Reprehensible barbarity
THE inhuman treatment meted out to a woman of a remote village in Patuakhali district recently by her husband beggars description. The report in this newspaper detailing torture on a wife by her husband makes heavy reading indeed.
We find it hard to believe that a person can treat another so inhumanly, not to speak of a husband physically abusing his wife the way Anwara Begum was treated by her husband, having been beaten unconscious and then having her eyes gouged out while she lay unconscious. The bestiality did not end there. Abdul Aziz, the husband, prevented others from taking her to the hospital till next morning. According to the report she is in a critical state; and all this violence because the rice he was served with for dinner by the wife smelt of kerosene.
Such violence against women and indeed against the weaker section of the society in general is unfortunately not an exception but a common phenomenon. Most don't get reported or even noticed by others. Almost everyday there is report of children being maltreated, women being tortured or some minority evicted from his or her property under threat of life.
It is regrettable that such incidents continue to occur with the society either turning a blind eye since it couldn't care less, which we find hard to believe, or it feels helpless and unable to take any remedial action, which is quite probable. If this is not an indication of degeneration of the society then what is. If we are not able to identify the malaise of intolerance and act now then when will we ever be able to?
We feel that merely putting the offending husband through the legal process and punishing him for his act is necessary but not enough. But then how can the vice that is seeping deeper into society can be combated? We feel that awareness will have to be created by exposing the brutality and violence that vulnerable segment of the society is being subjected to, and to create conditions to raise the consciousness of the people in order to change the mindset to not only abstain from violence but also to prevent others from containing their aggressive propensities to soberer levels.
And, for this, the government should undertake a massive campaign at national level that should involve all political parties cutting across party lines, the civil society, the electronic and print media and the NGOs, as well as all those elements of the society that can help to bring about change. The demon in us must be purged, sooner rather than later.
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