This week Your Advocate is Barrister Omar Khan Joy, Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He is the head of the chambers of a renowned law firm, namely, ‘Legal Counsel’, which has expertise mainly in commercial law, family law, labour law, land law, constitutional law, criminal law, and IPR.
Sabina, 33, a young professional from Rangpur, tries hard to forget about the horrific day in 2019, when she was raped by her uncle. But even after three years the memory of her ordeal is fresh and has turned her days into a harrowing quest for survival.
“It makes me so angry when I see the man who raped my 13-year-old daughter with disabilities proudly roaming around the neighborhood, saying, ‘What’s so wrong with raping a retard? She’s a reject any way!’” lamented a frustrated Mujtoba Ali , a construction worker in Bogura.
Minu Akhter, who has been serving in prison for three years instead of the convicted Kulsuma Akhter in a case filed over the killing of one Kohinur Begum in Chattogram in 2006, awaits a High Court ruling on her unjust circumstances. An HC bench led by Justice Enayetur Rahim was scheduled to deliver its order on April 5 on the issue but its jurisdiction was reconstituted due to
Bangladesh follows a 150-year-old definition of rape given in the Penal Code, 1860, which happens to be a colonial holdover. Section 375 of the Penal Code defines rape along this line: A man is said to commit rape who, has sexual intercourse with a woman under circumstances falling under any of the five situations. The Code restrictively defines rape to mean only penile-vaginal penetration, even though rape, in real life, may include an array of violent actions, including, but not limited to penile-vaginal penetration.
The Penal Code also states that penetration is sufficient to constitute sexual intercourse which is a necessary element of the offence of rape.