In 2019, a 45-year-old man in Gazipur was gang-raped and blackmailed with video footage. He later committed suicide instead of seeking justice. This tragedy raises essential questions about the legal system’s capacity to recognize and protect male victims of sexual violence. Despite deep-rooted stigma around male victimhood, data reveals an alarming reality. A 2013 United Nations study found that approximately 4.7% of men in Bangladesh reported experiencing sexual victimization, including rape, by another man. In the past two years, 111 boys were raped. According to Ain o Salish Kendra, a national legal aid and human rights organization, only 55 cases were reported. Although recent amendments have addressed some shortcomings of the legal framework governing rape in Bangladesh, it remains largely outdated and insufficiently comprehensive.
Laws prohibiting sexual violence in Bangladesh
The legal definition of rape under Bangladeshi law has traditionally followed a narrow and gender-specific approach that has long silenced and sidelined male victims of sexual violence. According to the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act of 2000 (hereinafter “the Act”), “rape” is defined as “sexual intercourse by a man with a woman” that takes place against the will of the woman, without her consent, with her consent obtained through fear of death or injury, under mistaken identity as her husband, or when she is under the age of 14, regardless of consent. This provision adopts a gender-stereotyped framework, where the perpetrator is always male and the victim is always female, which renders rapes that do not fit this structure both unrecognized and underreported. Thus, by excluding male and gender-diverse victims, the Act has denied them access to justice for decades, while also ignoring the possibility of non-male perpetrators.
However, recent legal reforms have introduced notable changes to this definition of rape. An amendment has replaced the word “man” with “person” in relevant portions of the Act, thereby allowing perpetrators of any gender to be held accountable for rape, an important step toward inclusivity and equality in sexual violence laws. Additionally, the inclusion of the term “Balatkar” under the amended Act now recognizes any sexual act committed by any person involving the mouth or anus of a male child as rape. However, this protection is limited to boys under 16, while men above this age remain unprotected from non-consensual sexual acts under rape laws. Moreover, the provision does not extend protection to gender-diverse individuals. This exclusion undermines provisions of the Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh that prohibit sex-based discrimination and uphold the principle of equality.
Bangladesh’s Penal Code, however, criminalizes non-vaginal acts, such as anal or oral sex, as “unnatural offences,” regardless of consent. Yet the legal framework around rape remains incomplete. Had the definition of a rape victim referred to a “person” rather than a specific gender, broader legal protection for all could have been ensured. Additionally, marital rape remains unaddressed, denying women their fundamental right to liberty, as the Penal Code clearly states that sexual intercourse by a man with his own wife, provided she is not under 13 years of age, does not constitute rape.
Mixed success in reforming the Women and Children Repression Prevention Act
The reform also introduces a separate provision criminalizing sexual intercourse with women under the false promise of marriage, a concept already addressed as “consent obtained by fraud.” However, ambiguity remains regarding how courts will determine fraudulent intent, leaving room for misuse in cases of failed consensual relationships. The notion that merely failing to keep a promise turns consensual sex into the serious crime of rape overlooks the fundamental element of criminal intent required to constitute a crime. Importantly, this raises concerns about false accusations and blackmail against men through the potential weaponization of this provision. Yet more concerning is the difficulty in proving false intent, as consent obtained through fraud or deception remains vaguely defined and is not easily provable. In addition, this provision risks trivializing actual rape cases and demeaning women by implying that they are easily manipulated or lack agency, undermining their dignity and portraying them solely as passive victims rather than informed decision-makers.
Despite these shortcomings, the amendment offers stronger protection for vulnerable women, particularly those who are genuinely deceived under the pretext of marriage. The Bangladeshi Ministry of Law has argued that the law separately addresses this issue of “rape with false promise of marriage” to prevent the conflation of consensual relationships with sexual violence, reducing delays in trials where the perpetrator and victim were unknown to one another.
Moreover, the reform reduces the investigation period in rape cases from 30 to just 15 days, while the time from the filing of charges to trial completion has similarly shrunk from 180 to 90 days. This shortened timeline may seem promising, but it, too, raises concerns; as the saying goes, “justice hurried is justice buried.” In a country where the death penalty is the highest punishment for rape, such expedited trials could compromise procedural fairness, especially in the absence of concurrent institutional strengthening such as improved investigative capacity, adequate forensic facilities, access to competent legal representation, proper victim and witness protection mechanisms, and safeguards against coercion and evidence mishandling
While the recent amendments to Bangladesh’s laws addressing rape reflect a progressive shift towards inclusivity, gender neutrality, and victim protection, the legal framework still suffers from myopic interpretation and selective application. To uphold the constitutional promise of equality, justice must be accessible to all, irrespective of gender. This requires a human rights– based, gender-inclusive, and intersectional approach that ensures survivor-centered legal procedures, gender-sensitive training for law enforcement and the judiciary, and equal access to legal aid and psychological support for all victims.