[sacw] Bangladesh: Rural Women Suffer "Fatwa" Tyranny

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Rights-Bangladesh: Rural Women Suffer "Fatwa" Tyranny

DHAKA, Bangladesh - June 28, 1999 (IPS): Teenager Badoi Begum died in
her village home in Sylhet district, some 250-km east of the Bangladesh
capital, late last month after she was publicly caned on the order of
the "fatwabaj" or local morality minders.

Her fault was that she had become pregnant as a result of a relationship
with a young man from the same village, and the fatwabaj decreed that
her crime constituted adultery and she should be given 101 lashes in
public.

The "fatwa" or edict issued was carried out immediately, and the
unfortunate girl died the next day from excessive bleeding and shock.

Police have arrested three people in this connection and an
investigation is underway, but the local people are certain the fatwabaj
will be set free because they are influential and have money.

All across this mainly Muslim country these religious upholders of
social morality increasingly wield considerable influence among the
largely illiterate and poor rural population.

Fatwabaj themselves are not conversant with the various aspects of the
"Shariah," the Islamic laws, because of their own poor education. Yet
their frequently aired fatwas are heeded by villagers.

More than two dozen cases of women being publicly lashed and thrown out
from villages were reported in the last two years. But the actual number
is probably much higher, since mullahs (clerics) are the law in the
remote rural areas.

Rural women are the main victims of the fatwa tyranny. The fatwabaj have
also got after the influential non-governmental organizations (NGOs) of
Bangladesh.

Shamsul Huq, director of the Association of Development Agencies in
Bangladesh (ADAB), an apex body of NGOs, said the recent activities of
some fundamentalist political organizations and religious groups have
become a cause for worry.

Fatwabaj have identified NGOs as their principal target for trying to
make rural women educated and self-reliant, he said.

Attacks on women's gatherings, NGO-run schools, NGO offices and even the
felling of trees planted at the initiative of voluntary groups have been
carried out, he said, in response to inflammatory proclamations by
mullahs and fatwabaj.

Their anti-people activities must be countered with public awareness
raising campaigns before it starts to damage the progress made in
Bangladesh, he said.

Bangladesh has suddenly been witness to a gradual emergence of extremist
groups like Hirkatul Zihad al Islami and Kamaat-e-Tola led by leaders
who are working covertly and overtly to bring about a Taliban-style
Islamic revolution in the country.

The attempt on the life of the celebrated liberal poet, Shamsur Rahman,
by members of Hirkatul Zihad in January this year revealed the extent to
which these groups were prepared to go.

The group has a hit-list of some prominent Bangladeshis who are known
for their progressive views.

Police investigations into the assassination attempt are pointing to a
link between the members of the Hirkatul Zihad and Saudi-political
fugitive Osama bin Laden, now living incognito in Afghanistan.

It is also estimated that since the Hirkatul Zihad was set up in 1992,
it has trained some 25,000 recruits mainly students from "madrashas"
(religious schools) who are indoctrinated in an ideology that glorifies
martyrdom. Most recruits have been boys who are either orphans or from
very poor families.

Intelligence agencies say the Hirkatul Zihad has links with "terrorist"
groups in the Middle East, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and
Burma, and receive up to half a million dollars every year to carry out
their activities to make Bangladesh a fundamentalist Islamic state.

Leaders of the pro-Islamic political organizations have issued fatwas
denying women the right to be leaders, despite both Bangladesh's most
important leaders being women.

Former president and chairman of the Jatiya Party, Hussain Mohamad
Ershad, has been quoted saying in public that only male leaders can make
Bangladesh a great country. In his opinion, the "days of woman
leadership is over."

Syed Fazlul Karim, a religious leader and head of the Islamic
Constitution Movement, said "Islam does not recognize woman leadership.
A country led by a woman can never make progress. A country with a woman
leader is the result of sins."

And Mufti Fazlul Huq Amini, a top leader of the Islamic Unity Alliance,
who says he is a supporter of Osama bin Laden, has urged Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina Wajed to establish Islamic rule. Otherwise her government
would be toppled, he has warned.

Ordinary people however, have shown they are not swept away by religious
dogma. At the last general election in 1996, only three members of the
right-wing Jamaat-e-Islamic won, compared to the party's strength of 18
in the previous Bangladesh parliament.

Religious fundamentalism in Bangladesh has been losing ground, says
Abdur Rahman of the left-leaning Workers Party.

[Copyright 1999 - Inter Press Service]

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