Activist urges protection from fatwas in Bangladesh

(July 13, 2011) The Government of Bangladesh must take urgent action to protect girls and women from illegal fatwas and extrajudicial punishments traditionally meted out to resolve disputes, a rights activist demanded on Tuesday. “Women and girls, especially the uneducated and among the rural poor, are regular victims of human rights violations. These punishments are tools of torture used]by unscrupulous Muslim leaders,” said Faustina Pereira, a Catholic lawyer.
Pereira, who is the human rights and legal aid services director at BRAC, a leading development organization, said many victims are haunted by extrajudicial punishments, such as whippings, cutting off hair, blackening faces, wearing garlands of shoes, ostracism and the imposition of fines. In a number of cases, punishments have resulted in the deaths of victims. The Catholic lawyer said the government needed to take note of a recent Human Rights Watch report criticizing its lack of protection for people from illegal fatwas and punishments.