Tribeni Chakma working in a national media house in Dhaka
A few years back, I was travelling to Shahbagh from Farmgate on a local bus to attend my class at Dhaka university and was sitting on a seat besides the driver ( not the designated female seat, the long one which was facing the opposite direction to which the bus was travelling).
The bus was full and I was seated beside a man in his mid-forties. After a while, I shifted to the female seat. Soon after the bus reached Karwan Bazar, a man got on the bus with a girl aged around 12-14 years old. The girl sat on the same seat where I was sitting just before. After some time, I realized that the little girl was feeling uncomfortable and she was moving close to me, towards my knees.
In local buses of Bangladesh, the female seats are a bit higher up and small for 4 females. I then saw that the man sitting beside her was trying to touch her body and she was trying to avoid this by getting close to me.
To my utter surprise, the man crossed his arm on his chest and was innocently gazing forward at the other passengers when he was actually trying to secretly touch the young girl’s body. I was furious and told him to maintain distance from the girl and I took the close to me, making her sit right beside me.