Random Acts of Seva: Week 42
Academics and students are leading a large Canadian contingent rallying behind 33-year-old Rumana Monzur, who had her eyes gouged and a part of her nose bitten off while visiting her family in Bangladesh.
This savage attack in Bangladesh that blinded a University of British Columbia graduate student has shocked and outraged Canadians.
Rumana Monzur's husband, Hassan Syeed, was arrested 10 days later and reportedly confessed to assaulting her.
“He has made my world dark. I can’t see my daughter,” she told reporters in Dhaka, according to The Daily Star newspaper.
At UBC, Ms. Monzur is taking a master’s degree in political science – specializing in climate change – and holds a post as assistant professor in Dhaka University’s international relations department. Students describe her as happy, brilliant, studious and devout, but the shocking June 5 assault has shattered that life.
Ms. Monzur had returned to Dhaka in May to visit her five-year-old daughter. Ms. Monzur expected to return to defend her thesis in Vancouver, but close family members told Ms. Akter that Mr. Syeed vehemently opposed her leaving again.
UBC president Stephen Toope has said, “This tragic occasion is a poignant marker of the need to work to protect the fundamental human right of all women to pursue education,”
According to news reports, Ms. Monzur was rushed to India to find out whether her eyesight could be saved, but doctors concluded no further treatment was possible. She is now permanently blind.
Meanwhile, her colleagues are collecting donations, and UBC graduate students close to Ms. Monzur organized a support rally outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on Sunday to “raise awareness of her case and, more generally, to protest domestic violence against women".
Hundreds gathered on Sunday to show solidarity for the suffering student, who remains in a Bangladeshi hospital. Friends, colleagues, community organizations and people from all walks of life came together in front of Vancouver Art Gallery, many waving "Justice for Rumana" banners.
The UBC community has been very supportive of Ms. Monzur. The university community has created a fund to help pay for Monzur's recovery and the school is also mulling long-term plans to help Monzur complete her master's degree.
Lisa Sundstrom, an associate professor in the university's political science department, described Monzur as "the most gentle, soft-spoken, kind, courteous person you could imagine."
