Let Shariatpur tragedy be enough
The death of 14-year-old Hena of Chamta village in Shariatpur district after she was forced to suffer arbitrary punishment at the hands of self-styled adjudicators is a glaring instance of how vulnerable women still are in our society. The victim girl, who was still in her dreamy adolescent years, could not perhaps imagine in her worst nightmare how heartless and barbaric some of the elders among whom she had been growing up could become -- not at least until the fateful night when she was raped by one of her relatives in his forties.
But the worst was yet to come. Ironically though, contrary to showing any sympathy for the grievous wrong done to her, the senior members of the locality arranged yet another round of torture of the harshest kind on the girl. The victim, already traumatised by the bestiality of her molester, would have to suffer 100 lashes as adjudged by some village elders in exercise of a fatwa issued by the prayer leader of the village mosque. The word cruel is not enough to describe the mental state of those who perpetrated the monstrosity.
It was too much for the hapless girl from a poor household to bear. The parents, being too afraid to protest, had nothing to do but helplessly watch the tragic end of their beloved daughter at the local Upazila Health Complex as she succumbed to the physical and mental wounds she was compelled to suffer. And thus was a girl's right to live and see justice was denied by some so-called village guardians.
It defies common sense, how the victim of a terrible crime be put on the same moral footing as the perpetrator of the crime? No doubt, that has been made possible through a distorted interpretation of Islamic laws by some influential members of Chamta village to serve their selfish ends with the assistance of religious bigots.
But what was the administration doing at that time? Unfortunately, the vile drama of the murder of the girl by a hurriedly constituted "village arbitration court" was staged despite the existence of a High Court (HC) order that declares all kinds of extrajudicial trial, including those by fatwa, illegal and anti-constitutional. The said HC rule further provides that the executors, accomplices or even those present at the scene of such trial would come under the purview of offence according to the penal code.
In an earlier order, the HC had even directed the Local Government and Rural Development Ministry, the law-enforcing agencies as well as chairmen of union parishads and municipalities to take immediate measures against any punishment awarded through such extrajudicial trials. Was then the local union parishad chairman sleeping when such mockery of a trial was being carried out in Chamta village? Was not the chairman aware of the HC order to take necessary measures to prevent such a crime?
Had the local administration and local government officials been sufficiently aware and prompt in the exact spirit of the HC order, they could well have prevented the illegal, extrajudicial trial from happening in the first place, and thereby save a valuable life.
Nevertheless, the murder of the girl, Hena, in the name of a so-called trial could prick the conscience of the whole nation after it was reported in the media. And that, too, was possible only after the bereaved father of the girl, out of desperation, lodged a case against the culprits involved with the local police station, defying the browbeating of the powerful quarters of the village.
But then, instances abound in which the news of such crimes are suppressed by way of intimidating the victim, if alive, or her/his parents or close relatives. Simultaneously, the vested quarters also exert their influence on the local administration including offer of inducement to the administrative officials as well as to the victim and her/his family members to withdraw the case.
In the present instance, too, a local Union Parishad member, who is also an accused in the case, offered the victim girls peasant father Darbesh Kha Tk.700,000 so that he might not proceed with the case any further.
This provides yet another dimension to such local level arbitrations, where it is mostly the poor and the vulnerable who are at the receiving end. And the so-called trials through salish (village arbitration) are often run by the powerful quarters of the locality while the half-literate village adjudicators and fatwa issuing mollahs play second fiddle to the local elite.
Given the prevailing state of overall lack of awareness, or even insouciance, about such extrajudicial trials based on fatwa, one wonders how many more such tragedies that befell the Shariatpur girl go unreported day in, day out in the outlying districts.
According to Ain o Salish Kendra's (ASK) estimate given in July 2010, some 10 to 12 such fatwa-based village trials took place the year before. As indicated in the foregoing, the reported number of such trials is just the tip of the iceberg. More studies and in-depth researches are necessary to determine the actual extent of the crimes being thus committed in the villages unbeknown to the civilised world.
The gravity of the issue also calls for creating a greater awareness at all levels of society to stand against these illegal rural arbitrations and the trials that follow. The good news is that the High Court has meanwhile ordered the information ministry to launch a media campaign to create public awareness against infliction of such kinds of punishment.
There are laws to address the victims of women and child repression and prevent violence against women. And there are also other criminal laws to fight any kind of offence in society. In addition to these, we have the HC orders. Those notwithstanding, the related crimes are on the increase.
In the circumstances, the government needs to lay more emphasis on the implementation of the laws and HC directives in existence. Unless duly and timely applied, the mere existence of the laws would hardly help matters to prevent or reduce the frequency of extrajudicial trials by fatwa.
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