Young Bangladeshi woman | Credit: Tony Henderson By Tony Henderson Courtesy IDN-InDepth NewsAnalysisDHAKA (IDN/Pressenza*) - Bangladesh's religious state tendencies were undone in August 2005 when the country's High Court declared constitutional amendments during military rule as illegal and unconstitutional.
Later in January 2010, after a legal battle, the Bangladesh Supreme Court upheld the verdict of the High Court thereby allowing restoration of the original nature of the 1972 Constitution which defines Bangladesh -- a Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people -- as a secular democratic country.
"The original 1972 constitution of the founding president of Bangladesh, Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was a secular constitution," says Bangladesh Consul General in Hong Kong, Ashud Ahmed. "However, over time, the constitution had been amended and had departed from its original secular spirit."
This issue cropped up from a seemingly innocuous case of verbal harassment earlier in 2010 when a school headmistress, Sultana Arjuman Banu, took a government official to court for calling her an "uncultured prostitute" because she did not wear a burqa. The court asked the official to unconditionally apologise.
The burqa had become a topic of debate not only in the Bangladesh parliament but also in educational institutions. The judgment is the fourth passed by the courts, all unequivocally upholding a woman’s right not to wear a burqa if she does not want to.
The first order came in March. The high court then banned police from hassling women who did not wear the garment after nine teenage couples were arrested in a park in northern Rangpur district, because the girls were not in burqas.
In April, a court ruled that women teachers could not be forced to wear the garment in their educational institutions. In Septemebr the order was extended to all students following reports that the principal of a state-run college in northern Bangladesh was forcing the girls to wear burqas.
The Dhaka High Court on October 4 ruled that no woman in Bangladesh should be compelled to wear a burqa against her wishes. "Attempts to coerce or impose a dress code on women clearly amount to a form of sexual harassment," a court statement said, in what is being seen as a landmark verdict for human rights in the Muslim majority country.
"But even as the courts and the Awami League government are paving the way for greater freedom for women, more and more seem to be taking to the veil," reported The Telegraph, Calcutta (India).
The newspaper quoted Mehtab Khanoum, a psychologist who teaches at Dhaka University, saying that many more girls were being seen in burqas these days compared to 1983, when she first started teaching. "The burqa isn't necessarily a custom of purdah. It's seen by many as a security blanket. Law and order here is such that women feel they will be teased less if they are veiled," she said.
"Also, I have noticed that as we are progressing technologically, as a society we are going backwards. As children have access to more technology, parents are becoming stricter. I see it as a direct link to why more girls are covering up."
Khanoum, who is also heard on radio talking on women's issues, said there a lot of pressure on young girls to dress modestly and behave politely. "Sleeveless blouses, jeans and T-shirts are still frowned on. Court orders cannot change society."
Salma Haidar, a 23-year-old woman shopping in a mall, corroborated what Khanoum said. "My burqa makes me feel good and safe. I started wearing it a few months ago because my family said I would be safer in it," she said.
But Ishrat Jahan, a computer science student, would not agree that women in burqas were teased less. "That's a myth. They are teased the most, along with those who are overtly modern. Eve-teasers try to lift the veil to see what the girl is trying to hide," she said, laughing.
"With the growing exposure to Internet and satellite TV, I've noticed many women going all out to cover everything but their eyes. Some modify their burqas, which looks really trendy. But these court orders haven't made any difference. Girls who used to wear burqas still do."
Others like Fahida Islam, a 19-year-old television presenter who wears a hijab, a headscarf concealing the hair and neck, felt Bangladeshi women should embrace Islamic customs more. "My hijab is my freedom," she said in an interview to a foreign news agency in September.
Nevertheless, Law Minister Shafique Ahmed said that the original spirit of the constitution including secularism had been restored as a result of the Supreme Court judgment, upholding the right of all women in Bangladesh to choose what they wear.
"That is a moot question," explained Bangladesh Consul General in Hong Kong, Ashud Ahmed, "because, another school of legal thought has it that the change still has to be debated and agreed upon in parliament."
"The original 1972 constitution of the founding president of Bangladesh, Prime Ministe Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was a secular constitution," he says, adding: "However, over time, the constitution had been amended and had departed from its original secular spirit."
The original constitution of 1972 embodied four fundamental principles of nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism.
“When the military government of president Ziaur Rahman's regime took over they came up with amendments that changed the nature of the constitution by allowing religion-based political parties and which included a phrase in Arabic that changed everything."
The words were: 'Bismillah-ir-Rahman-Ir-Rahim', or, 'in the name of God, the most merciful, benevolent', placed in the preamble.
"Bangladesh is now a secular state as the Appellate Division (of the Supreme Court) verdict scrapped the Fifth Amendment to the constitution. In this secular state, everybody has religious freedom, and therefore no man, woman or child can be forced to wear religious attires like burqa, cap and dhoti," a high court bench stated on October 4, 2010.
The court comprising judges A H M Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik and Sheikh Mohammad Zakir Hossain, however, made it clear that no citizen can be prohibited from wearing religious attires either, if he or she wished to don them.
*Pressenza International Press Agency www.pressenza.com is a cooperation partner of IDN-InDepthNews. Tony Henderson is a freelance writer based in Hong Kong since 1980. He contributes regularly to Pressenza.
