A 42-year-old man allegedly tortured his wife by forcibly shaving her head - over the extremely trivial and mundane matter of finding some strands of hair in his meal - a common enough occurrence throughout the length and breadth of the country.

The atrocious conduct on the part of a husband has been reported from Dholarhat union in Sadar upazila of Thakurgaon, in the village of Madhabpur Naoapara.

Also read: Boy tied to tree, tortured in Lalmonirhat; one held

Earlier on April 7, Ehsan Mamun, the husband, was accused of torturing his wife with a bamboo twig. He has done this to his wife many times before, confirmed local Union Parishad (UP) member Hossain Ali.

After the shaving incident, the locals rescued the victim and admitted her to the local hospital. Ehsan has been on the run since then.

“This time I advised his wife to seek legal action,” said UP member Mahi.

Chitta Ranjan Roy, officer-in-charge (OC) of Ruhia Police Station, confirmed the victim has indeed filed a case in this regard this time. “Currently an operation is on to nab the accused husband," the OC adds.

Meanwhile, the victim alleged that throughout their 13-year marriage, Mamun subjected her to inhumane torture over all sorts of trivial matters, and for dowry. Under the pretext of dowry, Ehsan has taken large sums of money from his in-laws.

“Now he again tortured me when I refused to bring him dowry money," the wife alleges.

She further said that Mamun is threatening her to withdraw the case. If she doesn't, he would kill her and her (and his!) two children, acording to the threat.

Gender-based violence in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, women and girls are facing growing violence in every stage of their lives as society thinks it is not that much of a serious issue.

According to a report of Human Rights Watch (HRW), this crisis comes as Bangladesh enters the final phase of its national plan to build “a society without violence against women and children by 2025.”

Also read:Housewife tortured to death over dowry in Sylhet

HRW reports a 70 percent increase in reported incidents like violence on women and girls since the start of the pandemic, and this does not account for the incidents that were not reported.

According to Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a human rights group based in Bangladesh, at least 235 women were murdered by their husband or in laws in just the first nine months of 2020.