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Women Policy

Formation of review body questioned

Staff Correspondent
The formation of a high-powered committee to review the Women Development Policy 2008 by keeping the women and children affairs ministry in the dark has surprised many quarters, including the government officials.
Law and Religious Affairs Adviser AF Hassan Ariff, Home Adviser MA Matin, Communications Adviser Ghulam Quader and LGRD Adviser Md Anwarul Iqbal at a meeting on Thursday formed the committee, tasking it with identifying anything in the policy that may go against Islamic rules.
Rights organisations have questioned the quartet's right to form such a committee once the head of the government formally announced the policy on behalf of the advisory council on March 8.
They plan to hand in a memorandum to the chief adviser in a
couple of days, protesting the formation of the review committee and demanding a clarification of the government position on the long-awaited policy
"After the policy was announced and we were waiting for the start of its implementation, some advisers have literally bowed to pressure from individuals who have been opposing women and social development over the last 50 years," said Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra.
Rights organisations and women leaders said forming such a committee goes against the government's stated stand on national development, equal rights and the establishment of a corruption-free society.
Key features of the women policy include setting aside one-third of the parliamentary seats for women and arranging direct election to the reserved seats as well as
FROM PAGE 16 enacting new laws to ensure opportunity for women and their control on earned movable and immovable property.
Earlier, several advisers, including the law adviser himself and Women and Children Affairs Adviser Rasheda K Choudhury, made it clear on several occasions that the new policy con-•» tains nothing that goes against the rule and spirit of Islam, but a section of the religious leaders took to the streets to protest the policy, clearly violating the emergencyrules.
The law adviser on March 11 told Islamic scholars at the Islamic Foundation that the interim government would not pass any law on inheritance.
The next day Adviser Rasheda urged people not to criticise a progressive' document like the women development policy before going through it.
But Islamist organisations paid no heed to her call. They accused the government of trying to implement an anti-Shariah policy in the name of women's development.
Mufti Mohammad Nuruddin, acting khatib of Baitul Mokarram National Mosque, was made convenor of the review commit-tee It will submit its report within 21 days identifying the "inconsistencies in the policy from the perspective of the Islamic rules’.
No official from the women and children affairs ministry was
present at the meeting that formed the committee, said sources.
“We were not informed before the meeting and not even after the committee was formed." a top official of the ministry told The Daily Star on condition of anonymity.
"Since the ministry played the key role in formulating the policy and will have to implement it, it is surprising that neither the ministry's adviser nor any official was asked to attend the meeting," he said.
When asked about this, staffers of the four advisers' offices said the meeting was arranged hurriedly.
It seems to be a two-pronged policy. We need to know whether forming the review committee is the decision of the four advisers or the government as we know the advisory council approved the policy," said Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mahila Pari shad.
Saying that all the deliberations over the past few years on formulating the policy appear to have been absolutely meaningless after the government's bowing to the pressure of "those who are talking against the constitution', Sultana Kamal added, "I can't help asking who is running the government7"
When contacted last night. Law Adviser Hassan Ariff declined to comment on the issue over the phone.