BANGLADESH: Rights Chief Roots for Women Policy

National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Mizanur Rahman yesterday said the government should implement the newly formulated National Women Development Policy for empowering women.

He was addressing a roundtable on the policy at the auditorium of Bangladesh Institute of Administration and Management (Biam) in the capital.

The commission organised the roundtable to come up with some policy recommendations for the government.

“Besides implementing the policy, the issue of equal rights of women should be clearly and specifically incorporated in the constitution,” observed the NHRC chief.

Mizanur criticised certain quarters for taking to the streets and destroying public property in protest against the women development policy. He suggested all the problems should be resolved through discussions.

Praising the government for formulating the new policy, he called upon all to be alert so that no quarter can make it an issue to gain politically.

He also urged the women community to demand from the government a special budgetary allocation for proper implementation of the policy.

Generally there is nothing contradictory to Islam in the policy, said Syed Abdullah Al-Maruf, deputy director of Islamic Foundation.

He warned street agitation like hartal in protest against the policy may create among women an adverse attitude to Islam.

The quarters that had enforced the illogical hartal will be held responsible for this, added Al-Maruf.

Islamic party leaders like Fazlul Haque Amini have been using the issue intentionally and politically, complained Prof Kazi Nurul Islam of world religion and culture department at Dhaka University.

He came down hard on Amini for enforcing the countrywide hartal.

Several other representatives from different public and private organisations and development institutions addressed the roundtable.