14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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From the Daily Star (a Bangladeshi newspaper) http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/n … nid=172669 –

Feb 2011

The High Court yesterday ordered district officials in Shariatpur to explain why they failed to protect 14-year-old rape victim Hena from being whipped to death as per a fatwa on Monday.

The deputy commissioner, the superintendent of police of Shariatpur and the thana nirbahi officer of Naria upazila – where the incident took place–will have to report to the HC in 15 days how it happened although the court (HC) had eight months ago declared fatwa illegal and a punishable offence.

In a suo moto rule, the HC directed them also to report what steps they have taken in this regard.

An HC bench comprised of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain issued the rule following press reports on the killing of Hena.

The reports said Hena was raped by her 40-year-old relative Mahbub on Sunday. Next day, a fatwa was announced at a village arbitration that she must be given 100 lashes. She fell unconscious after nearly 80 lashes.

Fatally injured Hena was rushed to Naria health complex where she succumbed to her injuries.

Supreme Court lawyer Seema Zahur yesterday placed before the HC bench a press report on the incident on behalf of Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association.

Meanwhile, another HC bench yesterday directed the law enforcement agencies to submit a report to it within three weeks on what steps have been taken following this incident in the light of its judgement on extra-judicial punishment.

The bench comprised of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Nazrul Islam Talukder also ordered the information ministry to run a media campaign to create awareness among people against extra-judicial punishment.

The bench headed by Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain on July 8 last year delivered the verdict declaring illegal all kinds of extra-judicial punishment including those in the name of fatwa at local arbitrations.

Following three writ petitions, the court directed the authorities concerned to take punitive action against people involved in enforcing fatwa against women.

It also observed that infliction of brutal punishment including caning, whipping and beating at local salish [arbitration] by persons devoid of judicial authority constitutes violation of the constitutional rights.

Barristers Rabia Bhuiyan, Sara Hossain and Mahbub Shafique, and advocate KM Hafizul Alam, lawyers for the writ petitioners, yesterday placed the judgement to the bench following the incident involving Hena.

Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK), a human rights watchdog, expressed deep concern and shock yesterday at the killing of teenage rape victim Hena.

It demanded punitive action against those who enforced fatwa concerning her.

The ASK called upon the government to take effective steps to stop recurrence of such incidents.

don’t understand how she gets a fatwa announced against her when she was the one that was raped by a 40 yr old pedaphile. what’s the reasoning behind hitting her with a fatwa calling for 100 lashes as punishment, what was her crime???

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

She gets raped.
Then she gets beaten.

What happened to the loser who couldn't control his thing? Barbaric society.

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

A 14-year-old Bangladeshi girl allegedly raped by a much older cousin has died after being publicly flogged for adultery, media reports said.

Hena Begum was sentenced to receive 100 lashes by a village council made up of elders and Muslim clerics in the district of Shariatpur, about 35 miles from the capital, Dhaka, the BBC said today.

She endured about 80 lashes before collapsing Monday, according to The Daily Star, a Bangladeshi newspaper. Her family took her to a hospital, where she died.

“What sort of justice is this? My daughter has been beaten to death in the name of justice. If it had been a proper court then my daughter would not have died,” Dorbesh Khan, the girl’s father, told the BBC.
**
Family members said Hena was raped by a 40-year-old married cousin, The Daily Star said. The man’s family beat up the teen, then accused her of adultery, the newspaper said.

The very next day, she was sentenced to the flogging in a fatwa, or religious ruling, issued by the village council under Islamic Shariah law, the BBC said.**

Her father was also told pay a fine of about $700, police told the BBC…
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she gets the lashings for adultery b/c she was raped…what in the world?

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

Jeez. This is totally wrong.

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

if this is indeed a true news then its sickening.

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

I think it is true, it's been reported quite widely back there as well..

It's sick.. I hope those idiots get the death penalty..

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

This is just utter barbarianism.

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

If this has taken place in front of people then it only shows how sick the society and its social norms are.
A mullah that protected a pedophile and got the girl killed should be given to bihar police.

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

Qayamat saamnay hai!

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

Why?

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

JEEEEEEEEEEEEZ!!!!!!

What is wrong with these idiots....there is no limit to their brainless acts...these are the bloody nut jobs who make every other Muslim look like a nut job too!!!

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

what did they base this ruling on though? the articles on this particular story that i've read don't go into too much detail, if it was just a bunch of illiterate thugs whipping a rape victim senseless, that happens in villages of any developing nation b/c of prejudice or bigotry but this was a ruling made by the respected village religious leaders, that's what baffles me....

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

Some stupid Mullah's interpretation of Sharia :( Is it a coincidence that this happened in a place called Shariatpur ?

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

Hopefully the Bangladeshi authorities do the right thing and make an example of the villagers responsible.

Honestly, if I was the girl's father, I would've gone on a killing rampage, starting with the cousin who raped my daughter. Seriously, wtf?

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

sad.

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

inna lilahe wa inna ilahe rajaaon. what a tough and sad life for the family and the girl.

uffff allah...how cruel this is. cant even say "hope he gets the punishment"as this wont bring their daughter back. but he should get it.

islam ke asoloon ko ghalat tareeqay se follow ker rahe hain. fair enough if they applied that so-called adultery thing coz its in islam then why no punishment for the man. very very sad this is

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

The case just gets weirder and weirder:

Bangladesh whipping case: three doctors investigated for claiming teenage girl had no signs of injury

Second autopsy on body of Hena Akhter, 14, found multiple wounds ‘of a homicidal nature’

**Three doctors are being investigated by authorities in Bangladesh after they claimed to have found no signs of injury in the postmortem examination of a teenage girl who was whipped to death under a fatwa.
**
Hena Akhter, 14, died in hospital 11 days ago after she was sentenced to 101 lashes by village elders and clerics who alleged she had been having an affair with her married cousin.
After a postmortem at her district hospital, doctors in Shariatpur, around 60km south of the capital, Dhaka, said they could find no signs of injury.

**But Hena’s body was exhumed on Tuesday night on orders from the High Court, and a second autopsy concluded that she had died from internal bleeding and septicaemia caused by wounds “of a homicidal nature” on her scalp, abdomen, back, chest, arms and legs.
**
At the High Court, Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury ordered the ministry of health to investigate the three doctors who carried out the first postmortem on suspicion of medical negligence, raising the possibility that they had been pressed into suppressing signs of injuries. “There is a world of difference between these two reports,” he told Shariatpur civil surgeon, Mohammad Sarwar. “Your postmortem report showed no injuries. The second one is full of injuries. If this is shown to the court, will anyone be punished? No. You are playing with the law and with people’s lives.”

Asked to explain how a girl who had been widely known to have been whipped to death was found with no injuries, Sarwar claimed it was because staff were “less experienced” than in Dhaka.

The court also heard how the hospital’s residential medical officer, Dr Nirmal Chandra Das, had claimed Hena was suffering from convulsions due to hysteria. Hena’s death has provoked widespread outrage in Bangladesh, where punishments in the name of fatwa – a religious edict – were outlawed last July.

Police are treating the case as murder and have arrested six villagers, including a Muslim cleric. Mahbub Alam, 35, with whom Hena was alleged to have been having the affair, has also been arrested after nine days on the run. A court in Shariatpur has given police five days to question him.

Hena’s family say that Mahbub attacked her the night before she was punished. They allege that his wife Shilpi then raised a complaint with the shalish – a makeshift village council – claiming that the two cousins had been having an affair.

The schoolgirl was given 40 to 50 lashes with a wet cloth twisted into a rope before she collapsed unconscious, her family said. Mahbub, who was sentenced to 201 lashes, managed to escape after four or five, according to Hena’s sister.

Police officers who first responded to the case are now facing investigation by the inspector general of police after Hena’s father, Darbesh Khan, told the court that they had failed to record claims Mahbub had raped Hena before attacking her. “My daughter was tied up, grabbed and raped,” he said. “I told the policeman that.”

Justice Chowdhury ordered the religious affairs ministry to end funding for madrasas and mosques that issue fatwas, so that “no fatwa can ever take place in this republic again”, along with fresh demands for the information ministry to circulate guidelines stating that punishments in the name of fatwa are illegal.

Although punishments under fatwa were outlawed in July, Hena’s case is the second known to have taken place since then. Last December, a woman died after being whipped 40 times after she was accused by a village court of having an affair with her stepson. The latest to be detained in connection with the incident is Idris Ali, who was arrested as he left the courtroom following orders to attend the hearing. He is said to have been a member of the panel that issued the punishment.

Source: Bangladesh whipping case: three doctors investigated for claiming teenage girl had no signs of injury | Bangladesh | The Guardian

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

Not sure I follow this. Those who applied this asool should also be tracked down and punished. IMHO.

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Re: 14 year old rape victim whipped to death in Bangladesh

southie are you a muslim?

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No, I am not. In my opinion, adultery asool did not apply to the girl. I am not passing judgment on the asool (since I am not qualified). But common sense dictates those who attacked the girl should be punished to the fullest extent possible.

But I missed the bigger point you made - they should have punished the man also, if they were applying this asool. My fault for not reading your post more carefully.