A woman in Bangladesh has been burnt to death after she reported her headmaster for sexual harassment.
Nusrat Jahan Rafi filed a sexual harassment complaint against her headmaster at the madrassa (Islamic School) she attended in the town of Feni, south-east of the capital Dhaka.
However, when Nusrat went to her local police station to report the sexual assault where she was filmed by the policeman who took the report who dismissed her allegations out of hand.
After the video was leaked to the media the police were forced to take action and arrested the Islamic teacher, but this provoked protests from locals who demanded his release.
When Nusrat went to school to sit her final exams on April 6th, less than two weeks after the assault, she was lured to the roof of the building where several people in burkas demanded she drop her complaint. After refusing their demands Nusrat was doused in kerosene and set on fire.
The Police Bureau of Investigation chief, Banaj Kumar Majumder, has said the murderers appear to have tried to stage a suicide but Nusrat survived in agony with 3rd degree burns over 80% of her body for five days after the attack.
After the attack Nusrat recorded a message on a mobile phone as she feared she would quickly succumb to her wounds and said, “The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath,” Nusrat also identified one of the attackers as a student of the Madrassa.
The case of Nusrat has highlighted the plight of sexual assault victims and women in general in Bangladesh and wider Muslim world.
Many women in the Islamic world face being shunned, punished or even murdered for being sexually assaulted or raped and under Islamic Law a women’s testimony is only weighted as half a man’s.
Bandladesh’s Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has met Nusrat’s family in Dhaka and promised that the killers will all face justice.
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