We are absolutely repulsed by the incident in Kaliakor upazila in Gazipur, where a 45-year old woman was beaten publicly by a village elder for “disobeying” him. Jalal Uddin, the village elder, had sent message to her to attend an arbitration meeting to resolve a long standing dispute between her and her younger brother, but she had refused to come, urging him to come to meet her instead. Infuriated that a woman would dare refuse him, he dragged her out her of house and beat her with a stick in front of her neighbours till she lost consciousness. She is undergoing treatment at the hospital.
It is completely unacceptable that such an atrocious instance of violence against women should take place at a day and age when we, as a nation, profess to prioritise women’s equality and empowerment. Not only did the man think it was his right to beat up a woman mercilessly simply because she disobeyed him, it seems as if the whole village thought so too, or at any rate, they were least perturbed by it. They just stood by and watched; two other villagers even participated in the attack. This just goes to show the alarming extent to which violence against women is still tolerated, even endorsed, in many parts of the country.
What is equally shocking is the fact that despite a case filed by the victim’s son and ample photographic evidence of the beating, the police are yet to arrest the perpetrators. Exemplary punishment should be meted out to demonstrate our zero tolerance policy towards violence against women.
Source: The Daily Star
