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Islamic Scholars on Women Policy

Review body failed to pinpoint contradiction with Quran

Staff Correspondent
The ulema committee formed to -review the National Women Development Policy could not pinpoint in its recommendations which provisions of the policy contradict the Quran and Sunnah, said a section of Islamic scholars.
Considering the policy as a good document for establishing rights of every human being, they said those who are violating laws and threatening the government with greater movements have vested interests and should be brought under trial.
"The review committee could not pinpoint any verse in the Quran that the women development policy contradicts," said Hafez Maulana Ziaul Hasan, chairman of Sammilito Island Jote.
Talking to The Daily Star, a number of Islamic thinkers emphasised that if any provision in the policy really contradicts the Quran or Sunnah, it must be corrected through dialogues, not violence.
They said these people, who are making a noise about the women development policy, also failed earlier to prove that they follow the teachings of Islam and rather dishonoured Islamic teachings through their acts.
Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed announced the National Women Development Policy 2008 on March 8.
Following violent demonstrations by a few Islamist parties in front of the Baitul Mukarram National Mosque and elsewhere in the country, the government formed the 20-member committee on March 27 to identify "inconsistencies" in the policy as per Islamic rules.
Maulana Ziaul Hasan said forming the review committee was not rational as the highest authority of the government had approved the policy. If it were really necessary, the committee should have been formed with Islamic scholars from a broad spectrum of the society.
The Quran has made equal social rights of both men and women the basis for their inheritance rights and it never says that women as human beings cannot have rights as men, he said.
"Rather, women can own more properties than men," Ziaul said, adding that Hazrat Muhammad's (SM) wife Hazrat Khadiza (SM) had more properties than the prophet himself.
The Quranic rule ensuring women's rights to inheritance was revolutionary at the time when women did not have any dignity in the then Arab society and a man's status was determined by the number of their wives and maids.
"So, it is proved that the Quran is progressive in establishing women's rights. Although it is said that a woman will inherit half of what her brother docs, there is no bar in the Quran to women getting properties more than that," Ziaul said.
Increase of share of inheritance for women therefore docs not directly contradict tire Quran, he observed.
"There is no contradiction
between the women development policy and the Quran," he said, noting that checking women's progress by misinterpreting the Quran is against the teachings of Islam.
"We have bitter experiences of abuse of religion by the so-called Islamic forces during the Pakistan period, the Liberation War in 1971 and after 1975. People of this country have not forgotten instances of women's repression and mass killing in the name of religion," Ziaul told T he Daily Star
The forces that are opposing the National Women Development Policy are linked to those who looted the dignity of over two lakh women and killed 30 lakh Bangalees during the Liberation War. he said, adding that these forces arc now misinterpreting the women development policy to divert the issue of trial of war criminals
Internationally acclaimed Islamic thinker Allama Hafez Ruhul Amin Madani said the National Women Development Policy docs not address women's property inheritance rights and these so-called ulema arc opposing the policy without going through it.
The government can consider putting in the policy interpretations of phrases like "equal rights in every sphere" and the UN Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and its applicability in women's lives, Ruhul Amin said.
"These interpretations are needed because the so-called ulema can misuse these words and phrases and influence their followers," he said.
Ruhul Amin also agreed that the review committee could not pinpoint any verse in the Quran that is contradicted by the provisions of the women development policy. "The committee gave recommendations as per their own judgement," he added.
Woman and man are naturally different and cannot substitute each other, but as human beings they all should have equal rights and this is well enshrined in the Quran, he said.
The so-called Islamic forces once opposed woman leadership in the name of religion but later accepted it. When they were sworn in as members of parliament, they promised to uphold the dignity of the country's constitution that provides equal rights of men and women, but they are now opposing equal rights of women, he noted.
"The women development policy declared by the present government is actually the result of initiatives of the previous govern-
ments. These Islamic forces could have opposed it then in parliament." Ruhul Amin said
These forces emphasise that a daughter is entitled to half of what a son inherits. "So, why don’t they support proportionate share of seats for women in parliament and inclusion of proportionate number of women members in the peacekeepingmissions?" he said.
The Islamic scholar said different religions have their own rules on inheritance and if there are any contradictions in the policy, those should be corrected through dialogues, not anarchies on the streets.
Another Islamic thinker Allama Mohammad Sadek Noon said the ulema committee recommended cancelling a few provisions of the National Women Development Policy but it could not say exactly how these provisions contradict the Quran.
He said these opposing forces are actually trying to protect the war criminals as a movement against them has begun across the country.
"These Islamic forces have themselves done many things that go against the Quran," Noori said, adding that one of the targets of these so-called virtuous Muslims is to weaken the present government's movement against corruption.