World

Cleric held after Bangladesh teen whipped to death

Fifteen-year-old Hena Begum was sentenced to public lashing after being accused of having an extra-marital affair.

Afp February 02, 2011

DHAKA: Bangladeshi police arrested four people including a Muslim cleric on Wednesday after a teenage girl, who was accused of having an extra-marital affair with her cousin, was whipped to death.

Fifteen-year-old Hena Begum died in hospital on Monday after a village court in the southern Bangladesh district of Shariatpur sentenced her to 100 lashes, said local police chief A.K.M Shahidur Rahman.

"We have arrested one of the clerics (who sat on the village court) and three villagers including the wife of the man who Hena Begum had an illicit relationship with," Rahman told AFP.

According to Rahman, the teenage girl was "beaten mercilessly" by the family of the married man, who was also Hena's cousin, after the affair was discovered.

The teenager was then handed to the village court, which publicly whipped her until she passed out and was taken to hospital, where she died seven days later, he said.

In conservative rural parts of Muslim-majority Bangladesh, rights groups say it is common for women to be publicly whipped for "crimes" such as adultery despite a ban on such religious punishments.

In some documented cases, rape victims have been flogged for being a "participant" in their sexual assault.

Last July, Bangladesh's High Court outlawed punishments handed down by religious edict, or fatwa, following a series of public interest litigation cases lodged by local human rights groups.

But the ruling has had little effect, rights groups say, pointing to a case in December where a woman died after being whipped 40 times after she was accused of sleeping with her stepson by a similar village court.

Some 90 percent of Bangladesh's 146 million people are Muslims and most live in rural areas.

COMMENTS (8)

afzal shaheen | 13 years ago | Reply It is the state who can prosecute any offender. Following aspects are to be noted 1. four witness testify the crime and which can be considered as beyond any doubt( Tazkia-tul-shahud) 2. or if there is voluntary confession by the offender. 100 lashes for non married offender and stoning to death who is married person. in this case if even there was confession than what about the other offender who is a married person

G.Din | 13 years ago | Reply @sami "...It is not about Islam. Islam orders equal punishment for both men and women. " Aren't you being a hypocrite? Even if we grant that, "Islam orders equal punishment for both men and women", that punishment can be meted out only after the crime has been proved. A woman can NEVER prove to a Muslim jury that a man has raped her because she needs to have four witnesses to the crime per shariah. How disingenuous! Because it expects the woman to gather witnesses prior to the moment a man may decide to go bonkers. The world has to find a way to liberate the Muslim woman from the stifling, smothering, bullying, despotic stranglehold of the Muslim male. Until it does so, it shall not know peace!