"I’ve learnt to protect myself"

Shahana started working in the garment’s sector 8 years ago. At present she is working in a factory as sewing operator. Her husband is working as bus driver. She has one daughter living with her mother in her village.

Since January 2017, she is facing a problem with her husband about her salary. Whatever amount she was earning in the factory, including her overtime, she was used to get it in cash. As per Government rules to avoid huge cash transactions, the factory where she is working started to transfer all workers’ salaries via mobile banking. When the salary is deposited in the account, everyone receives a message in the mobile with the details of the amount. In this way, taking the mobile against her consent, Shahana’s husband could easily understand how much she was earning. He started forcing her to withdraw immediately all the amount and to give it to him. This created a big problem for her, often her husband was quarrelling with her, using slang language, and sometimes also he was beating her. While before she was able to save some money for her and her child, this became more difficult.

Shahana attended a training on gender and Violence Against Women (VAW) provided by Shobujer Ovijan Foundation (SOF) through “Jukta Hoe Mukta” project. During the training she shared her situation as part of an experience sharing session, explaining about her mental and physical torture. She wanted to know if her case could be considered as violence.

From the training she learnt how to handle her life and her husband to make him understand her feelings without quarrelling. She succeeded in talking with him and they came to an agreement: she accepted to give him part of her salary every month and he returned the mobile to her. At least in this way Shahana can keep an amount for her and her child without quarrelling with and being beaten by her husband.

Shahana always tries to learn from the people living around her and to implement suggestions and learning in her daily life. She is a very positive minded person and she said “I am learning so many issues about my job and life thanks to the training and being involved with a Workers’ Group under “Jukta Hoe Mukta” project, as Labor Law, participation committee, trade union, gender and VAW, etc.” She also likes discussing and sharing her learning with other colleagues in her factory.