Now religion aside, Mr. Quasem writes about Gender Equality and instead of talking about equality when it comes to natural rights he talks about equality in terms of physical attributes and differences. He easily forgets the fact that differences have allowed procreation and the continuance of our kind. His write-up as he mentions women giving birth and continuing mankind sounds facetious at best. He says that it is natural that women are weaker. I assure you if women were weak they would not have given birth. Imagine passing a kidney stone and multiply that many times over.

Mr. Quasem states from what he viewed that "In Bangladesh it seems, men will never learn to value women." The writer makes this general statement because it required him to travel thousands of miles away from the land he was born to learn that women have "value".

Instead of correcting his cook's view about women and their leadership and work abilities he simply observed in awe. Instead of admitting that the cook's narrow mindedness and lack of education are the reason for his sexist comments he simply excused him because of some facts that he himself believes in. The author feels the same way about women still and simply learned to hide these thoughts after his residence in the US. He forgets that the condition of our country under the rules of both Prime Ministers Khaleda Zia and Sheikh Hasina are still much better than the condition it was in during the time of President Ershad and his predecessors. Yes, crime has increased and so has corruption but blame it on the increase in population and consumerism, do not blame it on women. Let us not forget that majority of our MPs are men.

Mr. Quasem believes that "The Bangladesh government must take severe actions to change this mindset. With roughly 70 million women, the population is and will remain unequal." According to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation the women make up 48.6% of the population that translates into: for every one woman there is 1.05 men. The discrepancy in population is not so great that women need special protection. What we need is our God given rights to make decisions, fair treatment so that we can apply for the same jobs and leadership position as men. Women want to win on their merits and not because they are the weaker sex and they need laws to protect them.

Mr. Quasem readily pats himself on the back for participating in an organisation that stops violence against women. Participating in that organisation is not enough of a reason to make him understand the need for gender equality. So he doesn't think women should be beaten like animals. But, he still believes women are weak because they are physically different from men, he still believes that our government is corrupt and ineffectual because it is headed by women, he still believes that religion clearly faults women, he clearly believes that bigotry towards women is justified in Bangladesh because of our culture, he believes this because his opinions about women are still unaltered but he was forced to make changes to his attitude because he resided in a country where his next employer may well possibly be a woman.

Are we heading for a catastrophe? Day by day the occurrence of VAW is becoming alarming. But we have little time to think about the atrocities committed against vulnerable women.

We urgently need some reinvigoration of our administration, especially law enforcement agencies to mitigate these atrocities which are horrific and unbearable. To overcome this situation we need some institutional change. It may be some bottom line change or change in some ground rules. For example, we need proper training for the law enforcement agencies on certain specific issues. They have to know the societal limitations, which creates VAW. They have to know social stigmas, which are the breeding ground for VAW. They have to perform their actual duties without fear or favour. They have to create an atmosphere so that people trust them and will seek justice promptly. We have to stop Fatwa by any means. Fatwa based violence is increasing rapidly in our country. Women are the worst victims of fatwa.

To reduce VAW, we have to ensure female education. The dowry culture should also be eliminated to protect the vulnerable women.

A holistic campaign is necessary for uplifting women's status as human beings. We are emphatically saying that women should join the decision making process at the highest policy formulation level, otherwise things will not change quickly.

Md. Azmal Hossain, On e-mail