Bangladesh has approved the reinstatement of the death penalty for rape. The country announced this week the penalty had been upgraded from life imprisonment to death.
There have been protests following many sexual assaults. They went viral on social media.
Bangladesh cabinet spokesman Khandaker Anwarul Islam said President Abdul Hamid was expected to issue a law to upgrade the penalties in the nation's Women and Children Repression Prevention Act. Islam said the proposal to hasten trails for rape cases had also been approved.
Under the country's current law, alleged offenders may be sentenced to death only if the victim dies. With the amendment, those charged with rape in cases where the victim survived might now end up on death row.
Over the past few months, numerous protests in the capital Dhaka and other big cities have erupted. Activists and the families of victims have called on the government to implement measures to prevent crime.
Human rights groups say rape offences have increased this year. A women's rights group called Ain-o-Salish Kendra claims 889 rape allegations were recorded between January and August. Some of those cases involved violent gang rapes - with as many as 41 victims killed.
The same group claims dozens of cases remain unreported because victims fear for their lives and of being ostracized. Some don't report incidents as a result of the country's notoriously slow judicial system.
Public outrage escalated late last month after a video of a group of men attacking and raping a woman in southeastern Bangladesh was posted on Facebook. Investigators from the National Human Rights Commission later found that the woman in the video had already been attacked several times before the attack shown in the video.
Another case involving a woman who was gang-raped in a college residence caught the public's attention. The case eventually led to the arrest of several Awami League students.
