Woman Beaten and Her Hair Cut Off in Jhenaidah Over Adultery Allegation, Raising Questions Over Who the Law Actually Punishes

A woman in Jhenaidah Sadar upazila has allegedly been beaten, had her hair cut off and had chilli powder smeared on her body over an allegation of an extramarital affair. According to a published report, several people carried out the abuse themselves before the allegation was ever verified.

According to the account published in Ajker Patrika, on the afternoon of 22 October a man named Rashid, from the neighbouring village of Nosayanpur, first went to the woman's home in Karotipara village and warned her. When she denied the allegation, several more people arrived at the scene.

She was then allegedly beaten, her hair was cut off and chilli powder was smeared on her body. Her son was also struck with a stick when he tried to protect his mother.

The report says the wife of Anwar, the man named in the affair allegation, herself cut off the woman's hair.

The incident raises a fundamental question: when an allegation of an illicit relationship is made against someone, is it for individuals to judge it, or for the state's law and justice system? The state has specific laws and institutions to verify allegations, gather evidence and try offences.

Under Section 497 of Bangladesh's existing Penal Code, the punishment for adultery is up to five years' imprisonment, a fine, or both. However, as the provision is described, the law provides punishment only for the man who enters into a relationship with another man's wife. It contains no provision for punishing the woman or treating her as an offender.

In other words, even where the law provides for punishment on such an allegation, it would be determined by a court, not by any individual. Personal suspicion or social stigma gives no one the right to enter another person's home, physically abuse them or humiliate them.

When an allegation is raised against a woman, she should have the opportunity to defend herself. Cutting off her hair or smearing chilli powder on her body in the name of punishment is not social justice; it is abuse, discussants say.

Concern has been expressed over this tendency to take the law into one's own hands. If everyone takes the law into their own hands, the social structure is bound to collapse. Unless strict action is taken against those who break the law, such behaviour will keep recurring, the discussion warns.

Excessive curiosity in sections of society about women's private lives, and the tendency to establish control in the name of morality, are not new. But this incident also raises whether society is as responsible about protecting women's dignity and safety as it is strict on questions of morality.

In the Jhenaidah case, there are calls for the allegation to be left to the law to judge. Establishing oneself as judge and executioner before it is even determined whether an allegation is true or false is in no way acceptable, the discussion says.

What remains to be seen is what legal action is taken against those allegedly involved in the abuse, and whether the safety and treatment of the victim and her injured son are ensured.