Feminist Activism, Women's Rights, and Legal Reform by Mulki Al Sharmani

Author:Mulki Al Sharmani [Sharmani, Mulki Al]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Law, Comparative, Religion & Spirituality, Middle East Religions, Islam, Social & Cultural Studies, Social Science, Sociology
ISBN: 9781617977831
Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press
Published: 2017-10-20T04:00:00+00:00

Conclusion

This chapter has analysed the strategies used by feminists to demand a Uniform Family Code. It discussed why feminists focused on drafting an alternative unified code, and how they packaged the demand for the new law as a matter of social justice to fulfil the goals of addressing the inequality experienced by many women of different communities in Bangladesh, and of upholding nationalist ideals and principles of secularism as stated in the constitution. These strategies were chosen in the light of the role played by Islam in politics and the partisan nature of the civil society arena. However, these strategies failed to address the male resistance both within the dominant Muslim community and within other religious minority communities. Islamic groups challenged whether it was legitimate for the women’s groups to propose reforms and played on the state’s fear of being branded anti-Islamic. Men from minority communities feared the loss of identity and their right to religion, along with a possible loss of property if inheritance laws were reformed to allow women to acquire property. All of these factors led to the feminists’ failure to push through reforms for a uniform code.

Despite this failure, the campaign led to some positive changes for women. The debates triggered by the campaign efforts made women from minority communities more aware of their interests and the conflict that at times arises between one’s gender and ethnic/religious identities. Slowly, the demand for reform is being raised by women within these communities in different forums. The most significant of these is the demand for a Hindu Marriage Act, which would require the registration of Hindu marriages (interviews with BMP member, 15 May 2009; BNWLA member, 25 September 2009). Some recent state policy documents from the Bangladesh government, and actions on the part of some of its institutions show a partial espousal of some of the proposals in the draft Uniform Family Code. For example, the National Women’s Development Policy, which was proposed under the previous caretaker regime, includes a clause which states that women have full control over the assets they acquire. The policy left the option open to apply the clause to inherited property, which is in line with the proposed uniform code. This created a furore among the Islamic political parties and groups, but the women’s groups came out strongly in favour of this policy. In addition, a recent High Court judgement ruled that people can have their school completion certificates issued with only their mother’s name stated as their guardian rather than their father’s, which also fits in with arguments put forward by the Uniform Family Code. It remains to be seen, though, how this process of piecemeal change will evolve, and what will be its long-term impacts.

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