Fatema Akter is an RMG worker at a printing factory and a mother of a 9-year old madrasa going child. She is living in Bauniabadh, Kalshi area of Mirpur with her mother and seven other siblings. They lost their father at young age, so the 3 older siblings started to earn and help their mother and provide family needs.
Fatema got married when she was 15 and started to live with her in-laws at Barishal district. She said, they had a happy conjugal life and was in peace until her husband remarried out of blue. She got shocked of this unpredictable incidence and left Barishal for Dhaka with her only son.
Later she sent talaq- notice to her husband and started living with her mother and enrolled her only son at a Madrasa close to their residence. She started to work in a garment factory.
Later in 2019 she left the job and had married. Her new in-laws did not accept their marriage and never wanted their daughter-in- law to work outside home. To convince them, she resigned from work and started living as housewife. Fatema said, they married by signing a stamp paper commonly known as “court marriage” instead of signing nikahnama at Kazi office.
Her newly wedded husband had run a catering business, but getting involved in the illegal drug deals, taking drugs and alcohol made both their conjugal life and business miserable. Their relationship started to deteriorate, Fatema mentioned. In the mean time she got pregnant in January 2020 and lost the baby on June because her husband gave her a violent beating after returning home; she was immediately taken to hospital by her family but could not save the baby.
She returned to her home and complained to in-laws but no fruitful results came out. They rather forced her to leave house and threatened not to come back. By this time her husband married another woman which was arranged by his family. Her husband called over phone to take alimony as a sign of divorce and leave house. For this she went to police station to file complain and take legal action; officer- in-charge did not pay heed to allegations against her husband and suggested her to solve this by arranging family meetings.
A few months passed by with no comprehensive solutions, so she sought out help from Green Bangla Garment Worker Federation (GBGWF). The federation contacted and referred her to SRS.
Safety and Rights Society’s (SRS) Intervention
In this vulnerable situation, she was offered support to file complain and case at court which she did not wanted to take. Therefore, she was provided legal counseling service by SRS project team. After a legal counseling and 2 times follow-up, she accepted the alimony from her husband and started living her own. Now Fatema has started working at a garment wear printing factory. She went into a health treatment and recovered from illness. Fatema wants to focus on positive sides of life and take care her son best.
