Man Cuts Off Wife's Fingers for Studying: Cops

Migrant worker reportedly jealous of her education
By Neal Colgrass,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 17, 2011 1:44 PM CST
Bangladeshi Man Cuts Off Wife's Fingers for Studying: Police
Hawa Akhter is seen in a hospital in Dhaka on 15, December 2011.   (Getty Images)

First he blindfolded his wife and taped her mouth, saying he had surprise present for her. Then he cut off the fingers on her right hand, police say. Rafiqul Islam, 30, a migrant worker in the United Arab Emirates, reportedly confessed after committing the crime in his home country of Bangladesh. "He was enraged," a police chief tells the Daily Mail. "He was jealous because while he only had a grade eight standard education, she was off to college to pursue higher studies."

Wife Hawa Akhter, 21, says her husband warned her of "severe consequences" if she didn't abandon her studies. Now she plans to resume studying with her good hand; her fingers were thrown out by her husband and can't be reattached. The alleged attack is only the latest in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority country where a jobless man recently gouged out his wife's eyes because she pursued a higher education. (Read about a Bangladeshi girl who was beaten to death after committing adultery—or, her family says, after being raped.)

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