Child bride succumbed to death due to child marriage and marital rape

A 14-year old girl named Nurunnahar died on Sunday, 25 October in Basail, Tangail, due to excessive genital bleeding within around a month of her marriage. She was studying in class eight and was living with her grandfather. Her poverty-stricken family readily agreed to marry her off to 34-year old Rajib, who worked in the United Arab Emirates. Since it was a child marriage, the marriage was not registered. And after going through forced sexual intercourse for 34 days, she finally succumbed to her injuries and died.

Even though child marriage has been illegal by our law, child marriage rate is still high in Bangladesh especially in the rural areas. According to a survey by Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the rate of child marriage stood at 51 per cent in 2019. And as a worst-case scenario, marital rape is still not criminalised by our law, and is excluded from the Penal Code. There is also the lack of strict enforcement of laws against child marriage. Consequently, the demons namely child marriage and marital rape are eventually killing countless girls like Nurunnahar.

Read the detailed news here: The Dhaka Tribune