In a demonstration of arcane religious ideology triumphing over common sense and logic, a young girl in Bangladesh was further traumatized when village arbitration found her guilty and sentenced her to receive 101 lashes for becoming pregnant out of wedlock.
The Daily Star Newspaper of Bangladesh reports the fatwa issued by the village leadership also fined the victim's father Tk 1,000 and issued another fatwa that her family would be forced into isolation if he failed to pay up.
Amazingly, the alleged rapist wasn't punished.
The girl was married away shortly after the attack to a man in another village, but divorced after it became known she was pregnant. She returned to the village to find her family put into isolation and herself awaiting punishment.
Village matbar (local leader) Delwar Hossain alias Ullashi executed the durra (lashes) on January 17. The girl reportedly fainted during the torture, and took hours to recover.
What the case demonstrates is the glaring reality that religious fundamentalism is inhuman and wrong. The children of Abraham, no matter whether they are now under cross, crescent, or star, need to shed the draconian practices their faith allows them.
In Bangladesh a young girl is tortured again for the torture done to her before.
Here in Oregon children die because their parents won't take them to the doctor, thinking faith will heal them.
In Israel and Palestinian territories people kill each other because their different versions of faith tell them to.
When will people the world over lift the scourge of religious fundamentalism from their backs?
Comments
To be fair, this brutal, uncivilized behavior is more the product of primitive culture than the pure teachings of the religion. Religions, however, generally serve to reinforce whatever prejudices and customs are present, and to keep them as they are. That's one of religion's social functions; to anchor social norms by associating them with eternal "truths".
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