Women in Bangladesh dominate life, unlike in other Muslim nations

[Black_cats]

Women in Bangladesh dominate life, unlike in other Muslim nations​

At a time when Afghan women are forced out of jobs and schools, and Iranian women are having to shed blood to oppose imposition of hijab, Bengali women in Muslim-majority Bangladesh are enjoying an unusual spell of gender empowerment

Subir Bhaumik
6:30 AM, 29 January, 2023

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

At a time when Afghan women are forced out of jobs and schools, and Iranian women are having to shed blood to oppose imposition of hijab, Bengali women in Muslim-majority Bangladesh are enjoying an unusual spell of gender empowerment.

Sources in the ruling Awami League say Parliament Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury is likely to be the next President of Bangladesh as the party is likely to nominate her just before Mohammad Abdul Hamid steps down. In her mid-fifties, Shirin has a clean image and a brilliant track record as Speaker.

With Sheikh Hasina getting ready to lead her party to power for a record fourth time after having emerged as the country’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Bangladesh will perhaps have the unique distinction of having a woman President and PM once Shirin gets elected.

Women as top achievers

Hasina started off in 2009 with many women ministers in key portfolios: Sahara Khatun (Home), Dipu Moni (Foreign), Matia Chowdhury (Agriculture), Sajeda Chowdhury (Forest & Environment) and later Tarana Halim ( Telecom and Information). While Matia Chowdhury (called Agnikonya) was famous for her fiery speeches, Dipu Moni, now education minister, is famous for taking on Islamist radicals over the teep (bindi) issue , defending her right as a Bengali woman to sport the bindi despite radicals opposing it as un-Islamic.
Tarana Halim, a former actress-lawyer and a batch-topper in board exams, shot to fame by challenging big business tycoons over corruption in the telecom sector which caused a temporary setback to her brilliant career. But she is back in the Awami League’s powerful central executive committee and leading the charge in the party’s campaign to return to power with her fiery speeches and powerful showing on TV talk shows.

Even the two leading Opposition parties are led by women: BNP by Khaleda Zia and Jatiya Party by Rowshan Ershad.

Not only in politics where scores of younger women are graduating into key positions after strong performance at grassroots but across the spectrum from industry to arts, education to judiciary, women in Bangladesh are ending up as top achievers and upholding the secular values of the 1971 Liberation War that led to the breakup with Islamist Pakistan.

When top dancer Monira Parveen dances as Durga and Dhaka Art Gallery owner goes down in a hail of bullets rather than put on hijab as demanded by JMB terrorists during their 2016 attack on an upscale Dhaka eatery, the undying spirit of Bangladesh women is flagged unambiguously.

Mothers as legal guardians

In a landmark judgement with many ramifications in the Muslim-predominant country, the Bangladesh High Court has ruled that mothers will be treated as legal guardians in filling up government forms like Student Information Forms ( SIF) and nobody can be forced to mention father’s name against their will.

“We fought for this right since I was a university student thirty years ago and finally this is now legal,” said Awami League central committee member and former minister Tarana Halim. An ace lawyer herself, Halim described this judgement as a landmark in the country’s women empowerment with many grassroots ramifications .

The High Court also declared as illegal and unconstitutional possible refusal to provide admit cards to SSC and HSC candidates who have not used their father’s name in the SIF, Deputy Attorney General Amit Das Gupta told the media.

A High Court bench of Justice Naima Haider and Justice Md Khairul Alam, while delivering the verdict on a writ petition, said all citizens have the right to get an education and job under the Constitution.

Deputy Attorney General Amit Das Gupta told mediapersons the government had earlier taken steps so that students could complete SIFs with the name of the father, mother or any other legal guardian. There is no provision that the student must mention the name of his or her father in the SIF, he added.

Lawyer Aynun nahar Siddiqua Lipi appeared for the petitioners Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Bangladesh Mahila Parishad and Naripokkho who filed the public interest litigation in 2009.

The writ petition challenged the refusals by the different boards of education to issue registration cards to the SSC and HSC candidates, who could not not complete the SIFs with names of their fathers and mothers.

Most divorce applications by women

With divorce on the rise in Bangladesh, this verdict will benefit children staying with single mothers or those abandoned by fathers. More than 20 marital relationships are broken in a day in Dhaka city area, media reports said, underlining that majority of divorce applications were now served by women.
Women are mostly victims of both physical and mental tortures at their in-laws’. So they are forced to file divorce petition, being unable to bear tortures, Dr Zeenat Huda, Professor, Department of Sociology of Dhaka University, said.

“The Muslim stereotypes of women silently bearing male domination and torture no longer holds true in Bangladesh, because we have a long legacy of gender empowerment,” said top Bangladesh columnist Syed Badrul Ahsan during a recent talk in Kolkata.

This makes Bangladesh unique in the Muslim world, a stark contrast to Pakistan it broke away from.

(Subir Bhaumik is a former BBC correspondent and author of five books on South Asian conflicts.)

Women in Bangladesh dominate life, unlike in other Muslim nations

At a time when Afghan women are forced out of jobs and schools, and Iranian women are having to shed blood to oppose imposition of hijab, women in Bangladesh are enjoying empowerment

thefederal.com

 

[El Sidd]

This makes Bangladesh unique in the Muslim world, a stark contrast to Pakistan it broke away from.

That's a unique cliffhanger to the article.

Just because Bangladeshis are unable to keep marriages going doesn't make them unique, average at best.

 

[sonargon]

That's a unique cliffhanger to the article.

Just because Bangladeshis are unable to keep marriages going doesn't make them unique, average at best.

Yes I guess Pakistanis are unique when it comes to marriage - most marry their cousin!

 

[Samurai_assassin]

Yes I guess Pakistanis are unique when it comes to marriage - most marry their cousin!

That tradition is slowly changing. More love marriages are occurring and In the west Pakistanis are marrying non desis.

 

[Azadkashmir]

in west Pakistanis marrying plenty of Bengali women. of course they cry afterwards because Bengali wife is controlling them like drone.

 

[Samurai_assassin]

in west Pakistanis marrying plenty of Bengali women. of course they cry afterwards because Bengali wife is controlling them like drone.

Plenty of indian muslim women marrying Pakistani men as well.

 

[chinasun]

Bangladesh country is internationally recognized for its good progress on a number of gender indicators. These includegender parity in primary and secondary education and maternal mortality that has declined by 66 per cent over lastfew decades, estimated at a rate of 5.5 per cent every year1.Bangladesh ranks highest in the Gender Gap Index in South Asia achieving 47th among 144 countries in theworld2.However, significant gaps remain. The rates of violence against women remain high. Almost two out of three (72.6 percent) ever-married women in Bangladesh have experienced some form of partner violence in their lifetime, and morethan half (54.7 per cent) have experienced it in the last 12 months3. Women are alsodiscriminated against in family life. In Bangladesh, marriage, divorce, custody of children, maintenance andinheritance are subject to religious law and these ‘personal laws’ often discriminate against women.

In July 2015, Bangladesh crossed the threshold to lower middle-income country (MIC). In March 2018, the country wasrecommended for LDC graduation, and is working towards officially graduating from LDC status by 2024. Much of thisgrowth has been driven by a rapidly expanding industrial sector, in particular ready-made garments (RMG) whichaccounts for more than 80 per centof Bangladesh’s exports. Macroeconomic priorities of the government includeincreasing domestic revenue (Bangladesh has the lowest tax/GDP ratio in the world at about eight per cent),expanding and diversifying trade (FDI/GDP is less than one per cent), strengthening infrastructure and energyprovision, and developing a more skilled workforce4.According to Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the labour force participation rate in 2015-2016 was 81.9 per cent formales and 35.6 per cent for females. Of these, 95.4 per cent females and 82.3 per cent male are in informalemployment as wage labourers, self-employed persons, unpaid family labour, piece-rate workers, and other hiredlabour.

Bangladesh has a significant history of women organizing movements to claim their rights. Over the years,women’s groups have mobilized themselves and made sure their voices are heard in various issues, starting fromviolence against women, gender equality in securing economic opportunities and participation, equal representationin politics, reproductive rights, family law reforms and gender mainstreaming in public policies.

https://asiapacific.unwomen.org/en/countries/bangladesh

Bangladesh Literacy Rate 1981-2023

Bangladesh Literacy Rate 1960-2024

Adult literacy rate is the percentage of people ages 15 and above who can both read and write with understanding a short simple statement about their everyday life.

www.macrotrends.net

 

[Tom-tom]

Maintaining a good healthy family unit is really important for childern of all ages.

The gov must start some kind of initiative to address the toxic inlaws cohabitation. Sometimes it can great, and work out great. There is a dark side though.

Having good role model father present is very important. As boundaries are really important and crying all the time won't wish away your problems.

 

[ThunderCat]

Yes I guess Pakistanis are unique when it comes to marriage - most marry their cousin!

It's too bad trolls like you didn't know it's a common practice in Bangladeshis as well. For a nearly homogeneous country of over 170 million people, I wouldn't be surprised if cousin marriages outnumber Pakistan.

Years ago an Iranian resident in Britain on another forum told me his friend was hired by a Bangladeshi family to care for their children but the children had all sorts of disabilities due to cousin marriage.

And that Iranian troll hated Pakistanis. Like literally.

 

[Tom-tom]

It's too bad trolls like you didn't know it's a common practice in Bangladeshis as well. For a nearly homogeneous country of over 170 million people, I wouldn't be surprised if cousin marriages outnumber Pakistan.

Years ago an Iranian resident in Britain on another forum told me his friend was hired by a Bangladeshi family to care for their children but the children had all sorts of disabilities due to cousin marriages.

And that Iranian troll hated Pakistanis. Like literally.

That's weird bro, as bengalis may practice cousin marriages but it's not as common like in the case of Pakistan. Correct me if I am wrong.

 

[ThunderCat]

That's weird bro, as bengalis may practice cousin marriages but it's not as common like in the case of Pakistan. Correct me if I am wrong.

Nothing weird about it, considering cousin marriages is a tradition believed to have started with Arabs.

When Indian Muslims practice it, I don't see why Bangladeshis would be exempt from it considering they are predominately Muslim too.

 

[ThunderCat]

Women in Bangladesh dominate life, unlike in other Muslim nations​

At a time when Afghan women are forced out of jobs and schools, and Iranian women are having to shed blood to oppose imposition of hijab, Bengali women in Muslim-majority Bangladesh are enjoying an unusual spell of gender empowerment

Subir Bhaumik
6:30 AM, 29 January, 2023

Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina

So now they're comparing themselves to Iranians. The fact is despite having poor human rights, the average Iranian woman has a much higher standard of living including a much cleaner & spacious environment than the average Bangladeshi woman.

Even with economic sanctions, Iran has the privilege of a smaller and sustainable population, self-sufficiency, energy resources, cleaner environment.

Even in comparison to Pakistan, Iran comes out better in terms of living conditions on average. We've had Iranians immigrate to Pakistan because of better human rights, but these are wealthier or higher-middle-income Iranians. The average iranian would never want to immigrate to Pakistan.

I don't have anything against Bangladeshis, but these patriotic types have such an insecurity about themselves it's unbelievable, or maybe not.

Considering the fact that most Muslim countries enjoy much higher living standards than them, they brag about one tiny exaggerated factor.

 

[sonargon]

It's too bad trolls like you didn't know it's a common practice in Bangladeshis as well. For a nearly homogeneous country of over 170 million people, I wouldn't be surprised if cousin marriages outnumber Pakistan.

Years ago an Iranian resident in Britain on another forum told me his friend was hired by a Bangladeshi family to care for their children but the children had all sorts of disabilities due to cousin marriage.

And that Iranian troll hated Pakistanis. Like literally.

Wrong! I don't really understand your problem dude you seem to have some hatred or inferiority complex towards Bangladesh. Get over it man.

All I ever see from you is vague anecdotes and "feelings" to justify your opinions on Bangladesh.

And of course any time you are presented with data that proves the contrary you immediately dismiss it and call it fake. You are such a loser. Quit coping!
If we want to go by anecdotes, I can also say I know 0 Bangladeshi diaspora whose parents were in a cousin marriage, whereas I know many Pakistani diaspora whose parents came from such arrangements. Maybe you were one such example, explains the acute retardation.

 

[ThunderCat]

Wrong! I don't really understand your problem dude you seem to have some hatred or inferiority complex towards Bangladesh. Get over it man.

All I ever see from you is vague anecdotes and "feelings" to justify your opinions on Bangladesh.

And of course any time you are presented with data that proves the contrary you immediately dismiss it and call it fake. You are such a loser. Quit coping!
If we want to go by anecdotes, I can also say I know 0 Bangladeshi diaspora whose parents were in a cousin marriage, whereas I know many Pakistani diaspora whose parents came from such arrangements. Maybe you were one such example, explains the acute retardation.

Inferiority complex? LOL get your people out of our country. Over three million illegal immigrants. Stop coming to our universities. Stop importing our defense products and civilian technologies. Go build your own. Not to mention you're on our forums.

I don't know how badly exaggerated the map is, but Balochistan is mildly populated considering it's desert environment, so cousin marriages might be occurring there in significant numbers.

LOL what data? Some bogus stats cooked up by your corrupt government to feed you with false ego? Take the "data" and shove it up your behind where it belongs.

And no I don't go by anecdotes. I only support anecdotes that match with the evidence. And the evidence shows Bangladesh is one of the poorest, the most overcrowded and one of the most polluted countries on Earth. Sorry man.

 

[Ghareeb_Da_Baal]

Lol morons debating cousin marriage in Pakistan. LOL in southern USA, white folks fvck their cousins ,even married ones but get married to non cousins. Known a lot of southerners and they do reluctantly agree. Not my problem or issue with what they fo but just sayin