The Bangladeshi government has restated a policy of zero tolerance towards gender-based and online violence, identifying digital safety as a priority as internet use expands.
Measures described include enacting and enforcing laws against cyber violence and sexual harassment, faster investigation and prosecution of offenders, and specialised institutional machinery including a dedicated intelligence unit and a cybercrime tracking system.
This has been set against cases that campaigners say demonstrate the distance between policy and practice.
An opinion article published in the Daily Star on 29 July 2026 described a case in Bagerhat in which a woman was recorded without her knowledge and then blackmailed. When she refused to comply, the article said, the man sent altered footage to her husband. She was beaten and later divorced. The article said her tormentor was never brought to justice.
Unbowed has not been able to corroborate that account.
Figures circulating in Bangladeshi media put the proportion of women social media users who have experienced online violence at 89 per cent, and the number of women seeking help over cybercrime in 2024 at more than 60,000. Neither figure has been traced to a published methodology.
Technology-facilitated gender-based violence — abuse committed, assisted or amplified by digital tools and directed at people because of their gender — has also featured in Bangladeshi electoral politics, with women candidates reporting organised online harassment. Women make up about 4 per cent of candidates contesting, and 30 of 51 parties registered for the elections fielded no women at all.