Woman killed for dowry in Magura

A woman has been killed allegedly by her husband for dowry at Raipur village of Babukhali union in Magura’s Mohammadpur upazila.

The deceased was identified as Munira Khatun, 20. She had been married to Zia Munshi, 25, for barely four months. 

Munira was hit with a wood log by her husband after a heated argument between them over dowry turned violent on Friday, police said.

According to locals, the couple used to fight often as Zia was demanding dowry from the first day of marriage.

Arif Mollah, father of Munira, alleged that Zia used to torture her daughter for dowry since their marriage. "On Friday morning, Zia had called me to take our daughter back home."

Mohammadpur police station Officer in-Charge (OC) said: "We have recovered the body and sent it to the local hospital morgue for an autopsy," 

Efforts are on to nab Zia and his family, he added.

Dowry is one of the most common forms of gender-based discrimination in Bangladesh. Every year thousands of women face serious social, psychological and physical tortures due to dowry-related disputes.

According to Odhikar, a human rights body, 5,699 women faced dowry-related violence from 2001 to 2017 and the rate of homicides and suicides due to dowry was also high during the period, reports UNB.

Odhikar stated that at least 256 women faced dowry-related violence while 129 women were killed or took their own lives in 2017.

The amended Dowry Prohibition Act 2017 stipulates penalties of five years in jail and Tk50,000 in fine for demanding, receiving and giving dowry.

In the old law, the punishment for demanding, giving or receiving dowry was a minimum one-year prison term and a maximum of five years in jail or up to Tk5,000 fines or both.