News In conversation with parents

During my stay in Bangladesh in February, I (Antoinette) attended a parents’ meeting that focused on the problems parents of adolescents face and the practice of marrying off a son or daughter.

It was a wonderful, open discussion with lots of laughter and people sharing their experiences: what do you do if you only have one bed and your adolescent son with an intellectual disability is masturbating next to you? And what do you do when you have to go to the market and you have to leave your daughter with complex disabilities by herself? (84% of women in Bangladesh have experienced sexual violence). What do you do when everyone around you tells you to marry off your child, even though you know that is not the solution? Parents experience enormous pressure from the community. Marriage is considered of utmost importance in Bangladesh and many parents of girls see it as a way to get rid of their ‘problem’.

Many mothers have had enough of these complex problems being their problem alone and have asked Niketan if meetings can be organized where fathers are required to attend. They also want awareness videos to be made about marrying off a son or daughter and the problems they will then face, because many parents and villagers (and unfortunately doctors too) think that a disability disappears once a disabled person is married!

Also read the story of Antora and Muhibur