No country for women? Bangladeshi Islamist group holds massive protest against equal rights

Dhaka: Thousands of supporters of an influential Bangladeshi Islamist group on Saturday rallied here demanding abolition of a government instituted women related commission, saying its draft recommendations on women rights were contrary to Islamic faith.

Hefazat-e-Islam, a platform of mainly teachers and students of non-government or “kawmi” madrassa or religious seminaries and considered as an influential pressure group, staged the rally at Dhaka’s Suhrawardy Udyan protesting the draft recommendations of the Women's Affairs Reform Commission instituted by the Muhammad Yunus' interim government.

They mainly denounced proposed recommendations for ensuring equal rights, including ones related to property, for mainly Muslim women in one of their biggest public shows of strength in years as religious activism surged in Bangladesh following the ouster of deposed prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League regime last year.

Nayeb-e-Ameer or senior leader of the platform Maulana Mahfuzul Huq announced a 12-point charter of demands with first one being abolition of the existing women reform commission and constituting a new one comprising Islamic scholars and women representatives.

Another influential Hefazat leader Mamunul Haque demanded punishment for the women reform commission members as they hurt “the sentiments of the majority of the people of this country” by labelling the religious laws of inheritance as the main cause of inequality between men and women.

“Men and women can never be equal,” a women's madrassa teacher Mohammad Shihab Uddin told the rally adding that the Quran outlined specific codes of life for both genders and “there is no way we can go beyond that”.

The Hefazat called for reinstating “complete faith and trust in almighty Allah” in the constitution and asked the government to abandon the “suicidal concept” of pluralism and to protect what they said the Muslims faith and practices.

The group also opposed the inclusion of terms such as “gender identity,” “gender diversity,” “gender equality,” “gender discrimination,” “third gender,” and “other genders”.

It argued that these are used to promote LGBT and transgender inclusion under ambiguous slogans such as “Leave no one behind” and “inclusive” and feared that these ideas could lead to a “destructive, anti-religious pro-homosexual society”.

The Women's Affairs Reform Commission is one of the several commissions instituted by the interim government to carry out reform. It had recently submitted its recommendations to the government.