BANGLADESH GIRL BLED TO DEATH AFTER LASHING

14-YEAR-OLD GIRL WAS RAPED IN BANGLADESH
THEN SENTENCED TO 101 LASHES FOR ADULTERY

Dhaka (UPI) - A new autopsy revealed a Bangladeshi girl bled to death from heavy wounds after being lashed 50 to 80 times for allegedly having an affair, an official said. The body of Hena Akter, 14, was exhumed this week on court orders after reports questioned the first post-mortem report. The BBC reported the new post-mortem showed the girl bled to death from multiple injuries. “Multiple injuries were found. The girl died because of bleeding,” Deputy Attorney General Altaf Hossain told. The girl reportedly fell unconscious after receiving about 50 to 80 of the 100 lashes ordered by a village council that included clerics who accused her of an affair with a married man. The girl died in hospital 11 days ago after she was sentenced to 101 lashes by village elders and clerics who alleged she had been having an affair with her married cousin. The girl’s family has maintained she was raped by her cousin. The village council that had ordered her whipping pronounced a similar punishment for the man, who had fled but police arrested him Wednesday following a tip-off.

Hena’s body was exhumed last week and a second autopsy concluded that she had died from internal bleeding and septicaemia caused by wounds “of a homicidal nature” on her scalp, abdomen, back, chest, arms and legs. Bangladesh is a largely Muslim secular democracy where such punishments are outlawed. Justice Chowdhury ordered the religious affairs ministry to end funding for madrasas and mosques that issue fatwas, so that “no fatwa can ever take place in this republic again”, along with guidelines stating that punishments in the name of fatwa are illegal.


Hena Akter, 14 years old, was publicly whipped for an alleged affair with a married man bled to death, according to a fresh post-mortem examination. A village court consisting of elders and clerics had accused her of having an affair with a fellow villager and cousin, Mahbub Khan. Her family says the girl was innocent of the accusations because she was raped by her cousin who is married. There is nothing new in the tragic death of this Bangladeshi girl. It only shows the ugly face of religious fanatics and village heads who interpret the Islamic Muslim law or Sharia with a misogynist and inhuman view of life, which wreaks havoc on the lives of girls and poor women in rural Bangladesh and elsewhere.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US?

Thought to be the oldest of the dharma-sastras, the Manusmriti (Laws of Manu) is often described as the Law book of ancient Hindu society. ... Furthermore, although Manusmriti, like other patriarchal religious law books of its time, does prescribe the subservience of women to men, it condemns men who are derelict in their duty to care for and protect the women under their jurisdiction. Manu also glorifies women considerably, and taken in context with his rules to honor and never violate women, his laws pertaining to them seem progressive in comparison to those of many other ancient cultures. For example, Manusmriti (3:55-57) says, “Those who seek great prosperity and happiness should never inflict pain on women. Where women are honored, in that family great men are born; but where they are not honored, all acts are fruitless. Where women pass their days in misery and sorrow because of the misdeeds of their husbands, that family soon entirely perishes, but where they are happy because of the good conduct of their husbands, the family continually prospers.”

Śrīla Bhakti Vedanta Tripurari Mahārāja :
“Women and the Laws of Manu”
Q & A with Swami B. V. Tripurari
Śrī Caitanya Sanga - Vol. X, N° 1 - February 14, 2008.
http://www.swami.org/pages/sanga/