Reclaiming public space, bodily autonomy, and freedom of expression through peaceful collective action
In May 2022, a young woman was publicly assaulted at Narsingdi Railway Station because of her clothing.
The incident quickly became a national conversation about morality, public space, women’s autonomy, and the policing of bodies. What began as an act of mob violence evolved into broader debates about what women should wear, where they should go, and who gets to decide.
The discussion became even more concerning when public discourse increasingly shifted away from the violence itself and toward the victim’s clothing choices.
The challenge was not only to respond to a single incident but also to confront the social norms that made such violence appear acceptable in the first place.
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Human Insight
Restrictions on women’s freedom are often justified in the language of safety.
Women are told to dress differently, travel differently, avoid certain places, avoid certain hours, and modify their behavior to reduce risk. Yet these restrictions rarely address the root cause of violence.
Through conversations within Meye Network and allied communities, a different perspective emerged:
The issue was not merely clothing.
The issue was ownership of public space.
The attack reflected a broader belief that certain bodies belong in public and others do not.
Approach
Rather than organizing a conventional protest march, we chose a different strategy.
A group of participants travelled from Dhaka to Narsingdi Railway Station and peacefully occupied the space where the assault had occurred. The objective was not confrontation, but presence. Participants came from diverse backgrounds and appeared in public wearing clothing of their own choosing.
The intervention was intentionally designed as:
a peaceful occupation rather than a rally
a collective act of visibility rather than a speech-driven protest
a reclamation of space rather than a confrontation with individuals
Participants spent time observing the environment, interacting with local people, and experiencing the station as ordinary users of public space. The diversity of their physical presence became the statement itself.
When public debates later emerged around judicial comments concerning women’s clothing and “appropriate” behavior, a second intervention, titled Ahingsho OGNIE-jatra (Nonviolent Fire Journey), extended the conversation into questions of constitutional rights, bodily autonomy, and freedom of expression.
Outcome
The initiative generated national media attention and contributed to ongoing public conversations about gender, public space, and victim blaming.
More importantly, it demonstrated an alternative model of feminist organizing, small-scale but highly visible, symbolic yet grounded in lived experience, participatory rather than representative, and focused on reclaiming rather than avoiding contested spaces
The action also created opportunities for dialogue with local residents and challenged assumptions that feminist activism must always take the form of marches, slogans, or confrontation.
By physically returning to the site of violence, participants transformed a place associated with fear into a space of collective presence and resistance.
Reflection
This experience reinforced an idea that continues to shape my work:
Public space is never neutral.
Who feels safe, who belongs, who is visible, and who must justify their presence are all products of social design.
The intervention showed that reclaiming space can be as important as demanding policy change. Sometimes systems are challenged not through argument, but through presence.
By simply occupying public space on our own terms, we questioned the assumption that women’s freedom should always be conditional.
The project also deepened my interest in designing forms of activism that prioritize participation, symbolism, and human connection over spectacle.
Methods & Approaches
Public Space Reclamation · Rapid Response Organizing · Narrative Intervention · Feminist Activism · Community Mobilization · Participatory Action · Systems Thinking · Nonviolent Direct Action