<p class="title">The word "virgin" must be removed from Muslim marriage certificates in Bangladesh, the country's top court has said, a landmark verdict after campaigners challenged the "humiliating and discriminatory" term.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Under the South Asian country's Muslim marriage laws, a bride has to select one of three options on the certificate - whether she is a Kumari (virgin), a widow or divorced.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In a brief verdict on Sunday, the court ordered the government to remove the term and replace it with "unmarried", deputy attorney general Amit Talukder told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The court is expected to publish its full verdict by October, with the changes to the certificate expected to come into effect then.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It is a landmark verdict," Aynun Nahar Siddiqua, a lawyer for the groups which filed the case challenging the term in 2014, told AFP on Monday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rights groups have long criticised the term - used in certificates since they were introduced in 1961 - saying it is "humiliating and discriminatory", and that it breaches the privacy of the woman getting married.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The judgement also ordered authorities to introduce the options "unmarried, widower or divorced" for the groom on the certificate.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Bangladesh is the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation and nearly 90 per cent of its 168 million population are Muslims.</p>
<p class="title">The word "virgin" must be removed from Muslim marriage certificates in Bangladesh, the country's top court has said, a landmark verdict after campaigners challenged the "humiliating and discriminatory" term.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Under the South Asian country's Muslim marriage laws, a bride has to select one of three options on the certificate - whether she is a Kumari (virgin), a widow or divorced.</p>.<p class="bodytext">In a brief verdict on Sunday, the court ordered the government to remove the term and replace it with "unmarried", deputy attorney general Amit Talukder told AFP.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The court is expected to publish its full verdict by October, with the changes to the certificate expected to come into effect then.</p>.<p class="bodytext">"It is a landmark verdict," Aynun Nahar Siddiqua, a lawyer for the groups which filed the case challenging the term in 2014, told AFP on Monday.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Rights groups have long criticised the term - used in certificates since they were introduced in 1961 - saying it is "humiliating and discriminatory", and that it breaches the privacy of the woman getting married.</p>.<p class="bodytext">The judgement also ordered authorities to introduce the options "unmarried, widower or divorced" for the groom on the certificate.</p>.<p class="bodytext">Bangladesh is the world's third-largest Muslim majority nation and nearly 90 per cent of its 168 million population are Muslims.</p>