<i>Unborn baby senses a cruel world</i>
The baby was growing happily in its mother's womb until before cruelty of the unseen world struck. And it was none but the father who changed the happy going forever.
He set his wife on fire. Sharmin Akhter Molina, yet another victim of the dowry system of our society, is now into four months of her pregnancy.
Twenty-five percent of her body has been burned, Dhaka Medical College Hospital's (DMCH) burn unit sources said.
Her neck, chest, abdomen, shoulders and back were burnt, doctors said. Fortunately, the baby is in normal condition, they confirmed after several tests.
Shujan Mollah, her husband, has gone into hiding since August 4, the day he set Sharmin on fire at their residence in Sadarpur of Faridpur district, police said.
Sharmin, 22, had a dream to make a nice family with her beloved. She married him to fulfil that dream but the fire has shattered her dream along with burning some of her body parts.
Talking to The Daily Star on her bed of the DMCH burn unit, Sharmin said she fled her home to marry Shujan in 2008 as her family refused to accept Shujan as her husband.
Situation changed quickly after their marriage. Shujan, who was an employee of an embroidery shop own by Sharmin's family, started pressing Sharmin for dowry within five months into the wedding.
The plain demand turned into physical torture soon and at one stage, her family had to give Shujan Tk 60,000 to save her from torture.
“My parents gave us all the furniture we needed for our house. He [Shujan] had been demanding another taka one lakh for the last three months,” she said.
On the day of the incident, Sharmin went to have a shower and asked Shujan to give her saree while she was inside the bathroom. She smelled kerosene from the saree Shujan gave her but ignored it.
“As I grabbed it and started to wear it, he suddenly set the other end of the saree on fire.”
Sharmin herself doused the fire with the water in the bathroom but her neck, chest, abdomen, shoulders and back were already burned.
She was rushed to Faridpur Sadar Hospital and later sent to Dhaka Medical College Hospital's burn unit on August 18. It will take at least another month before she could be released from the hospital.
Sharmin's father Shahjahan Hawlader filed a case with the Sadarpur Police Station under Women and Children Repression Prevention Act accusing four people including Shujan.
Officer-in-charge, Mohammad Ali Biswas, of the police station told The Daily Star that they are investigating the case and trying to arrest Shujan, the prime accused.
Sharmin is now worried about the future of her baby, the fruit of her love.
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