The Chittagong University (CU) chapter of the women’s body has issued an eight-point demand, including a public apology from Monirul Haque Chowdhury, the ruling-party member of parliament for Cumilla-6, over allegedly objectionable and insulting remarks about the burqa and niqab. The organisation’s leaders raised the demands at a human chain held at the university’s Buddhijibi Chattar at 1:30 p.m. on Monday. At the human chain, the women’s body’s leaders and activists displayed placards with slogans in support of the burqa, niqab and religious freedom. The placards read: “My dress is hijab-niqab, my dignity”; “Where does the insulting of religion end?”; “The veil is my religious and constitutional right”; and “Freedom of expression can never be the freedom to demean another’s religious belief,” among others.
Jannatul Ferdous Sanjida, secretary of the CU chapter of the women’s body, spoke at the human chain. She said: “Standing in an important institution of the state like the National Parliament, a ruling-party member of parliament compared the burqa and niqab to changing a bride. He also taunted female members of parliament from the opposition. The country’s ordinary people do not expect such remarks from a public representative.”
She further said: “When a member of parliament makes such remarks while standing in a place of dignity like the National Parliament, the country’s women are pained. We demand that he immediately withdraw the remarks and publicly apologise to the country’s women.”
At the end of the human chain, the organisation’s publicity secretary, Tawfika Rahman, presented the eight-point demand. The demands include: the withdrawal of the insulting and offensive remarks made about women’s religious dress in the National Parliament and a public apology from the person concerned; ensuring women’s religious freedom, personal freedom and dignity at all levels of the state, including the National Parliament; framing effective policies to stop discrimination, hateful remarks and harassment of women on the grounds of religious identity and dress; and ensuring swift, impartial and exemplary justice in all incidents of rape and violence against women in the country.
The demands also included increasing the effectiveness of special tribunals for the speedy disposal of cases of violence against women and children, removing delays in the judicial process, ensuring the safety of women in educational institutions, workplaces and public spaces, raising social awareness to prevent violence against women and children, and ensuring the accountability of law-enforcement agencies.
The organisation’s leaders said the state must take more effective steps to build a safe, humane and discrimination-free society by showing respect for women’s religious identity, dress and dignity.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report