Foreign Policy Blogs

Womens' Rights and Constitutional Secularism Dealt a Strong Hand in Bangladesh

The High Court of Bangladesh recently declared all forms of  extrajudicial punishment illegal. Fatwas, or religious judgments fall under the domain of the ruling.  Therefore, fatwas, as a form of extrajudicial punishment have been deemed illegal in Bangladesh.

The Daily Star reports;

“Anyone involved, present or taking part in or assisting any such conviction or execution would come under purview of the offences under the penal code and be subject to punishment, the court observed.”

“It also observed infliction of brutal punishment including caning, whipping and beating in local salish [arbitration] by persons devoid of judicial authority constitutes violation of the constitutional rights.”

“The court said the people’s rights to life and equal protection have to be treated in accordance with the law.

As per the rules of the Constitution, the citizens will not be subject to cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment or punishment, the HC said.”

The Constitution of Bangladesh has been held up against convention and social mores. This is a welcome move and a strident step in the right direction toward greater, wider enforcement of liberal human rights in Bangladesh.

The cases behind the ruling were brought by human rights organizations with the aim of declaring fatwas–religious opinions that in more religious enclaves sometimes carry the weight of legal doctrine–illegal.  Recent reports suggest that most fatwas tend to disproportionately affect women who are then punished by the same non-state sanctioned, social governing entities.

Most interestingly–and convincingly for wider appeal of the normative claims of human rights–the defenders of the petition cited international norms against torture that previous Bangladeshi governments had ratified.  Hence the petitioners brought to bear on their argument the fact that the law of the land included the signed 1984  Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, 1984 and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, 1979.

This ruling is a victory for the rule of law over social custom.  Indeed social custom is likely to shift to an entirely new equilibrium wherein costs associated with the extrajudicial punishments, including fatwas, are likely to change social behavior within a predominantly patriarchal society.

The net effect of the new ruling is, nevertheless, indeterminate.  What will women’s rights come out to be in ten years without broad improvements in their endowments and associated capabilities?  It would depend on how a  large bundle of policies and progressive politics changed the incentive structure of the widely respected male leaders of the many thousand village communities dotting the country-side.  But one change that will surely be part of this package is this ruling that overcame custom and prejudice and insisted that laws on the books be enforced, laws that are determinative of the human dignity of women, indeed of all persons.

 

Author

Faheem Haider

Faheem Haider is a political analyst, writer and artist. He holds advanced research degrees in political economy, political theory and the political economy of development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and New York University. He also studied political psychology at Columbia University. During long stints away from his beloved Washington Square Park, he studied peace and conflict resolution and French history and European politics at the American University in Washington DC and the University of Paris, respectively.

Faheem has research expertise in democratic theory and the political economy of democracy in South Asia. In whatever time he has to spare, Faheem paints, writes, and edits his own blog on the photographic image and its relationship to the political narrative of fascist, liberal and progressivist art.

That work and associated writing can be found at the following link: http://blackandwhiteandthings.wordpress.com