Bangladesh President Abdul Hamid on Tuesday signed an ordinance to raise punishment for rape to death from life imprisonment, PTI reported. The country has seen a huge increase in sexual crimes in the last few years.
“The President assented the Cabinet decision and issued an ordinance on Women and Children Repression Prevention Act,” an official spokesperson told the news agency. His approval came a day after the government cleared an amendment to introduce death penalty for rape, amid massive protests in the country over sexual violence.
As many as 1,000 sexual crimes were reported in Bangladesh between January and September and more than a fifth of them were gangrape, Reuters reported, citing human rights organisation Ain-o-Salish Kendra.
Hundreds of people came out on the streets in Dhaka on Saturday to demand justice for the woman. The latest wave of protests in the country erupted over a video showing a group of men attacking and stripping a woman in the Noakhali district. The incident took place in September. The National Human Rights Commission, an autonomous organisation, found that the woman had been raped repeatedly and threatened with weapons over the last year, according to Reuters.
Before that, the gangrape of a student in a hostel in Sylhet district had evoked shock and anger across the country. The accused belonged to the student wing of the ruling party, according to the news agency. They were arrested last week, The Dhaka Tribune reported.
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Bangladesh approves death penalty for rapists. But will this change its culture of impunity?
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