Some words that are demeaning to women or conceal the root cause of the violence against women should be replaced with euphemisms or other words, said Naripakkha, a women’s rights organisation, on Saturday.

Naripakkha came up with the call at an online press conference marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women that is observed on November 25 every year.

The organisation also urged people to be more aware of the use of the words and try to understand the main causes of problems.

The title of the event was ‘Language too a component in the struggle’ where they also unveiled posters regarding the topic.

In a poster, Naripakkha selected five commonly used words that need to be replaced.

‘Someone who is raped’ should be replaced with ‘rape victim,’ ‘repressed women’ should be ‘repression victim,’ ‘gang-raped’ to ‘the victim of organised rapes’, ‘acid burnt’ to ‘acid victim’ and ‘prostitute’ to ‘sex worker,’ the organisation said.

Naripakkha member Rehana Samdani moderated the event where among others, Raushan Ara, Kamrun Nahar and Samia Afrin designer Tasafli Hossain, also spoke.

Activist Amita Dey said that people commonly use feminist words as slung but none protest it. The slung alternatively insult women.

‘When we say that someone has been raped, we basically identify the victim not the perpetrator. But when we say that someone has fallen victim to rape, we identify the rapist,’ she added.

Naripakka cofounder Shireen Huq said that they carefully avoid using the Bengali word ‘mahila’ as they thought that it was humiliating for women.

Women rights activists said that they believed that the word prostitute was derogatory for the person who earn livelihood giving sex services. The word prostitute certainly indicated crime and immoral acts, they added.