MEDIA reports said a young housewife was allegedly stripped naked in a local arbitration at Shapmari village in Sadar upazila of Sherpur district on Friday. It is a highly shocking event that stunned the nation and we condemn the beastly act of some villagers and wonder why others did not come to rescue the ill-fated woman. Our social fabrics were highly cohesive only a couple of years back. What happened here now in the recent past, which has so quickly criminalized our society and the young people is something that must be seriously looked into. Because if such things go to happen unabated, our society will break apart and lawlessness will grip us everywhere when nobody will come to the rescue of others in time of their need. Bangladesh politics has become highly vindictive and criminalized and the cruelties to poor people and women and children in particular are nothing but the reflection of our scandalous politics in social life.
What happened to the young woman was barbaric and utterly humiliating and it is quite unacceptable that onlookers made jokes in her miseries. It is a big shame on the nation but not isolated event in the light of brutalities that were committed by beastly people even over the past few days. As we see it followed the brutal killing of Rajon in Sylhet by some wrong-headed men and the killing of another boy at Comilla in similar frenzy by a group of errant youths. TV footage showed a woman was tied to a tree and beaten on Sunday while onlookers were crowding around. At another place two teenage boys were found tied back to back with a poll and nobody was coming to their rescue.
It appears that our society is rapidly losing respect for law, moral values and collective bond of security. It is indeed unthinkable that things like stripping of a young woman happened in public where good people were cowed by hoodlums and only devils were on laughter. They did not stop by humiliating the young woman; they removed the small piece of clothes that were handed out to her to protect herself. Reports said a police case has been opened and the nation would expect that the criminals behind the frenzy act must be tried and punished. There can’t be any intervention, the woman must get justice.
The incident not only showed the humiliation that was meted out to the woman, it also highlighted the fact that village arbitration which is accepted as an alternative dispute settlement mechanism is also going to lose ground in want of security for the weaker parties. In fact strong party always commits crime and the weak ask to justice. The incident showed justice to the poor is going to be highly illusive in our society in the changing circumstances.
