sex outside marriage is considered to be an offence, during our data collection no book was found where the sexual relations of married couples were described; rather, those between stepmother and son, siblings, uncle/aunty, niece/nephew or friends were prominent. These books contained unrealistic and false information regarding the size of the penis, duration of intercourse and some sexual actions taken by the women. On the other hand, religious life style instruction books, commonly available in educated, lower middle class, Muslim households, have a chapter on prayer in relation to sex acts, officially only targeted at married couples. In the table of contents of these books the chapter on sex is marked “only for adults”. As a result, even young people who were less interested in religion were interested to read this chapter secretly.

There were also cheaply printed Bengali magazines with erotic pictures, mostly from foreign pornographic magazines, and texts which were popular. These were mostly available from hawkers' shops, set up in front of cinema halls, local stationery shops or marketplaces. These items were not openly displayed but kept hidden underneath other books and magazines and supplied to the customer only if asked for. In addition to mobile phone pornography there are locally made erotic musical and comedy videos in rural, semi-urban and urban settings. These are made with amateur actors unknown to the mainstream film or music industry, though sometimes using pictures of popular singers or actors on the cover. Mostly, boys have access to these materials. Usually they purchased these cheaply available materials in turns and shared them with each other. They kept them in hidden places at home such as under the mattress, or inside books. Most of the girls had access to the religious books. Some girls admitted having access to the other materials but said they had never bought them, only seen from friends.

The adults we interviewed said that although to some extent choti boi and religious books were also available in the past, only adults would have had access to them then. They were unaware of the magnitude and variety of these materials and adolescents' access to them. Moreover, both the adolescents and adults admitted that mobile phone and internet pornography were unknown by most parents.

This is the consequence of it being taboo for adults to discuss sexuality with unmarried young people. Young boys turn to street canvassers and herbalists (whose advice is freely available, only purchasing a medicine costs a little) to answer their questions and for information and help. The information they receive from these sources is generally incomplete and often incorrect and leads to misconceptions, insecurities and fears, and only reconfirms cultural ideas about gender roles and male sexual power. Hence, when boys and girls feel sexual desire or engage in activities with each other to explore their sexuality or when they seek information, eroticism, pleasure, intimacy and romance, they feel afraid and guilty.

Adolescents' feelings about dating and sexuality

Boys and girls mentioned that romance and pleasure were important to them, to their self-esteem and to their feeling of being mature, feminine or masculine. However, all of this must be hidden, especially from adults. They are afraid of stigma and punishment, especially the girls. Adults suspect romantic relationships to be sexual relationships. Boys and girls fear anger from families. For girls the consequences are worse, including restrictions on movement, having to leave school, being expelled from an orphanage, being forced to marry, being abused by a future husband, bringing humiliation to the families involved and hampering future marriage options. If a romantic relationship does not lead to marriage, the girl's family might end up paying more dowry for her.

Girls also had fears about menstruation and of not being able to prove their virginity on their wedding night. Boys were afraid of becoming weak or sick because of masturbation or wet dreams. Both sexes felt insecurity about sexual power, sexual organs and breasts, about the ability to perform sexually and to have children in the future. They feared arranged and forced marriage to someone not loved and of losing a romantic partner of their own choice. And they feared loss of reputation if caught doing something “bad”, and sinning against God.

“Eve teasing” from the girls' perspective

“Eve teasing” and sexual harassment were among the most commonly mentioned concerns relating to sexuality by adolescents. The girls in this study experienced frequent sexual harassment by boys in public places, particularly erotic comments to a girl who passes by. Most of these comments referred to the girl's physical appearance and body, for example: “Look at her breasts! What's the size?” “Oh! Size of her buttock is 40 and breasts 36.” “Such an awesome piece!” “Hi sexy, how did you grow such big breasts?” “Walking, shaking.” Sometimes they would refer to the breats as a pair of coconuts or apples. Girls would walk holding their books to their chests. Boys would comment: “Wish I could be that book in her hand! I could have got closer to her breasts or heart.”

The girls said the boys would propose to start a love relationship to a girl passing by on the street, verbally or by throwing her a note, and the boy would expect that the girl would react to the proposal right away. If there was no reaction or a negative reaction, the level of “eve teasing” would intensify.

Girls said the boys would not only express attraction through their comments but also their distaste when they disliked a girl's looks. For example, they would call a thin girl shutki (dried fish) or a tall girl logi (bamboo). When they saw a fat girl, they would say: “Can we make use of her?” If the girls did not respond to a boy's offer, the boys would say: “This girl is sour like a green mango”. Sometimes the boys would whistle, wink, clap, laugh loudly, sing songs (usually vulgar), blow kisses, or act out intercourse with body language.

When the boys made comments or tried to touch them, most of the girls said they would pass by silently, with lowered heads. Some girls asked their older brothers to handle the boys. One girl said she was very sad about this teasing and asked her mother to make her a burkha so that the boys would stop making comments. However, even the girls who wore burkhas were not safe. One of the religious school girls explained that the boys would say: “Hi sexy, Arabian nights.” Girls tend to get scared or upset about these kinds of comments.

Next to verbal abuse many girls mentioned that they had experienced physical harassment by boys such as pinching, kicking, touching their breasts and standing very close. Girls also knew of cases where a boy had thrown acid over a girl who had rejected his offer of “love”, and about girls being kidnapped and raped for the same reason.

None of the girls enjoyed the attention – because the boys were “unknown” to them, it happened in a public place, it gave them a constant feeling of insecurity in public places, and they feared being blamed for provoking it if they reported it to anyone. Indeed, the findings from all the focus group discussions with girls showed that if a girl reported harassment to anyone or if she was identified as a victim of harassment, society, or in some cases even her family, would blame her and humiliate her family.

“Eve teasing” from the boys' perspective

The boys acknowledged that they engaged in harassing girls verbally and most said also physically. Some slum boys admitted being involved in rape; two confessed to having participated in gang rape. Many of them admitted that they looked for the chance to touch a girl in crowded public places, for example at carnivals or festivals, cinema halls, marketplaces, or on a bus or train. “…when the lights went off… I pressed a girl's breasts and buttock.”

When boys were asked why they teased/harassed girls, most said they enjoyed it and got pleasure from it. Some said it was to show their masculinity in front of their peers and in response to peer pressure. For example, one boy said that friends told him he could demonstrate his valour by touching a girl's breast in front of them. So the boy ran up to a girl and suddenly squeezed her breast in front of his friends on the street to prove his masculinity. Others were fearful about punishment for “eve teasing” girls, and did not get involved in it.

Many boys thought “eve teasing” was normal. They thought verbal comments and touching girls in public places were not harmful for the girls, as they would not get pregnant, and adults would not know about it. Some boys thought every unmarried boy had a right to approach every unmarried girl on the street, even if they were unknown or unrelated to each other. However, most of the boys had never thought about how the girls would feel about such behaviour.

Discussion

This article contextualizes “eve teasing” of Bangladeshi adolescent girls as a gendered response which objectifies girls. Gender inequality, leading to sexual harassment, is deeply embedded in Bangladeshi social structure.^20–24 In Bangladesh, patriarchy, gender norms and the custom of purdah (veiling) result in girls being discriminated against from birth,^25,26 and these are predisposing factors for their experience of sexual harassment.²⁷ Laws and judicial procedures further aggravate the problem.^28,29 In spite of the introduction of mobile courts to prosecute men and boys accused of sexually harassing girls and women, cultural practices cannot be changed overnight.^7,11 Society tends to blame the girls, making it hard for them to report sexual harassment and violence, which does not stop after adolescence. A 2004 report on workplace sexual harassment in Bangladesh, for example, found that working women were also reluctant to reveal experiences of harassment for fear of being stigmatised, threatened with revenge or dismissed from their jobs.³⁰

Gender inequality also dictates how boys and girls perceive their roles in sexual relationships. Among married adolescent slum girls, Rashid found that the concept of having control over sexual experiences was rare.³¹ Others in South Asia have shown that sexual harassment is a mechanism of social control, deeply linked to patriarchy and power structures, and a reluctance to address the sexual abuse and exploitation of women and girls.^32–34 An anthropological work has argued that due to the transformation of social and economic structures, men's masculinity is in crisis, which is a major reason for street harassment of women in Egypt.³⁵

Values and norms relating to sexuality play a dominant role too. Pre-marital sex is traditionally taboo in Bangladesh.^36–40 From our study it is evident that the cultural taboo of sexuality in general and the puritanical, sexually repressive attitude of society towards premarital sexuality results in gender segregation and inadequate information for adolescents, leading to misconceptions and fears regarding sexuality. As a result, sexuality is mystified and adolescents learn to attach sexual meanings to any interaction with the opposite sex, hampering their capability of more natural or spontaneous interactions, and of developing non-sexual intimacy with the opposite sex. This is more so since there are very few public spaces where adolescent boys and girls who are not related can meet and interact. At the same time, increased access for adolescents to global media, including various pornographic materials, and other social changes, have also contributed to the reinforcement of certain stereotypical gender and sexual norms and expectations, such as male dominance and pleasure. Some authors blame media and Hindi films for promoting sexual violence in South Asia.^2,3,11–14

“Eve teasing” is probably also a consequence of restrictions on social mixing, romantic relationships and dating, exacerbated by the influence of pornography, and the absence of sexuality and relationships education. It is evident that the attempts of adults to regulate adolescent sexuality according to norms for virginity and arranged marriage, through segregating boys and girls and limiting their interactions, undermines the development of interactional skills between the sexes. Behaviour related to sex and sexuality of adolescents depends greatly on their sexual socialisation. Moreover, sexual socialization is embedded in many non-sexual aspects of social life.⁴¹ Developing competence at sexual interaction is part of sexual socialization,^42,43 involving communication and social skills, sensitivity and behavioural strategies that help people to arrange their sexual encounters in a mutually rewarding way.⁴⁴ Without this, “eve-teasing” more easily flourishes.

Lastly, there is the lack of access to reproductive and sexual health information and services in Bangladesh. The unnecessary anxieties and insecurities relating to their bodies and sexual feelings expressed by adolescents in this study show why young people should have access to comprehensive sexuality education that goes beyond a focus on health outcomes and addresses gender inequality and builds skills for social-sexual interaction competence.

At the time of this research, there was no sexuality education in the school curriculum in Bangladesh. More recently, BRAC has introduced sex education in their rural adolescents' schools, and FPAB and four other NGOs are developing and introducing a comprehensive sexuality education programme in schools in some districts. Bangladeshi adolescents critically need access to correct and complete information to counterbalance the information and messages they are getting from friends, street canvassers, the internet, pornography and elsewhere. No matter how strict the norms and social punishments, adolescents and young people, as part of normal sexual development, will look for information, pleasure and erotica outside the control of adults. The best way that adults can protect and guide them is to equip them with information, skills and confidence.

Likewise, sexual and reproductive health services targeting young people should also move beyond a strict health focus and include counselling, care and prevention in relation to the issues that are of main concern to adolescents, including those who are not (yet) sexually active. Beyond physical health these need to include services where adolescents can discuss fears and insecurities and deal with gender-based and sexual violence, such as forced marriage, sexual harassment and stigma, and forced sex. Moreover, facilitating the reporting of harassment needs to become a priority. Boys and girls need to become more aware and respectful of their own and others' sexual rights, and parents and adults in society need to realize their role in preventing (not tacitly supporting) sexual violence. A different form of interaction between boys and girls is necessary and with it, strict gender separation should stop. The media can play an important role in this and encourage people to continue and increase discussion of sexual violence.

Acknowledgements

The research was commissioned by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF), with funding from the Dutch Government. The fieldwork was supported by FPAB. The authors are especially grateful to the adolescent informants whose experiences and opinions this article is based on and to the eight young people who carried out a large part of this research: Akhter Moshammat Sabina, Islam Mainul Hasan, Islam Mohammad Jahidul, Khatun Parijat, Pervas Kamal, Rahman Mahfuza, Ray Mithon Kumar, Sume Afroza Khanam, and to Tanzir Azmarina. Special thanks go to our colleagues from the youth and adolescents teams at IPPF London and IPPF Regional Office for South Asia, to the staff of FPAB and to Kathy de Kruijf for help with editing.