Another shocking suicide

Shirin Akhter, a 15-year old student of a madrasa at a village in Madaripur killed herself by hanging as she could not bear the humiliation meted out to her by the village arbitrators.
The whole episode of this tragedy has been the result of a tiff between Shirin and one Shah Alam of the same village when her goat allegedly damaged his plants. Shah Alam beat her up, but that is not where her indignities ended. Arbitration was quickly arranged by the local influentials to pass an edict that nothing short of Shirin apologizing by touching Shah Alam's feet would exonerate her. When she refused to do so, she was flogged in public, heaping one insult upon another. Out of sheer humiliation she was driven to take her own life by hanging herself from the ceiling of her house.
This was triple jeopardy for the helpless girl. One,'salish'( arbitration) was organized over a trifling matter that could be resolved without subjecting the girl to any humiliating treatment. Then the two diktats imposed on her, first for seeking apology by feet-touching and then by caning her in public, were most degrading to human person and dignity, particularly of a woman. This is the treatment a girl gets only in a society of barbarians in human garb.
The community which should come in aid of such girls is in fact punishing her taking advantage of her vulnerability.
Why the so-called prominent people in the villages are allowed to take law in their own hands? What were local administration and the police doing during the outrageous demeaning of the girl? Holding 'shalish' has become a pastime for a display of power which defies directly the authority of the government and the court. There is standing court order against such arbitrary shalish. Why not enforce it?
We call for exemplary punishment to the culprits who indulge in these acts. At the same time, there should be a community helpline extended to such vulnerable women.