Raped of Rights and Dignity

A Bangladesh teen was lashed 101 times for conceiving a child out-of-wedlock. What’s the catch? She was raped. In April of last year, a 20-year-old man from Brahmanbaria made this young girl his victim, and she is still suffering.

On January 26, 2010, Dean Nelson of The Telegraph reported Muslim elders in this girl’s village issued a “fatwa”, which is an Islamic religious ruling, or a scholarly opinion on a matter of Islamic law. This fatwa insisted the girl be kept in isolation until her family agreed to corporal punishment. Her father was also fined, and told his family would be labeled as “outcasts”.

According to The Telegraph, Bangladesh’s Daily Star newspaper reported she was so ashamed following the attack that she did not lodge a complaint. Not long after, the girl was married. However, her husband left her a few weeks later when health tests revealed she was expecting.

 The real kicker is the village elders pardoned the rapist.

 Understandably, the girl told the Daily Star she wants justice, because the rapist has “ruined her life”.

“Ruined her life” could be the understatement of the year.

 For Westerners, these religious beliefs and practices are hard to understand. When evidence shows a Canadian girl is raped, he is jailed and sentenced. However, in Bangladesh, it’s the women’s fault.

 This girl has suffered through an unimaginable experience. She victimized, and now she is paying for a crime committed against her. The 101 scars left on her body from lashing only serve to remind her every single day how the justice system has failed her in the worst possible way.

 These men are the worst abusers of women’s rights. Western society has done so much to improve the rights of women and to make equality a reality. However, we can’t alter the way Islāmic men treat women. Unfortunately, they need to make these changes on their own.

 If this girl decides to take a stand, there is the very real possibility she will be putting her life and the lives of her family in danger. Standing up to religious beliefs and practices is almost unheard of in her country.

This article opens up a can of worms regarding women’s rights in Bangladesh. The gender imbalance not only exists within legal sectors, it exists also within the home. Traditionally, Muslim women have been seen as something to control. They are raped by their own husbands, and abused in unimaginable ways. Every single aspect of their lives are controlled. How they dress, how they act, how they speak, to whom they speak to, how they walk, what they eat…is all monitored by their husbands, fathers, brothers and uncles. They are forced under religious beliefs, to be submissive and weak. To essentially give up the rights  every human being should have.

How long will the concept of “free will” elude these women? To these men, they are nothing more than mothers and wives. As they grow up, they are taught to obey, keep a tidy home, and raise their children. They don’t know any other way of life. And this is an unjustice in itself.

 If a woman chooses to object to this way of life,  she could be murdered by one of her own family members. Called a “mercy killing”, muslim women are killed for resisting religious law or family rules. Can we even begin to imagine this kind of thing happening in Canada? For men here to be so authoritarian and misogynistic would never be tolerated.

In Canada, women who are suffering abuse at the hands of their husbands have options. Interval House is there to put a roof over their head, and food in their stomachs. In Bangladesh, these women have nothing. If they resist the rules of their husbands, they are whipped, beaten, and left to die.

What can we, as Canadians, do to help? As we raise billions of dollars for the people in Haiti, we display our ability to be kind and compassionate people. We are there to help people in a desperate time of need. So how about we extend some of this goodwill to the women in Bangladesh? How can our money help these women escape lives of oppressive marriages and religious traditions?

Do we make it easier for women to immigrate to Canada after suffering such inhumanity? Do we give them a home, a place to re-build their life? Or do we continue to stand by, and watch this happen again and again?

The threats, murders and intimidation against women in Muslim countries needs to stop. How many lashes will it take before this is regognized as a serious problem? How many more young girls will be punished because they were raped?

 Think of your daughter, your sister, your best friend…and tell me this is something we should just ignore.