NUSRAT AND THE HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BANGLADESH
Nusrat Jahan Rafi, a 19 year old girl studying in a religious seminary in Bangladesh was doused in kerosene and burned to death for reporting sexual harassment by her madrasah headteacher!
Sexual harassment, abuse and rape in Bangladesh do not get reported by victims or their families for fear of reprisal. Nusrat has proven this with her life.
When her madrasah headteacher tried to touch her inappropriately she escaped and reported the incident to the police. Instead of offering Nusrat safety and security the disgraceful police officer recorded her interview on his mobile phone and passed it on to the media.
She was blamed for reporting the incident and society ostracised her. He family stood by her and demanded justice. She was even denied the right to sit her exams in her school. Eventually when she managed to enter the school again, a group of fellow pupils took her to the school building’s roof. They told her that her friend was being beaten up there. When she arrived at the roof, they held her down and doused her with kerosene, an extremely flammable liquid, and set her alight.
She was severely burned but she was rescued and taken to hospital. On the way to the hospital she was able to record a statement on her brother’s mobile phone clearly naming some of perpetrators. She died of her injuries soon after that.
In Bangladesh circumventing the judiciary is very easy - you get your blind and foolish followers to agitate the law enforcement officers, bribe the local politician to speak on your behalf, hire a few local thugs as your muscleman, threaten the media with bogus court actions and intimidate the victims and the families so they remain silent. Nusrat and her family faced all of these evil experiences while trying to fight this sick social system.
The current Prime minister has mastered the art of abusing the judiciary for political gain, she and her ruling party have been notorious for concocting bogus court cases against political opponents and getting people disappeared, kidnapped, locked up without charges and in many cases killed. Now in Bangladesh this has become a culture where people of power, money and influence regularly use these tactics to silence their victims. Even many in the law enforcement agencies do it on a regularly basis to blackmail innocent people and run extortion rackets. Sexual harassment victims have no chance of surviving such a hostile environment if they report their experience to the police or the media. Nusrat paid a huge price with her dear life for standing up to the rotten social and political system in Bangladesh. She was burned to death!
Sexual abuse and violence is the most heinous evil and the most despicable act of cruelty. It’s victims suffer the consequences for the rest of their life, often silently. Their lives are destroyed permanently. In a country like Bangladesh, where people can hide behind fake conservatism even after perpetrating evil acts of sexual abuse and violence, a wholesale attitude change is urgently needed. Sex is not talked about yet sexual abuse and violence is rampant. I have personally come across many stories of such evil when people of Bangladeshi origin have come to me for counselling. They have told me horror stories of incidents of sexual abuse in Bangladesh while they were there either as a child or had gone there for holidays with families.
Sadly, even your religious cloak does not protect you from being a victim of sexual abuse like in the case of Nusrat, she was studying at a religious seminary; and your religious status does not give you the license to abuse, rape and inflict violence like in the case of Nusrat, who was abused by the headteacher of the madrasah and her attackers were her fellow madrasah students wearing burka (a cultural attire or cloak often associated with religiosity).
What Bangladesh needs is a robust legal system that is not manipulated by people of power and influence and draconian punishment for perpetrators of sexual crime. It also needs a national policy and procedures on safeguarding of children and vulnerable people along with education programmes to teach people respect of women.
Sex is considered a taboo in countries like Bangladesh but it needs to be discussed so that a healthy sexual attitude is developed in people from younger age.
Nusrat has died for standing up against sexual abuse, may God have mercy on her soul, and punish the perpetrators in this life and the next. I hope her death will inspire a radical change in Bangladesh soon.
Nusrat Jahan Rafi, a 19 year old girl studying in a religious seminary in Bangladesh was doused in kerosene and burned to death for reporting sexual harassment by her madrasah headteacher!
Sexual harassment, abuse and rape in Bangladesh do not get reported by victims or their families for fear of reprisal. Nusrat has proven this with her life.
When her madrasah headteacher tried to touch her inappropriately she escaped and reported the incident to the police. Instead of offering Nusrat safety and security the disgraceful police officer recorded her interview on his mobile phone and passed it on to the media.
She was blamed for reporting the incident and society ostracised her. He family stood by her and demanded justice. She was even denied the right to sit her exams in her school. Eventually when she managed to enter the school again, a group of fellow pupils took her to the school building’s roof. They told her that her friend was being beaten up there. When she arrived at the roof, they held her down and doused her with kerosene, an extremely flammable liquid, and set her alight.
She was severely burned but she was rescued and taken to hospital. On the way to the hospital she was able to record a statement on her brother’s mobile phone clearly naming some of perpetrators. She died of her injuries soon after that.
In Bangladesh circumventing the judiciary is very easy - you get your blind and foolish followers to agitate the law enforcement officers, bribe the local politician to speak on your behalf, hire a few local thugs as your muscleman, threaten the media with bogus court actions and intimidate the victims and the families so they remain silent. Nusrat and her family faced all of these evil experiences while trying to fight this sick social system.
The current Prime minister has mastered the art of abusing the judiciary for political gain, she and her ruling party have been notorious for concocting bogus court cases against political opponents and getting people disappeared, kidnapped, locked up without charges and in many cases killed. Now in Bangladesh this has become a culture where people of power, money and influence regularly use these tactics to silence their victims. Even many in the law enforcement agencies do it on a regularly basis to blackmail innocent people and run extortion rackets. Sexual harassment victims have no chance of surviving such a hostile environment if they report their experience to the police or the media. Nusrat paid a huge price with her dear life for standing up to the rotten social and political system in Bangladesh. She was burned to death!
Sexual abuse and violence is the most heinous evil and the most despicable act of cruelty. It’s victims suffer the consequences for the rest of their life, often silently. Their lives are destroyed permanently. In a country like Bangladesh, where people can hide behind fake conservatism even after perpetrating evil acts of sexual abuse and violence, a wholesale attitude change is urgently needed. Sex is not talked about yet sexual abuse and violence is rampant. I have personally come across many stories of such evil when people of Bangladeshi origin have come to me for counselling. They have told me horror stories of incidents of sexual abuse in Bangladesh while they were there either as a child or had gone there for holidays with families.
Sadly, even your religious cloak does not protect you from being a victim of sexual abuse like in the case of Nusrat, she was studying at a religious seminary; and your religious status does not give you the license to abuse, rape and inflict violence like in the case of Nusrat, who was abused by the headteacher of the madrasah and her attackers were her fellow madrasah students wearing burka (a cultural attire or cloak often associated with religiosity).
What Bangladesh needs is a robust legal system that is not manipulated by people of power and influence and draconian punishment for perpetrators of sexual crime. It also needs a national policy and procedures on safeguarding of children and vulnerable people along with education programmes to teach people respect of women.
Sex is considered a taboo in countries like Bangladesh but it needs to be discussed so that a healthy sexual attitude is developed in people from younger age.
Nusrat has died for standing up against sexual abuse, may God have mercy on her soul, and punish the perpetrators in this life and the next. I hope her death will inspire a radical change in Bangladesh soon.
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