A woman burnt to death by her husband

It is yet another horror story in the grotesquely high number of women dying at the hands of their husbands after being tortured mercilessly. This time it was 25-year-old Hira Begum from Jashor's Abhaynagar upazilla, the wife of Billal Sardar who poured petrol all over her body and set her ablaze. She died on the way to Dhaka Medical College. The reason for this barbaric act? She had refused to go to India with her husband—he had been trying to "convince" her to go for a long time. Part of that "convincing" was inhuman torture that culminated in the dastardly act of setting her on fire and killing her. 

We do not need to know what Hira Begum's reasons were for not complying with her husband and why she was subjected to such brutality What is evident is that despite all the hard work of human rights activists to end domestic violence, which has resulted in a law to be enacted, on the ground, such laws have practically no effect. The Domestic Violence Prevention Act 2010 was enacted 10 years ago but is just in paper only as very few women have had the courage to file cases against their husbands while most women are completely oblivious of its existence. Thus the statistics, while bone chilling in their implication, do not surprise us anymore—Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF)'s survey from April to September this year found 37,512 cases of domestic abuse from selected locations. Their survey also found a sharp increase in domestic violence during this pandemic as lockdown forced women to be with their assaulters—their husbands, for longer periods of time..

So while we cry ourselves hoarse for a stop to such brutality on women by their partners that rob them of their health, wellbeing and often their lives, husbands beating their wives is still not considered a crime. This is where there must be massive awareness and intervention from the leaders of society. The government has a huge responsibility to stop this pervasive crime by initiating campaigns to declare domestic violence and all other kinds of violence against women and girls as heinous crimes, sensitise the police, local government leaders as well as religious leaders to condemn such violence and be on the side of the survivors, not the perpetrators; reform the legal system and provide protection or shelter to survivors so that women can escape their tormentors and get legal redress for the violence they are subjected to.