Woman gets permission for self-custody following legal battle
Following a legal battle, Rokaiya Akhter Shova (20), from Jashore who was being forced by her mother to get married, has been given permission for self-custody following a High Court order.
She is now in a shelter home of Jashore in line with an earlier lower court directive.
The HC bench of Justice Md Rezaul Haque and Justice Md Badruzzaman granted an appeal filed by Rokaiya challenging the order issued by a tribunal (Shishu Adalat- 1) in Jashore that ordered the authorities send her to a shelter home in the district.
Earlier on September 2, the HC judges heard Rokaiya Akhter's statement, her lawyer Tasmiah Nuhiya Ahmed told The Daily Star.
Following the HC order, Rokaiya will be freed from the shelter home.
Advocate Tasmiah Nuhiya Ahmed said Rokaiya, from Vekutia Balia village in Jashore, used to live in a house in Dhaka's Bashundhara area and work as a salesperson at a fashion house in Mirpur.
She was tortured by her mother Kamrunnahar Begum both physically and mentally and was being pressurised to get married in Jashore. Rokaiya then fled Jashore and came to Dhaka. She got a job in the boutique house in Dhaka and started living on her own.
Her mother Kamrunnahar and few other family members kept threatening her during this time, Rokaiya's lawyer said.
Rokaiya filed a general diary (GD) with Jashore's Cantonment Police station against her mother stating that her mother threatened to kill her if she doesn't get married.
On May 23 this year, Rokaiya's mother filed a complaint petition with a Jashore court under the Manab Pachar Protirodh O Daman Ain Tribunal (Human Trafficking Prevention Act-2012) against four people including the proprietor of Chadni Fashion House where Rokaiya was working.
Kamrunnahar claimed her daughter is a victim although Rokaiya gave a statement that she deliberately came to Dhaka to live on her own and the case was filed to harass her.
Shishu Adalat- 1 of Jashore on June 24 this year, heard the case and rejected Rokaiya's application for self-custody.
The court ordered the authorities concerned to send Rokaiya to a safe home. Following this, Rokaiya filed an appeal with the HC challenging the court's directive.
After a hearing on the appeal, the HC today granted her appeal and allowed her to remain in self custody, lawyer Tasmiah added.
Comments