DHAKA, June 6: A mother was caned for talking to a Hindu man in Bangladesh, police said on Saturday, prompting fresh concerns about a rise in cases of harsh treatment of women under religious laws.

The punishment was carried out in a remote village on the orders of village elders, local police chief Enamul Monowar said over telephone. The village elders found Kamala Begum, 38, a mother of four children, guilty under Sharia law of chatting with an unidentified Hindu man, Monowar said. Hindus make up around 10 per cent of Bangladesh’s population.

“The villagers got bundles of 25 sticks and hit her four times on the back. They claimed it was a symbolic punishment. But she’s humiliated and has been in great mental pain,” Monowar said.

It was the third such case reported in two weeks and stirred concern among women’s groups in the Muslim majority but officially secular country about a rise in brutal treatment of women under locally applied Islamic laws.

“In the last few months, we have seen villagers invoking Sharia to mete out barbaric punishments to women,” said Salma Ali, the head of rights group Bangladesh National Woman Lawyers Association.

Police have arrested one man and are looking for others who meted out the punishment to the woman in Shason in northeastern Bangladesh, Monowar said.

Earlier this month a man and a woman were caned for adultery after being convicted by a village court, police said.

Village courts are common in Bangladesh, particularly in more conservative rural areas, but are not recognised as legitimate courts of law. Also this month, a 22-year-old unmarried Bangladeshi woman was caned 39 times and left fighting for her life after saying a neighbour was the father of her six-year-old son.—AFP