According to Bangladesh police statistics and non-governmental organizations, cases of violence against women have increased in 2012. Cases of dowry-related violence in 2012 almost doubled in Bangladesh compared to those in 2004. Women's rights activists explain that suicide is the most common of death for Bangladeshi women because of the rising trend of violence against women that is now taking “different deceptive forms that go beyond statistics.”
Women’s rights leaders report that many cases of violence go unreported or are dismissed as not genuine. Over the past two years, only 6 percent of the complaints of violence against women issued were accepted as “genuine” and sent on for further proceedings. Women’s rights activist Ms. Shireen Huq explains this as a “lack of eye witness, evidence, etc., with the result that the accused are easily acquitted and cases are recorded as false.”
Despite the fact that Bangladesh passed important national acts on protecting women's rights and is a signatory state to international conventions fighting for women rights, Hameeda Hossain, chairperson of a leading women’s rights organization, believes that due to “social acceptance of women’s subordination, discriminatory laws and poor law enforcement women are still suffering socially, culturally and politically.”