RAFIQUL Islam hacked off five fingers from his wife, Jui's right hand because she was studying at college against his wishes. Hassan Sayeed Sumon stuck his fingers into his wife, Rumana's eyes and blinded her. He wanted to stop her from returning to Canada where she was a Fulbright scholar.
Rafiqul and Sumon were exceptionally vicious in their action but by no means unusual in their reaction. The physical chastisement of a woman is widely regarded in our society as a man's entitlement and a woman's just desert. Acid attacks, stalking, widespread wife battering and harsh punishment of women by village shalish bear testimony to this social assumption of male "privilege." [Daily Star] Read more
