Meher Akhter, a Master’s student of World Religion and Culture Department of Dhaka University (DU) got married to one Masud Khan of Manikganj in February, 2011. But her dream of leading a happy conjugal life was totally shattered when she was divorced by her husband recently.
At a press conference held at the office of DU Journalists’ Association on Sunday, the unfortunate young divorcee narrated how she was tortured so frequently just after six months of the marriage by her husband and father-in-law for dowry-a social vice.
She said that her family members had arranged the marriage with Masud Khan, a resident of Kustabandar village of Gheor upazila of the district.
In spite of every effort to maintain cordial relations with her in-laws’ family members, they were not kind to her. The degree of torture has increased manifolds in recent months. And recently the husband beat her so brutally that her spinal cord was broken, she said.
Meher said her husband divorced without taking her consent. Rather, he brought various allegations against her during the divorce.
She said when her marriage was arranged with Masud, his family members agreed to give her Tk 1,49,000 as ‘Den Mohar’ but they did not give it as yet. Moreover, she said, the family members of Masud did not demand any dowry during the marriage.
After six months of the marriage, Masud’s family demanded Tk 5 lakh as dowry and also inflicted torture on her, she said, adding when her parents gave the said amount for the happiness of their daughter, the torture was stopped for a short time.
Again Masud’s family demanded Tk 10 lakh from Meher’s family to launch a business. As denied to pay, they again started inhuman torture on her.
“They used to beat me almost regularly. There are marks of torture on my body. Even they did not hesitate to break my spinal cord,” she said, adding “My husband has divorced me without taking my consent. The divorce was not held in line with the rules of the marriage act.”
When the torture crossed all limits, Meher lodged a case against her husband and father-in-law on October 22, 2013 with the Women and Children Repression Tribunal. The case no. is 36/14.
After the filing of the case, she said, Masud had been threatening her to withdraw the case. Otherwise, he warned that she will have to face the consequences.
However, Masud denied all the allegations outright, saying that he never gave any threat to her. Rather, he raised questions about her character. That is why, I divorced her, he claimed.
