Seattle Times, USA, 22 October 1995

101 lashes for woman who refused to wed

DHAKA, Bangladesh -- An 18-year old woman was given 101 lashes of the whip after she rejected an order by an "Islamic" court in north-eastern Bangladesh to marry the man of its choice, press reports in Dhaka said yesterday.

Dilara Begum was flogged publicly in the Beanibazar subdistrict in Sylhet province Wednesday after local Muslim clerics handed down the sentence, the Bengali daily Bhorer Kagoj reported.

Begum earlier said she would not marry the man chosen for her by the clerics because he already had a wife. Begum was taken by neighbors to a village health complex after she was left behind profusely bleeding by her tormentors.

The daily, quoting local reporters, said Begum's uncle was forced to administer the lashes.

"Islamic" courts are unauthorized in this moderate Muslim country, but in recent years militant clerics in Bangladesh have set up "kangaroo courts" to punish people, mostly women, whom they considered guilty of adultery.

The Bangladesh Women's Council, a non-government body, said several women in remote villages have been driven to suicide in recent years due to public humiliation after clerics ordered their flogging in the open.