Getting punishment instead of empowerment? Photo: Iqbal Ahmed/ Drik News
By Moazzem Hossain
I wish I did not have to write this piece. One must do it since there has been a silence on the part of the commentators and the politicians, except this daily which published a strongly worded editorial on this issue on May 26. Moreover, the incident had taken place next door to the upazila where I come from. Yes, I am talking about the recent incident at a village in Daudkandi, where a girl was whipped with 39 lashes in the presence of a few hundred peoplethe outcome of a decree of a local salish.
This is not the first occasion that such a crime has been committed by the so-called moulanas and their accomplices in this nation. The aim of this piece is to remind the politicians at all levels that, under any circumstances, this kind of atrocity cannot be allowed and must be stopped immediatelyby making new laws if required.
There is no excuse for tolerating such a heinous act in rural Bangladesh during the so- called era of women empowerment and emancipation. Most importantly, it makes one doubly puzzled that no politician has come forward and shown empathy towards that poor injured girl in the hospital. Perhaps they do not want to be stigmatised, and feared a backlash from the bigots.
Some readers may have thought that the village where the incident took place was located in a remote and illiterate part of the country. No, Daudkandi has one of the highest literacy rates, close to 80%, and is located not too great a distance from Dhaka (only 50 km).
Politically, this is certainly one of the violence-ridden areas of the country, although it has a very high level of per capita income. Although the famous Goalmari fight had taken place here during the war of liberation (Pakistan army even lost some its officers in this fight), the post-liberation period has been infested with violence after violence.
The infamous killers of the father of the nation come from this area (Khandakar Mushtaq and Col. Rashid). Since General Zia’s time this locality has been dominated by BNP-Jamaat politics led by Khandakar Musharaf, who lost the last election to AL’s Subed Ali Bhuiyan.
If I am correct, neither the incumbent MP, nor the former MP has visited the victim until now. None of the 45 MPs elected in the women’s quota has visited the poor girl, either. One may ask, what kind of democracy we are heading towardsdemocracy for the elite, or democracy for the masses?
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