Editorial
Keeping anti-women policy elements at bay
Women must enjoy equal rights for Bangladesh to prosper
THE tough stance adopted by the government on the extremists' response to the proposed national women development policy seemingly prevented any untoward incident on Friday. We only wish the government had acted thus sooner. But now that the extremist elements opposed to the policy have drawn back from the threats they made earlier about opposing the policy, we feel the government should keep up the pressure on them and see that they are no more able to disrupt social order in the name of religion. In the last few weeks, motivated controversy has been generated around the provisions of the proposed women policy. We note that despite reassurances by the government that none of the provisions goes against Koranic principles, a section of the religious right has continued to misguide the public.
We condemn such blatant attempts at creating chaos in the name of religion. Indeed, it is quite disturbing that while the authorities have been quick to keep every other social or political group in check through the emergency laws, they clearly chose to do nothing to prevent the clerics from violating those same laws. By now, of course, the adviser for home affairs has warned these elements that the emergency is there and we are happy that he has done so. But neither that nor the postponement of the protest programme on Friday does in any way solve the problem.
Just how mischievous the extremists' intentions are can be judged by the shocking proposals made by an ulema committee formed to review the national women development policy. It has asked for the removal of six provisions and changes in fifteen others in order for the policy to become acceptable to its frenzied opponents. One does not require much wisdom to understand that accepting the ulema committee's proposals will leave the entire policy dead. That said, the question we must now deal with is the status of the ulema committee itself. Those who took the initiative in setting it up have not been able to explain the legality of the move. And now, with all the archaic ideas the committee has just floated in the air, it is not hard to see that a concerted effort is well underway to deprive Bangladesh's women of the rights they have struggled so long and hard to achieve.
In clear terms, it is not only unwise and unjust but dangerous as well to deprive half the population of the country of their rights at a time when the rest of the world is fast moving ahead through a coalescing of activities by both men and women. Those who today advocate 'just' rights instead of equal rights for women are doing great disservice to this country, for their attitude is one of herding women into the backyard of society. Let us be emphatic about it: nothing must be done and no one must be allowed to prevent Bangladesh's women from enjoying equal and unfettered rights with men.
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