Aziza Akhter

In what is sadly, no longer a surprising incident, Aziza, a student of class V, was allegedly set on fire over the allegation of stealing a mobile phone in Khainput village, Shibpur upazila, Narsingdi, on Friday night. She died at Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) on Saturday morning. Aziza Begum was set on fire allegedly by her aunt for ostensibly "stealing a mobile phone".

The killers of Aziza have been rightly condemned by a parliamentary body that suggested that the government ensure exemplary punishment for them. The promptness in acknowledgement and condemnation of the incident is admirable. However, acknowledgement and condemnation are no longer doing enough to change the situation. In line with the parliamentary body's suggestion, we would also like to insist on an exemplary punishment for Aziza's killers. However, it is not only Aziza that has suffered this fate. The Daily Star reported an arrest of two people on October 27, at Char Shafipur Haat of Barisal's Muladi for torturing a boy accusing him of, again, "stealing a mobile phone".  Heinous incidents such as this should have no place in society.

Violence against children has become rampant in Bangladesh. Aziza's death is a testament to how little society has come to value life.  In addition to strengthening rules and laws, we must also ask ourselves what values are we promoting in society that assigns such little value to human life? It is unacceptable that a society where things are valued more than people is perpetuated. We hope that Aziza's killers are duly punished and simultaneously zero tolerance of abuse of children, the most vulnerable in society, is practised. In turn, ethical codes that allow us to assign appropriate value to human life should be instilled in our moral compass.