Khadija Akhter (pseudonym), now 23 and a mother, lives quietly in a village in Bangladesh. Her life appears settled, but it began with tragedy. When her family discovered she was pregnant, they filed a case with the help of a disability rights group. The court recognized the assault — but because Khadija has an intellectual disability, her testimony was not accepted.
The final judgment ordered her to marry her perpetrator, which her family considered a “solution.”
This case is unusual not because justice was served, but because it reached the court at all.
“Most families hide incidents, settle through arbitration, compromise, or accept financial payments,” said Nasima Akhter, president of the National Council of Disabled Women (NCDW). She said courts frequently refuse testimony from people with intellectual, speech, hearing, or psychosocial disabilities, weakening cases and denying justice.
Bangladesh’s Persons with Disabilities’ Rights and Protection Act (2013) requires “reasonable accommodations” — such as sign language, interpretation services, or alternative communication. Under Sections 118 and 119 of the Evidence Act, people who cannot speak may testify through writing or signs. But in practice, courts and police stations rarely have interpreters or accessible systems, leaving victims unheard.
NCDW works across 23 districts and currently has 43 sexual-abuse cases pending. Ten survivors became pregnant from the assault; in two cases, courts ordered the victims to marry their abusers. Families accepted these outcomes because they feared stigma, vulnerability, and the complexities of the legal process.
Justice is already difficult to obtain in sexual-abuse cases; for women and children with disabilities, it is nearly impossible. Abuse occurs at home, in schools, in workplaces, and in institutions. Women with disabilities face structural discrimination, and families often avoid reporting, assuming nothing will change — increasing their daughters’ exposure to repeated abuse.
From January to October 2025, Bangladesh recorded 96 rapes in the first two months alone — yet these numbers do not reflect victims with disabilities, who rarely appear in official statistics. A 2024–2025 study by the Women with Disabilities Development Foundation (WDDF) shows the extent of the hidden violence: 57% of respondents experienced SGBV in one year; combined physical and psychological violence reached 70%; sexual violence 56%; and economic abuse 54%. Shockingly, 93% of perpetrators were family members, neighbors, or caregivers.
Between January and October 2025, Ain o Salish Kendra documented at least 650 rapes or gang rapes; 36 victims were murdered afterward, and six died by suicide. But girls with disabilities remain nearly invisible in these reports. Globally, UNFPA notes that girls with disabilities are up to 10 times more likely to face gender-based violence.
One girl at the center of this hidden crisis is 14-year-old Phool, who is deaf and has a mild intellectual disability. After a relative assaulted her, her mother rushed to the police — only to be told that without verbal testimony, “we won’t understand.” Fear and poverty silenced her; the perpetrator returned days later and assaulted Phool again. With no witnesses and no forensic evidence — because her mother bathed her out of panic — there was no case to file.
Field workers say such stories are common. Most never enter the justice system. “The crime is not sexual desire — it is power and opportunity,” said one disability rights activist. “Girls with disabilities offer the greatest opportunity because society does not treat them as full human beings.”
Advocate Fahmida Akhter of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court said survivors with disabilities often come from low-income families who remain silent to avoid social backlash. Many families do not know where to seek help or cannot afford lawyers. Cases are delayed due to the lack of sign language experts and the time required to analyze evidence and witness statements. “In these cases, survivors have diverse disabilities — some cannot speak, some cannot see, some have intellectual disabilities. Access must be made easier for them,” she emphasized.
These survivors are already subjected to various forms of abuse and neglect by their families; when sexual abuse occurs, families often seek settlements through financial arrangements. The cases that are filed are frequently abandoned midway, she added.
Advocate Salma Ali, President of the Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers’ Association (BNWLA), said women and girls with disabilities face “the highest barriers to safety and justice,” especially in trafficking and sexual-abuse cases. Parents are often unaware of their daughters’ vulnerabilities. Police and lawyers lack training, and only a few stations have personnel capable of handling disability-related crimes.
She stressed that poor coordination and limited expertise severely restrict access to legal aid. She called for bilateral agreements to address cross-border trafficking, specialized training for police, lawyers, and judges, and dedicated committees in institutions to monitor risks. “Without systemic change,” she warned, “women and girls with disabilities will remain invisible in the justice system.”
She added: “Access to justice, checks and balances, and zero tolerance — these are the three issues the government needs to address. The number of language experts in our country is low, and it is not always possible to arrange them on the day of the hearing. Equipment available in our One-Stop Crisis Centers is not being used properly; in many cases, these are imported from abroad, but no one knows how to operate them. These issues should be addressed not only by the government but also by political parties in their election manifestos, clearly committing to ensuring access to justice.”
When asked what has been done to improve the protection of persons with disabilities, and why women with disabilities are not receiving or seeking legal aid, Md Salim Hossain, Deputy Director (Program) of the Jatiyo Protibondhi Unnayan Foundation under the Ministry of Social Welfare, said: “We do not work by discriminating between women and men with disabilities. Everyone is equal to us. We are not working specifically for women.”
Asked about the increased vulnerability of women and the need for improved protection, he said: “We do not work with legal aid, but we run various programs on grants, education, health, and therapy through the foundation, through which people with disabilities across Bangladesh receive support.”
In Bangladesh, where one in 36 people lives with a disability, silence is easier than justice. Women and children with disabilities remain the most invisible victims of sexual violence — unheard in police stations, unsupported in courts, and unprotected in their own homes. The country continues to record rising numbers of rape and violence, yet the most vulnerable survivors remain outside every formal record.
Their stories rarely reach court. Their pain rarely reaches policymakers. Their testimonies rarely reach anyone at all.
The question remains: who is listening?
