Targeted for Identity, Broken by Brutality: Hindu Widow Gang-Raped, Tied to a Tree and had her Hair Forcibly Chopped by Shahin and Hasan in Jhenaidah District of Bangladesh

A horrific crime in Jhenaidah’s Kaliganj municipality has laid bare the brutal vulnerability of women and the chilling impunity enjoyed by perpetrators when power, greed, and misogyny intersect.

Approximately two and a half years ago, a Hindu widow from Kheda Para village in Kaliganj upazila legally purchased a two-storey house and three decimals of land in the riverbank area of Ward No. 7 for BDT 20 lakh. The property was bought from Shahin and his brother, local residents of the area. What followed was not closure, but the beginning of a sustained campaign of predation.

According to the victim’s statement, Shahin soon began subjecting her to unwanted advances and repeated indecent proposals. When she firmly refused, he escalated to systematic harassment, intimidation, and threats, exploiting her status as a widowed woman living alone to assert control and fear.

The violence reached its most grotesque form on Saturday evening.

Two relatives of the woman had come from her native village to visit her home. Taking advantage of the moment, Shahin and his associate Hasan forcibly entered the house. The two men then raped the woman, one after the other. After the assault, they demanded BDT 50,000 from her.

When she refused to comply, the attackers brutally assaulted her visiting relatives and drove them out of the house, ensuring the woman was left isolated and silenced.

The cruelty did not end with rape.

When the victim screamed and resisted attempts to suppress the crime, Shahin and Hasan tied her to a tree and  forcibly cut her hair, an act widely understood in the region as a deliberate form of social and cultural humiliation, they filmed the abuse and later circulated the video on social media. The intent was unmistakable: public shaming, psychological terror, and the destruction of personal dignity.

This was not merely sexual violence. It was a calculated act of domination and dehumanisation.

At Jhenaidah’s 250-bed General Hospital, Superintendent Dr. Md. Mostafizur Rahman stated that the woman initially struggled to recount her ordeal. Subsequent medical examination, however, confirmed that she had been subjected to severe physical abuse and sexual violence.

Jhenaidah Additional Superintendent of Police Billal Hossain confirmed that the victim has now filed a formal complaint. “We have recorded her statement and assured that the highest legal action will be taken following a thorough investigation,” he said.