Editorial
A heart-wrenching tale
Timely community intervention can prevent recurrence
We are deeply touched by the reported and photographically depicted ordeal of physical and mental torture having been suffered by a woman in Ramu upazila and her eventual escape from the tyrannical stranglehold of her husband. Taslima Akhter, a 20-year old mother of one child, remained shackled for 12 days from her legs up to the neck and tied to a tree by daytime and a pole at night in an exhibition of barbaric cruelty.
But for a fortuitous turn, she might still have remained enchained: one fine morning her husband forgot to tie her up with the tree and that is how, with the help of her neighbours, she could find her way to an advocate in Cox's Bazar court. The rest followed; the culprit was ordered to be arrested and she landed under the wings of an NGO.
And what was her fault? She basically objected to the ignominy and illegality of her husband having married her by deceit concealing his earlier two marriages, something she had only come to learn seven months after her marriage. Not only that, it was too much for Taslima to bear up with as her husband, on the death of his first wife, brought in his second wife home to live with. This brings to the fore the imperiled plight of women having to live with husbands with a track record of previous marriages they did everything to conceal from their spouse or her family.
It is worthwhile to note that the neighbours, the lawyer and the NGO and, above all, the local administration all acted -- and we appreciate what they did -- but only after her plight was revealed. Not at any time during the 12 days that she quietly suffered the agonies of being shackled. In a civilised society, where even neglect to a domestic animal is regarded as an offence, here we are into the new millennium treating human beings virtually as animals! We must put this affront to humanity well behind us and soon enough.
How do we do it? There can be a two-tier defence mechanism against such acts of inhumanity. The first is: neighbourhood or community intervention; and secondly, at the union parishad and ward levels, we should have outlets for family counselling services to prevent such tyrannical excesses. The arbitrarily held salish needs to be replaced by more formal, government-authorised dispute resolution outlets.
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