Day for women against repression

August 24 is observed as the Resistance Day For Repression Against Women, which has been observed since 1996.
Yeasmin Akhter was only fourteen years old. She was ganged-raped by policemen and later killed. She was a domestic worker in Dhaka. Because she wanted to see her mother, she left her employer's home without telling them. She caught a bus to Dinajpur and got down at Dashmile bus stop before dawn on August 24, 1995.
A police patrol van was driving by, and one of the policemen said to the tea stall owner: "We are law-enforcers, we will drop her home safely. Don't you have faith in us?" Hours later, a young boy discovered her body off the main road. The dead girl was the same girl who had been picked up by the police van.
When this news spread, a large number of people took out a procession. Spontaneous processions and rallies took place, demanding that the policemen should be tried.
Yeasmin's mother recognised her daughter from a newspaper photo taken as she lay lifeless in an open three-wheel van.
As a people's movement emerged, police action was brutal. Lathi-charge followed by firing killed seven local people. Public outrage swelled. The police station was besieged, and the arrested processionists were freed from police lock-up by members of the public.
The Yeasmin case was entrusted to senior S.P. Afzal Hossain. He accused eight persons and filed a case against them. The principal accused were S.I. Mainul Islam, Sepoy Abdus Sattar and driver Amritlal Barmon. Other accused included S.P. Abdul Motaleb, S.I. Mahtab Hossain, S.I. Sawpan Kumur Chakrabarty, S.I. Matiur Rahman and S.I. Jahangir Alam. Fifty-four witnesses were examined in the case.
The proceedings of the case started on September 21 in 1996 at Dinajpur District and Session Judge's court. After prayer from the accused the case was transferred to Rangpur District and Session Judge's court.
In the charge sheet it was stated that three of the accused raped Yeasmin, strangled her to death, and fled from the place of occurrence. On such grounds, a case under the Women and Child Repression Act was filed against them. On August 31, 1997, the verdict was issued in this sensational case by the session judge of Rangpur, Md. Abdul Matin. He convicted three accused policemen to life sentence.
On September 1, 2004, seven years after the pronouncement of the verdict, the convicts S.I Mainul Islam and Sepoy Abdus Sattar were hanged. Driver Amritlal Barman was hanged on September 28, 2004.This is the first time in the history of this part of the subcontinent that policemen were executed.
Where is the security of the common man when the custodian of law becomes the offender? Through the execution of the verdict, the rights of women have been established at least in some degree.
Let us wage a united struggle against repression of women.

Mahmuda Husain is a human rights and women's rights activist and Member, Gender Trainers Core Group.