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Govt instigates women and child repression: AL
10/29/2005
Participants at an Awami League (AL) roundtable Friday alleged that the "fundamentalist ideology" of the BNP-Jamaat alliance government has been instigating repression on women and children, reports UNB.
They said repression on women and children was nothing new in Bangladesh, but the situation has taken a serious turn under this government because of the "government's direct patronage to the fundamentalist forces."
Leaders of the main opposition AL and representatives of different women and human rights organisations participated in the "Roundtable on Repression on Women and Children" held at the Jatiya Press Club.
Presided over by AL Presidium Member Syeda Zohra Tajuddin, the roundtable was addressed, among others, by AL Joint Secretary Obaidul Kader, Supreme Court Bar Association President Mahbubey Alam, Dhaka University Teachers Association (DUTA) President AAMS Arefin Siddique, Bangladesh Observer Editor Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury and women leaders Shirin Akhter, Ayesha Khanam and Hamida Hossain.
Dr Shirin Sharmin Chowdhury presented the keynote at the roundtable, organised by AL as part of its anti-government programmes.
Obaidul Kader said cause of the ongoing repression on women and children is "rooted in the ideology of the present government whose target is to give fundamentalism an institutional shape”.
He alleged that late President Ziaur Rahman had rehabilitated the killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, which introduced state-patronisation to the extremist forces in the country. "And under the Khaleda government, repression on women and children has increased at an alarming rate," he observed.
Mahbubey Alam said separation of judiciary from the executive could play a significant role in combating the forces, which resort to repression on women in the name of religion.
Arefin Siddique put emphasis on proper implementation of the country's anti-repression laws, alleging that the present government is reluctant to enforce the laws that resist repression on women.
Shirin Sharmin put forward a five-point suggestion to resist repression on women.
The suggestions included ensuring women empowerment, government initiatives to reform inheritance and citizenship and such other laws to establish women's right, proper enforcement of existing laws, developing the law enforcing agencies and the judiciary system.
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