It was a chance meeting next to the palm tree just yards from her bedroom that led to a 14-year-old girl being whipped to death in this tiny village about 40 miles south of the Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka.
In the early evening Hena Akhter had gone out to use the bathroom when she was met by her cousin and neighbour, Mahbub, who gagged her with a cloth before beating her. The assault left her on the brink of consciousness, unable to walk or talk. But instead of punishing Hena's attacker, local elders called a shalish – a village meeting – where she was accused of having an illicit relationship with a married man.
Mahbub's wife, Shilpi, complained that he had secretly been meeting Hena. Village elders found both cousins guilty.
"I was called to the meeting, in Mahbub's home, and I cried when they said what her punishment was going to be," Hena's father, Darbesh Khan said. "They said she would be given 101 lashes, and Mahbub would get 201."
It was up to Darbesh to take his daughter to receive her punishment last week. He and his wife, Akleema, carried Hena to the verandah of the house where the meeting had been held. Barely able to stand, she was whipped with a cloth twisted into a rope until she fell unconscious.