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<p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-margin-top-alt:15.0pt;margin-right:0in;margin-bottom:7.5pt;margin-left:0in;background:#FCFCFC">
<b><span style="font-size:14.0pt;font-family:HelveticaNeueLTPro-Bd;color:#333333">Bangladesh – Girl Student Burned to Death for Reporting Sexual Abuse by Teacher<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt;background:#FCFCFC"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The 19-year-old was killed after she accused a teacher of harassing her, sparking protests in the South Asian nation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background:#FCFCFC"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><img width="800" height="450" id="Picture_x0020_1" src="cid:image001.jpg@01D500FB.69D81DA0" alt="Bangladesh student burned to death for reporting sexual abuse"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Bangladeshi women hold banners and photographs of schoolgirl Nusrat Jahan Rafi at a protest in Dhaka [AFP]
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">19 April 2019 - A schoolgirl was burned to death in
<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/country/bangladesh.html"><span style="color:#FA9000;text-decoration:none">Bangladesh</span></a> on the orders of her headteacher after she reported him for sexually harassing her, police said on Friday.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The death of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi last week sparked protests across the south Asian nation, with Prime Minister
<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/topics/people/sheikh-hasina-141021135754822.html">
<span style="color:#FA9000;text-decoration:none">Sheikh Hasina</span></a> promising to prosecute all those involved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Rafi was lured to the rooftop of the religious school she attended where her attackers asked her to withdraw the sexual harassment complaint she
had filed with police.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">When she refused, she was doused in kerosene and set on fire. On April 10, she died from the burns, which covered 80 percent of her body. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Police said on Friday that one of the 17 people arrested in connection with her death had accused the school's principal of ordering the attack.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">The principal "told them to put pressure on Rafi to withdraw the case or kill her if she refused", senior police superintendent Mohammad Iqbal, who
is leading the investigation, told AFP.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Rafi had gone to the police in late March to report the sexual harassment, and a leaked
<a href="https://www.facebook.com/bangladeshcinemafunda/videos/1009857779402192/" target="_blank">
<span style="color:#FA9000;text-decoration:none">video</span></a> shows the local police station chief registering her complaint but dismissing it as "not a big deal".<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Iqbal said at least five of those under arrest, including three of Rafi's classmates, had bound her hands and feet with a scarf before setting her
on fire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">"The plan was to pass the incident off as a suicide. But it fell through after Rafi managed to come downstairs while on fire because the scarf burned
and freed her hands and feet," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><img border="0" width="485" height="357" id="Picture_x0020_2" src="cid:image004.jpg@01D500FC.F0CEF030"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">In the he ambulance, fearing she might not survive, Rafi recorded a statement on her brother's mobile phone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">"The teacher touched me, I will fight this crime till my last breath," she said. She also identified some of her attackers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">According to local media reports, Rafi also wrote a letter in her class notebook, before she was set on fire, describing how the principal sexually
assaulted her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Two young men have confessed involvement in Rafi's killing. They include a man who admitted to holding a grudge against her for refusing his own
advances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">Her family members said they have been receiving threats from the principal's supporters since the filing of the case in March.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:7.5pt"><span style="font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Helvetica",sans-serif;color:#333333">________________________________________________________________________________________________________<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="color:#1F497D"><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/nusrat-rafi-burnt-death-reporting-sexual-abuse-police-190419070341185.html">https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/04/nusrat-rafi-burnt-death-reporting-sexual-abuse-police-190419070341185.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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