Women as Victims of the Salish: Fatwas, Mullas and the Village Community

Abstract

While gender discrimination is a global phenomenon and treating women as inferior in every sphere of life is a norm in under-developed countries, the position of women in Muslim countries — such as Bangladesh — is generally assumed to be even worse than that of women in ‘non-Muslim’ countries. Undoubtedly, Bangladeshi women in general, the rural poor in particular, are on the lowest rung of life’s ladder. Their persecution and degradation at the hands of patriarchy, strengthened and justified with the expulsion of Taslima Nasreen from the country in 1994 and the sudden rise in the dispension of fatwas by mullas in rural courts (salish) against women, which even led to several deaths (suicide and murder) of poor women in the countryside further aggravated the situation. By 1995, hundreds of women had been tried in sham rural courts, run by village elders and their associates (mullas), for allegedly violating the Sharia law and Islamic codes of conduct.

Purush manusher ki dosh? [How can you blame a man] This bitch [18-year-old Beauty Khatun, a rape victim] is solely responsible for the ‘illicit relationship’. She should be lashed 101 times for her crime.

A salish (village-court) verdict (1994)

Since Razia is no longer ‘legally married’ to her husband, she must marry someone else and only after getting a divorce from her ‘second husband’ she will be allowed to re-marry her ‘first husband’. Both Razia and her ‘adulterer’ husband should receive 51 lashes for their crime.

A salish verdict