Gender and justice in Bangladesh.
Kristy Crabtree comes across countless news items in her career as a journalist — but she just couldn’t let go of this story.
“Hena was 14 years old when she was whipped to death in a town outside Bangladesh’s capital city, Dhaka,” writes Crabtree. “Her crime: being raped by her 40 year-old cousin.”
Hena’s extra-judicial punishment was already illegal under a High Court ruling passed more than five months before her death. Yet, despite this legal protection, it remains extremely difficult for female survivors of violent crimes to achieve justice through the unofficial system of village arbitration. Hena’s case is just one particularly tragic example.
Crabtree has lived and worked in Bangladesh, established relationships with community organizers, and speaks fluent Bengali. Her new Kickstarter project will fund a major research project on women and the justice system in Bangladesh, focusing on the dynamics of small, rural communities. Backers can help bring this underreported story into the world, while receiving photos, letters, and dispatches from Crabtree in the field.
