A 19-year-old girl was burned to death on the roof of her school after she told the police that her headmaster had sexually harassed her.
After the video of her statement was leaked to social media, the teen was burned to death by a group of people. Some of them were identified as her fellow students.
According to BBC, Nusrat Jahan Rafi said that it was on March 27 when she was called to the headmaster’s office. She said that the headmaster, Ud Doula, had touched her in inappropriate ways.
She immediately went to the police where she offered a statement that was videotaped by one of the officers in charge.
“The police officer is heard saying it’s ‘not a big deal’ and telling her to ‘move your hands from the face, stop crying, nothing happened that you have to cry.’
The video of her statement later leaked to social media.
The headmaster was arrested but male students started a protest demanding the headmaster be released. Things got worse for the teen that people started blaming her.
After a week, Nusrat went to school to take final exams. Her brother said: “I tried to take my sister to school and tried to enter the premises, but I was stopped and wasn’t allowed to enter. If I hadn’t been stopped, something like this wouldn’t have happened to my sister.”
Nusrat said before she passed away that she was lured to the rooftop by a female student who claimed another friend was being assaulted. However, “four or five people, wearing burqas, surrounded her and allegedly pressured her to withdraw the case against the headmaster. When she refused, they drenched her with kerosene and set her on fire,” according to the BBC.
By the time the teen reached the hospital, 80 percent of her body was already burned. On the way to the hospital, she recorded a statement on her brother’s phone telling the names of the students who attacked her. She added: “The teacher touched me. I will fight this crime till my last breath.”
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said: “None of the culprits will be spared from legal action.”
Former director of the Women Lawyers’ Association also added: “When a woman tries to get justice for sexual harassment, she has to face a lot of harassment again. The case lingers for years, there is shaming in society, a lack of willingness from police to properly investigate the allegations.
“It leads the victim to give up on seeking justice. Ultimately the criminals don’t get punished and they do the same crime again. Others don’t fear to do the same because of such examples.”
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