<i>A girl with determination</i>

Hawa Akhter Jui at the Centre for the Rehabilitation of the Paralysed (CRP) at Savar.Photo: STAR

For Hawa Akhter Jui, it has been a journey from the usual to the bizarre. Having filled in the forms on December 7 for the HSC exams, a mere three days after her husband had sliced off the fingers of her right hand on December 4 in an attempt to stop her from studying, she is desperately trying to bring back a semblance of normality in her life..
She defied her parents, who were justifiably concerned about her condition, and signed up for the examinations. She went to the extent of stealing money from her mother's bag to pay the necessary fees and affixed her signature on the form with her left hand.
The Daily Star engaged in a long conversation recently with Jui in the presence of her father Mohammad Yunus Miah at the Centre for Rehabilitation of the Paralyzed (CRP) in Savar. Her enthusiasm about her studies was unmistakable.
Jui is in little mood to draw others' pity. Instead, she wishes to be on her own feet as she goes about translating her dream into reality. That way she can also send out the message to her brutality-driven husband that her life is what she plans to make of it, that it is not hostage to his cruelty.
Even so, a gnawing fear works in the 19-year-old girl. She fears further assaults on her if her husband Rafiqul Islam is freed from jail.
Jui is refreshingly frank in her expression of thoughts. “My parents had asked me to drop my studies this year due to my fingers being cut off, but I thought otherwise,” she says. But “as Rafiqul had tried to put a stop to my studies by hacking my fingers off, I took the matter more seriously and decided to foil him in his sinister plans.”
She makes it a point to inform you that Rafiqul's family had earlier created impediments for her as she prepared for her SSC exams. She scored A-minus despite the obstructions from her husband's family.
Jui says she has not been able to go on with her studies well since the incident took place. However, she now wants to fill in the gap and resume her studies. It was with these thoughts in mind that she left the CRP for her Narsingdi home, which was a clear defiance of doctors' suggestions.
“I have to go home and study seriously as I could not continue with it for around one and a half months. I must do well in the examination to fulfill my dream of higher studies”, Jui says matter-of-factly. “I am capable of writing, but doctors have suggested that I sit for the examinations with a writer as a helping hand.”
It is here that the CRP comes in. Jui now can now write with her right hand after the CRP authorities set up a splint between the remaining part of her thumb and wrist.
Occupational therapist Sumanta Ray of the CRP has told The Daily Star that although Jui can write, she must not write for three hours at a stretch at the examinations and, therefore, she should take part in the examinations with someone's help.
When contacted, Abu Bakkar Siddique, principal of Narsingdi Government College, said he would extend his helping hand and do everything so that Jui could get a writer to help her in her exams.
“I will request the controller of examinations through explaining her situation”, says the principal.
Jui is upbeat as she expounds on her dreams of being a lawyer. “As I wanted to be a lawyer, I got admitted to the arts department in HSC although I passed SSC from the commerce department.”
Asked whether she wants any kind of help from others, she answers in the negative and says, “Let me try by myself. If I fail, I will seek others' help. Actually I do not prefer others' pity. I want to stand on my own feet. I will try for a part time job even as I go along with my studies. ” Her feelings about the attitudes of some people in a few non-government organisations and the media are not exactly complimentary.
She remains grateful, though, to the CRP authorities as well as its doctors and therapists.
About the future, Jui says firmly that her relationship with her husband Rafiqul is at an end. She wants exemplary punishment for him.
“After my recovery and at the end of my HSC exams, I must divorce him formally”, Jui notes.
She is candid about it all. “My wish is that Rafiqul stays in jail forever. He can harm me again. I am afraid that he will create problems again if he comes out of jail.”
Jui is of the opinion that Rafiqul's sister and her husband were also responsible for the brutalities on her.
“They helped Rafiqul commit the barbarity on me. They had invited me to their cantonment house through cheating. Although they knew that Rafiqul was coming to Dhaka, they did not inform me. They asked me to come to Dhaka to receive a gift said to have been sent by Rafiqul from Dubai.”
However, talking to The Daily Star, Rafiqul's brother-in-law Corporal Shafiqul Islam on December 15 denied the allegation and said he had not been informed of Rafiqul's arrival and he did not help in the brutality.
Rafiqul is now in jail after he was arrested by Cantonment police.