Only 14, Bangladeshi Girl Charged With Adultery Was Lashed to Death

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Only 14, Bangladeshi Girl Charged With Adultery Was Lashed to Death.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/asiapcf/03/29/bangladesh.lashing.death/index.html?iref=NS1

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Only 14, Bangladeshi girl charged with adultery was lashed to death

By Farid Ahmed and Moni Basu, CNNMarch 29, 2011 -- Updated 2309 GMT (0709 HKT) Darbesh Khan and his wife, Aklima Begum, had to watch their youngest daughter being whipped until she dropped. STORY HIGHLIGHTS

Hena Akhter, in her last words to her mother, said she was innocent
At first, an autopsy said she committed suicide
But later, the ugly details of her case surfaced
Her family says she was punished twice -- raped and then lashed

Shariatpur, Bangladesh (CNN) -- Hena Akhter's last words to her mother proclaimed her innocence. But it was too late to save the 14-year-old girl.

Her fellow villagers in Bangladesh's Shariatpur district had already passed harsh judgment on her. Guilty, they said, of having an affair with a married man. The imam from the local mosque ordered the fatwa, or religious ruling, and the punishment: 101 lashes delivered swiftly, deliberately in public.

Hena dropped after 70.

Bloodied and bruised, she was taken to hospital, where she died a week later.

Amazingly, an initial autopsy report cited no injuries and deemed her death a suicide. Hena's family insisted her body be exhumed. They wanted the world to know what really happened to their daughter.

Sharia: illegal but still practiced

Hena's family hailed from rural Shariatpur, crisscrossed by murky rivers that lend waters to rice paddies and lush vegetable fields.

Hena was the youngest of five children born to Darbesh Khan, a day laborer, and his wife, Aklima Begum. They shared a hut made from corrugated tin and decaying wood and led a simple life that was suddenly marred a year ago with the return of Hena's cousin Mahbub Khan.

Mahbub Khan came back to Shariatpur from a stint working in Malaysia. His son was Hena's age and the two were in seventh grade together.

Khan eyed Hena and began harassing her on her way to school and back, said Hena's father. He complained to the elders who run the village about his nephew, three times Hena's age.

The elders admonished Mahbub Khan and ordered him to pay $1,000 in fines to Hena's family. But Mahbub was Darbesh's older brother's son and Darbesh was asked to let the matter fade.

Many months later on a winter night, as Hena's sister Alya told it, Hena was walking from her room to an outdoor toilet when Mahbub Khan gagged her with cloth, forced her behind nearby shrubbery and beat and raped her.

Hena struggled to escape, Alya told CNN. Mahbub Khan's wife heard Hena's muffled screams and when she found Hena with her husband, she dragged the teenage girl back to her hut, beat her and trampled her on the floor.

The next day, the village elders met to discuss the case at Mahbub Khan's house, Alya said. The imam pronounced his fatwa. Khan and Hena were found guilty of an illicit relationship. Her punishment under sharia or Islamic law was 101 lashes; his 201.

Mahbub Khan managed to escape after the first few lashes.

Darbesh Khan and Aklima Begum had no choice but to mind the imam's order. They watched as the whip broke the skin of their youngest child and she fell unconscious to the ground.

"What happened to Hena is unfortunate and we all have to be ashamed that we couldn't save her life," said Sultana Kamal, who heads the rights organization Ain o Shalish Kendro.

Bangladesh is considered a democratic and moderate Muslim country, and national law forbids the practice of sharia. But activist and journalist Shoaib Choudhury, who documents such cases, said sharia is still very much in use in villages and towns aided by the lack of education and strong judicial systems.

The Supreme Court also outlawed fatwas a decade ago, but human rights monitors have documented more than 500 cases of women in those 10 years who were punished through a religious ruling. And few who have issued such rulings have been charged.

The government needs to enact a specific law to deal with such perpetrators responsible for extrajudicial penalty in the name of Islam.
--Sultana Kamal, head of rights organization Ain o Shalish Kendro. RELATED TOPICS

Last month, the court asked the government to explain what it had done to stop extrajudicial penalty based on fatwa. It ordered the dissemination of information to all mosques and madrassas, or religious schools, that sharia is illegal in Bangladesh.

"The government needs to enact a specific law to deal with such perpetrators responsible for extrajudicial penalty in the name of Islam," Kamal told CNN.

The United Nations estimates that almost half of Bangladeshi women suffer from domestic violence and many also commonly endure rape, beatings, acid attacks and even death because of the country's entrenched patriarchal system.

Hena might have quietly become another one of those statistics had it not been for the outcry and media attention that followed her death on January 31.

'Not even old enough to be married'

Monday, the doctors responsible for Hena's first autopsy faced prosecution for what a court called a "false post-mortem report to hide the real cause of Hena's death."

Public outrage sparked by that autopsy report prompted the high court to order the exhumation of Hena's body in February. A second autopsy performed at Dhaka Medical College Hospital revealed Hena had died of internal bleeding and her body bore the marks of severe injuries.

Police are now conducting an investigation and have arrested several people, including Mahbub Khan, in connection with Hena's death.

"I've nothing to demand but justice," said Darbesh Khan, leading a reporter to the place where his daughter was abducted the night she was raped.

He stood in silence and took a deep breath. She wasn't even old enough to be married, he said, testament to Hena's tenderness in a part of the world where many girls are married before adulthood. "She was so small."

Hena's mother, Aklima, stared vacantly as she spoke of her daughter's last hours. She could barely get out her words. "She was innocent," Aklima said, recalling Hena's last words.

Police were guarding Hena's family earlier this month. Darbesh and Aklima feared reprisal for having spoken out against the imam and the village elders.

They had meted out the most severe punishment for their youngest daughter. They could put nothing past them.

Journalist Farid Ahmed reported from Shariatpur, Bangladesh, and CNN's Moni Basu reported from Atlanta.

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JLMore Let's pretend for a moment that it wasn't rape (I believe it was rape but please hear my point)...So the ruling was 101 lashes to a 14 year old girl who apparently had an affair--shouldn't the married man's punishment have been even more severe? I mean if my significant other is unfaithful, I will ... more 12 hours ago | Like (79) | Report abuse
tjlik J 17 hours ago | Like (9) | Report abuse
bmiller616 Ok here is my take. They should shoot the elders for carrying out a illegal law.. That's it. This will stop it. Shot them in front of people like they whipped her in front of people.. 19 hours ago | Like (514) | Report abuse
bouchman And find and whip the rapist. His 201 plus Hena's 101. No hospital afterwards. Let the wounds heal au natural as outside help vis a vis medication made by Westerners might be unholy ( as will be his pain) but not as much as this family is suffering. 18 hours ago | Like (260) | Report abuse
GodIsAnIdiot This is the result of people geting orders from their imaginary friend ( allah etc) 20 hours ago | Like (420) | Report abuse
Elmeaux Imagine there's no countries. It isn't hard to do. Nothing to kill or die for. And no religion too. 20 hours ago | Like (475) | Report abuse
jbryan66 let's see.... girl - raped, beaten, lashed, deathman - criminal, forgiven by wife, lashed, escapedsomeone needs to tell the wife that he will do this again. he needs to be locked away as do the medical scums that falsified the autopsy. I just don't think that man would be alive to take the lashings ... more 20 hours ago | Like (270) | Report abuse
conradshull Forget it Jake, this is Sharia-town. 20 hours ago | Like (61) | Report abuse
blackarrow Poor Islam..In the old days they could do this sort of thing all day, while a blind eye was turned to the masses of men happily sodomizing each other.But now the light is on, and their fate is to have the terror that holds their religion increasingly exposed and pushed to the corners of civilization... more 21 hours ago | Like (192) | Report abuse
KinNYC Dirt poor. Raped & beaten by a older male cousin. Then beaten by the cousin's wife. Then whipped to death by the villagers. I can't imagine what this girl felt/thought in the last 24 hours of her life. And people ask me why I don't believe in god. 21 hours ago | Like (737) | Report abuse
flipnap sharia law is the most evil thing ive ever heard of. and poor girl. gets raped, get whipped to death, then they call it a suicide? these people are lower than animals 21 hours ago | Like (597) | Report abuse
judderwocky @avis1.... If individuals are evil, then how is it that you assume the product of their actions is good? The bible, the Dharma, the Torah, Quran, whatever you call it... these are all works of people. Self interested people. Religion is the way of ignorance. 20 hours ago | Like (262) | Report abuse
SupraPwn Shariah is perfect...if everyone lived in 8th century arabia 20 hours ago | Like (123) | Report abuse
avis1 Sharya law is perfect, like the Torah, or the Dharma. Individuals are often evil. 21 hours ago | Like (23) | Report abuse
DanTheMan99 ALL religions are based on myths. Whether it is in the Bible or the Quran, it was written by men, human, not Gods. If it cannot be proven through science, then it is a myth. Faith and beliefs are a good thing, but they are still myths.
21 hours ago | Like (255) | Report abuse
DameMak @flipnap: When "Faith supercedes proof " you can believe in everything no matters if it is true or false, good or bad. When "Faith supercedes proof " you have a big excuse to do crimes in the name of your faith. 20 hours ago | Like (109) | Report abuse
USAOverLord It is a proven fact that many things are not proven by science. Are they all myths too? All of the science in the world won't help you in the afterlife. Science offer me the dirt in the ground at death. My bible offers me heaven. I'll take my chances... 21 hours ago | Like (139) | Report abuse
flipnap no body claims the bible or the quran were written by gods. Faith supercedes proof so your last sentence is illogical. 21 hours ago | Like (33) | Report abuse
FRODOO And those who wrote bible and Quran were on dope. 21 hours ago | Like (89) | Report abuse
americatome Islam: a religion of peace. Just like Christianity during the Inquisition and the settlement of the New World. Relgion tends to occupy the same role as viralent nationalism or political ideology. All bring out the worst in humanity. Morality and ethical behavior are contingent on none of the abo... more 21 hours ago | Like (163) | Report abuse
Virologist Religion, nationalism, and political ideologies are all powerful motivators. They can be used for either good or evil. 21 hours ago | Like (62) | Report abuse
Brasil2010 THIS is why there must be a separation of church (religion) and state. 21 hours ago | Like (169) | Report abuse
DarthVadik Are you two guys/girls below reading the same article or just making up stuff???...

You know this is how rumors get started... 21 hours ago | Like (25) | Report abuse
cnancy And no punishment for the man, you forgot that part. 21 hours ago | Like (24) | Report abuse
ZUSSINATOR There is no state in these countries. Apparently the punishment for being raped is death according to the Quran. 21 hours ago | Like (62) | Report abuse