A divorced woman in rural Bangladesh is considered fair game. Nagen, a barber, often made advances on Minara but was firmly rebuffed. One evening, she returned home exhausted from a meeting. "I woke up because my daughter was shouting, 'Mother, my body is burning,'" says Noorjahan. "I touched her face and it was slippery. I ran to light the lamp, but she had gone out and jumped into the water tank." Hearing the screams, villagers gathered outside and rushed Minara to hospital. The left side of her face, including the eye and ear, was almost entirely burned. Doctors prescribed medicines, but the family couldn't afford them. "My daughter's body had started to smell and she was running a high fever," Noorjahan recalls. Eventually, a journalist reported the incident and the United Nations Children's Fund arranged to bring Minara from the remote north Bangladesh hospital to Dhaka, where she is now being treated free of charge. The police have arrested Nagen, but that is of little comfort to Minara, who tosses about on her hospital bed in great pain, calling out for her mother. Nagen has been granted bail.

With reporting by Farid Hossain/Dhaka

PAGE 1  |  2  |  3