soc.culture.pakistan

http://www.newagebd.com/2008/apr/13/edit.html#1


New Age, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Sunday, April 13, 2008


EDITORIAL
Islamists oppose constitutional rights of women


Since March, we have noted with concern repeated rallies and protests
by radical Islamist political groups who oppose women's rights. The
Islamists in question have transformed their violence into a routine
phenomenon, that too under a state of emergency. These identified
obscurantists are not only instigating pious Muslims and manipulating
their sentiments to further their narrow political agenda, they are
also using the national mosque as their central base of political
activity. The latest clashes on Friday saw, as reported in Saturday's
New Age, more than 100 people injured in Dhaka when a section of the
Islamists attacked police positions near the national mosque.


The issue at hand may be new, but the perpetrators of this violence
are not. At various times, these Islamists groups have used various
and changeable excuses to advance their political agenda, the latest
excuse being their opposition to the military-controlled interim
government's development policy on women.


It appears from the clashes on Thursday and Friday that the police
have been instructed by the higher authorities of the government to
take beatings from the Islamists without any effective retaliation,
although protestors from society's progressive sections have been
ruthlessly beaten up time and again by the same police force. The
behaviour of the incumbents, in this case, resembles very much that of
the past governments who used to pander, to a varying degree though,
to these obscurantist elements on the grounds that a tough attitude
would hurt the sentiments of a section of the voters.


However, we want to clearly state our position that the incumbent's
development policy on women fails to go the adequate distance in
ensuring women's rights, given that the constitution of Bangladesh
clearly instructs the state to ensure equality of women in all spheres
of life - political, economic and cultural. We do not know why the
incumbents have framed such a policy,


undermining the constitutionally guaranteed status of the female
citizens, particularly when the constitutional provisions concerned do
not allow a caretaker government to formulate any policy affecting
people's lives in the first place.


What is, however, an ominous sign is that the government has been
displaying a subservient attitude in tackling the Islamists, who are
actively opposing the very idea of equal rights for women - a
proposition clearly stated in the Constitution. The obvious result of
this was witnessed in Chittagong where Madrassah students of radical
indoctrination, perhaps emboldened by the state's soft position,
attacked the Hathhazari police station on Friday.


Meanwhile, we believe that Islamists who are perpetrating this
violence clearly understand that the incumbent's policy on women falls
short of the constitutional guarantee that women are entitled to. We
therefore interpret their actions as a strategy to establish their
hegemony in the political order of the day, while side by side
instilling fear in society. They are just using the government policy
on women's development as an excuse. For us the camps are clearly
divided: those who support equal rights for women are in favour of the
constitution, and those who oppose these rights consequently take a
stand against the constitution of the state. For us the violence
unleashed by the Islamists on the women's rights is just not a law and
order problem; it is rather a political issue involving the democratic
idea of the equal rights of men and women. But the government has not
yet come out with a clear stance on such a vital issue, particularly
since the Islamist groups resorted to violence around the national
mosque on a regular basis.


We therefore demand that the government, if it at all nurtures any
commitment towards democratic principles, unambiguously states its
political position on the subject and tackles the obscurantist
Islamists who are continually rallying against the democratic rights
of the women.