Call for ensuring Hindu women's property rights

The Bangladesh Hindu Law Reform Council has demanded that Hindu women's rights to their family property should be established.

At a press briefing at the National Press Club on Friday, the council placed six demands – providing equal property rights to women, disabled and gender-diverse communities; abolition of polygamy; introducing a provision of divorce in special cases; recognising the guardianship of women as well as men over children; giving women right to adoption of children, especially girl children; and making marriage registration compulsory.

Referring to Vedas and Ramayana for protecting women's rights, President of the Hindu Law Reform Council Moyna Talukder said, "If you read these carefully, you would understand that our demands are not unreasonable".

The council's General Secretary Pulak Ghatak and members Bhanu Lal Das and Subash Saha, among others, spoke at the event.

While the Hindu laws of Hindu-dominant India, Nepal and Mauritius do not discriminate between the sexes, the Hindu family law in Bangladesh excludes women, the disabled, the terminally ill [both male and female] and gender-diverse communities from inheriting property, said the rights activists.

They alleged that a vested quarter has been staging illegal programmes on the streets, proclaiming to oppose the granting of rights to Hindu and Buddhist women.

"Many say that if Hindu women are given rights, they will be converted. Such propaganda is hateful, disrespectful and objectionable to Hindu women," added the activists.

They also condemned an alleged hate campaign on social media which they said goes against the rights of Hindu and Buddhist women.

"Such inciting activities are to instill fear in the minds of minorities and confuse the situation by spreading communal incitement," said the association leaders, further alleging that their colleagues and women supporters received threats, hateful remarks and online harassment for protesting such offensive activities.

They urged the government to take legal action and punish the guilty through an investigation.