Only 14, Bangladeshi girl charged with adultery was lashed to death

[struggle4progress]

22. What we know so far: these events occurred two years ago, in a tiny Bangladeshi village without

Last edited Tue Feb 26, 2013, 02:40 PM - Edit history (1)

electricity or running water, a mile or more from the nearest paved road. As is the case in much of the world, traditional attitudes offer women only low status and few rights

The Bangladeshi High Court has ruled that it is illegal for village counsels to enforce punishments such as beatings. But access to Bangladesh's justice system can be difficult for persons who do not live in the main cities; the current backlog in the courts amounts to two million cases or more; and so villagers still usually resort to village counsels to resolve disputes

Hena Akhter's father had complained on several occasions to local police about her cousin's harassment of her, and he had even obtained a monetary judgment against the cousin, but it was never paid. Subsequently, her cousin raped her; his wife blamed the girl for the rape; and the wife and her sister both served on the village counsel that met at the cousin's house and ordered the lashing punishment, together with a monetary judgment against her father, about the same size as the judgment he had originally obtained against the cousin after the earlier complaint. Although the rapist was also sentenced to be lashed, he was released after only several blows

This exhibits characteristics of a small town revenge lynching: persons with definite interests in the case help engineer the outcome, including the effective cancellation of the earlier judgment with a comparable reverse judgment and the convenient death of the inconvenient victimized girl. The small town political clout of the rapist is demonstrated by the first "autopsy" findings that the girl committed suicide -- an all-too-familiar characteristic of small town lynchings, even in the US. It is, of course, useful for the lynch mob to appeal to religious issues in justifying their own actions, but the material motives seem obvious enough

Only 14, Bangladeshi girl charged with adultery was lashed to death
By Farid Ahmed and Moni Basu, CNN
March 29, 2011 7:09 p.m. EDT

... Khan eyed Hena and began harassing her on her way to school and back, said Hena's father. He complained to the elders who run the village about his nephew, three times Hena's age. The elders admonished Mahbub Khan and ordered him to pay $1,000 in fines to Hena's family. But Mahbub was Darbesh's older brother's son and Darbesh was asked to let the matter fade ...

When being a woman is a crime
Irfan Husain | 12th February, 2011

... Hena was to be flogged 101 times by a relative of Shipli’s, while Mehbub was to receive 200 blows from his father. To add insult to grave injury, Hena’s father was ordered to pay a fine of 50,000 takas ... Mehbub received 10 strokes, while Hena collapsed after being lashed 80 times ...

Bangladesh: Fatwa Killing Sparks High Court Inquiry, Directives
(Feb 17, 2011)

... Last year, the High Court issued a ruling declaring all forms of extrajudicial punishments illegal ...

United Nations Development Programme: Bangladesh

... One of the key constraints facing the judiciary is the large case backlog of around 1.8 million cases. The backlog is placing considerable pressure on the court system and is hampering access to justice ...