Bangladesh is to introduce the death penalty for rape cases, following days of protests about the country’s high level of sexual violence against women.
Law Minister Anisul Haq told the BBC that the president would issue an ordinance on Tuesday making it law.
There was widespread outrage in Bangladesh last week after footage of a brutal gang assault on a 37-year-old woman went viral on social media.
At least 1,000 rapes have been reported in Bangladesh this year, activists say.
But many cases go unreported because women fear they will be stigmatised, according to human rights advocates, and in cases that are reported conviction rates are extremely low. Protesters galvanised by last week’s viral video have demanded faster trials and changes to the way rape cases are prosecuted.
An investigation by Bangladesh’s National Human Rights Commission found that the woman in the viral video, who was attacked in the southeastern district of Noakhali, had been raped repeatedly over time and terrorised. Eight men were arrested after the video emerged.