Bangladeshi Women & Dowries

From IOL News:

Farzana Yasmin sought a divorce just hours after her wedding when her new husband's family demanded dowry payments.

Despite the stigma of divorce in Bangladesh, she is not worried about her future.

She wants other women to be brave enough to maintain their dignity in the face of dowry demands that have destroyed the happiness of millions of women in the Muslim-majority South Asian country, and led to numerous deaths.

Violence related to dowries has resulted in the deaths of more than 2 000 women in Bangladesh in the last decade.

The government outlawed the practice over 30 years ago, but it persists and is still taking a heavy toll.

In the first nine months of 2011, dowry-related violence caused the deaths of 268 women compared to 137 the previous year, according to Bangladesh Mahila Parishad women's rights organisation, based on monitoring of media reports.

Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh. Remembering 1971

From the Express Tribune:

“War destroys the vulnerable and unfortunately the individual sufferings of non combatants are seldom highlighted,” Dr Yasmin Saikia, author of Women, War and the Making of Bangladesh. Remembering 1971, said at the launch of her book on Tuesday. The book was launched at Forman Christian College.

Dr Saika, a professor of history at the Arizona State University, explained that the book is about families with memories of violence and trauma, “missing in the archives of history of the war.”

The book records the sufferings of Bengali and Bihari women, some of them raped and tortured during the 1971 war. The author said she had interviewed 250 families over 10 years. Those interviewed included those directly affected by the war. Some of them were perpetrators of sexual violence.

Dr Saikia said she wanted to focus on the war as traumatised women’s experience and not as a War of Liberation, as widely accepted by the Bangladeshi public. She said from the day that she had started writing the book, she had consciously tried to avoid avoided writing a particular type of history. “I tried to persuade these women to speak up about their personal experiences, including the war babies,” she said. She said some of the women had lost their citizenship and for some writers their credibility.

Bangladesh: Birangona - Victims of War

From Women's ENews:

The title Birangona is used to honor the 200,000 women who were raped by the Pakistani Army during the 1971 Bangladesh war of secession. But the name is synonymous with rape, abortion, suicides and war babies.

There is a festive mood in Bangladesh because of yearlong celebrations marking 40 years of independence, but survivors of the mass rapes of 1971 say a small plaque is not enough when war criminals remain unpunished.

During the nine months of the war, thousands of women were gang raped and dumped into mass graves, their breasts chopped off. Those abandoned by their families slipped into India. Some killed their babies; others killed themselves.

Perpetrators were mainly of two types--some were members of the Urdu-speaking Bihari community and some were Bangladeshi--both supported by the Pakistani Army. They formed armed militia and committed atrocities on pro-liberation forces, according to government investigations and the research of civil society groups.

Those who survived, like Laily Begum and her sister Saleha, live in shame because their rapes left them tainted in the eyes of society and family members have treated their ordeals as taboo topics.

The Fatwa Scourge

From The Daily Star:

This is a tragedy that the whole nation should mourn and protest. The national conscience was savagely traumatised. Hena Akhter is a victim of the gender discrimination that prevails in our country. It is an indictment of the poverty that the underprivileged of our country suffer, and the injustice and bigotry that hold them in thralldom.

Much can be said about the law of the land, the uprightness of the judiciary and the vigilance of our non-government organisations. But the bestiality continues to prey on the underprivileged of the society. Only tragedies like that of Hena come to the light. We rise when a life in its bloom is lost.

It is a fact that Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country. But there are Muslim countries like Malaysia and Turkey that can pride themselves on their civilised societies. Our problem is that ours is an impoverished country with a large population caught in illiteracy. The rural society carries all the vestiges of feudal setup with lesser lords making the most of political power, money and religion. They strike down the weaker of the tribe. Darbesh Kha and his daughter Hena Akhter of Chamta village of Naria Upazilla belonged to this struggling lot. So, Hena was hunted down and the most sanctified among the weaponry, fatwa, was used.

 

• See these links for more on Hena Akhter:
• The Guardian - Bangladesh whipping case: three doctors investigated for claiming teenage girl had no signs of injury.
• The Independant - Hena's death: Probe body completes task
• The Mid-Day - Bangladeshi family demands justice for 'whipped to death' raped daughter
• CNN - Bangladesh court orders fresh probe into death of teenage girl

Taslima Nasrin

Article by MT Husain in the New Nation:

Taslima Nasrin, professionally a physician and a writer by fancy, a native of Bangladesh, lives abroad for years. As there was a report published in some media, she lamented that how come that she could not come to her motherland Bangladesh even when the Awami League and a lady like her, some years older in age, Sheikh Hasina is in power. She was certainly right. Her lamentation had genuine point.

None can take away anybody's birth right as living in one's own birth- place and country, and so leaving from or entering into. The government cannot deny much less restrict that right except recourse to due process of law.

I am not sure what legal restrictions she has against her. Even if there is any, she can come in and face the due process of law in the court just like any other citizen could be under. None should be outside the purview of law or without recourse to it.

She has however image problem in the society. In this case she has options. One, she could continue as she did in the past as a vulgar feminist writer not acceptable in the predominantly Bangladeshi Muslim society, but even so, being a pluralist state, the government may well provide her with the best possible security inside the country. Or else, she could well engage herself both in her original profession of physician to serve many in physical ailments. In case she wants still to do her writing as a feminist advocate she has to avoid vulgarism, particularly of sexuality, and instead do writing that would not offend the religious feelings and sentiments of the millions of her own countrymen living in Bangladesh.

Thus putting the ball in her court the government should welcome her back in the country.

Offical website of Taslima Nasrin
Wikipedia - Taslima Nasrin

Bangladesh: Empowering Women

From Modern Ghana:

In view of eliminating gender discrimination, Bangladesh also has many initiatives in rural and urban areas both. Considering all those social phenomena, present government included Women development in priorities and it was also one of the election commitments that given to the people by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

It is a cruel reality; women are deprived in family and society, in decision making process, in administrative process of governance and most importantly in economic activities. Even the women contribute in the process of social development, which has also financial value, are being ignored by the society.

To ensure the participation of women in the said process they need to be empowered mentally, economically and politically. That is why modern social science termed women development as the Empowerment of Women. Empowerment of women is linked to the total human emancipation.


Moreover substantial number of women was nominated in last parliamentary election from Awami league led coalition, which obtained mandate form the people. One thing must be mentioned that number of women parliamentarian is the record in 9th parliament that indicates the political development among women.

Social empowerment of women is deep rooted in the mind set of a society, which contents in women and men both. Some time both of the section of society contents similar idea on an issue that could be against women empowerment.

Hosne Ara Begum

From Modern Ghana:

Recently, the government appointed the first ever Officer in Charge (OC) of a police station in the history of the Bangladesh police force. Hosne Ara Begum was assigned as the OC of a police station in the capital city of Dhaka and started working in her new position on May 18, 2009.

Hosne Ara Begum started her challenging career with the Bangladesh police as a sub-inspector back in 1981. In her long 28 years of service, she had worked in many regions of Bangladesh, in different police jurisdictions and departments, including the Intelligence Branch of the Bangladesh police.

The Bangladesh police force introduced its first female officers back 1974, with only 14 officers. After 35 years, the numbers of female police members are now 1,937, and among them 1,331 police constables the minor label member.

A report of the local human rights organization Odhikar says that 5,816 women and children were raped between 2001 and 2007. Among the victims, 636 women were killed and 69 committed suicide after being raped. Also, 1,024 women were victims of acid burns and 1,884 were subjected to dowry-related violence. Of those, 1,241 were killed, 479 were tortured, 61 sustained acid injuries, and 95 committed suicide.

One female police OC alone will not be able to make a large impact. It is equally important that, in Bangladesh's male-oriented society, men should change their actions and attitudes toward women in a positive way.

Bangladeshi Women In Politics

From Dawn:
"Bangladesh’s newly sworn-in Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed has unveiled her cabinet team, appointing women for the first time to head the home and foreign ministries.

The 31-member cabinet comprises five women in total, including the 61-year-old prime minister herself, who is taking office of the impoverished country for the second time.

The Awami League leader was premier for five years from 1996.

Dipu Moni, a doctor and first-time MP who was active in the party’s women’s wing, was named the country’s first female foreign minister while Sahara Khatan, a lawyer, was given the home ministry portfolio.

Motia Chowdhury returned to the agriculture ministry she headed in Sheikh Hasina’s previous administration, while Munnujan Sufian, a newcomer to politics, was made a state minister.

The prime minister has appointed herself in charge of energy, defence, religion, women and works portfolios.

Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League won a clear majority in the Dec 29 vote, picking up 230 out of a possible 300 seats, but she has given two positions to coalition party members."