Not de jure but de facto
entitlement is necessary
Your thought-provoking write-up has caught my attention regarding women’s inheritance rights. I am not quite convinced rather a little bit confused about your position regarding women’s equal inheritance rights.
By not even problematising and conceptualising our constitutional claim that Bangladesh is an Islamic country which upholds the Islamic values how can you support that conflicting law which now is a hot issue!
One can easily oppose your stance by claiming that about 90 per cent of the population is Muslim and believe in Islamic norms and values and we should uphold Islamic values and should abide by religious and Quaranic laws. So, can you provide us any example of any Muslim country which defies the Quranic inheritance law and initiates equal inheritance laws? We all know cultural practices and rules of religious scriptures are not uniform, but when state imposes rules and regulation, it conflicts with the religion and transgresses the religious boundary.
Only rights are not enough rather de facto right or entitlements should be given to the women so that decision making process for women becomes easier. We need to consider the relations between men and women in different classes and gender. For example, a woman who lives in the village, after her marriage she normally does not claim her tiny portion of inherited land from her brothers, because she knows that if she takes the land, then in future if her husband divorces her, her situation would become very vulnerable and she would not have any fallback position. Moreover, to keep good relations continuing women do not take their inherited land from their father’s house after their marriage.
Before introducing any new law have we been able to ensure that the women get their existing property entitlements? If not, have we ever tried to find out those hidden causes? These are the questions which need to be answered first.
Given the sensitivity of the issue in our cultural context, I expect further hair-splitting write-up regarding this issue in future.
Md Harisur Rahman
Anthropologist
Regarding policy on women
development
I have read with great interest the letter dated March 15 by AA under the above heading. The problem lies in a poor knowledge and understanding of the laws of inheritance in Islam as mandated in the Quran and the Sunnah. Instead of being driven by our passion and prejudices we need to be guided by reason, common sense and good judgement.
Islamic scholars have held that the original reason for the disparity between male and female heirs is the responsibilities assigned to them. Stated simply, a husband or a male sibling in Islam must use his inheritance to support his family while a wife or a female sibling has no support or obligations.
Male heirs have a financial obligation that female heirs do not have, namely, the male heirs are required to support the female heirs while female heirs are never required to support anybody. In other words, because the male heirs have extra financial needs, they get extra money to fulfil those needs. In practice, the male heir may have less money left after spending it on his dependents than the female heir has.
The Quranic injunction that determines a two to one ratio for such distribution is not based on gender per se. A two to one distribution does not occur in all cases. Only between sons and daughters and between male and female siblings. If two heirs are the parents of the deceased they receive the same share.
Interestingly, here in the US, the state of Idaho had a law regarding intestate succession that stated that in the case of competing petitions from otherwise qualified individuals of the same priority relationship, ‘males must be preferred to females’. This law was overturned by the Supreme Court in Reed v. Reed, 404 U.S. 71 (1971). If the enlightened West still had these laws as recently as 37 years ago, maybe Bangladeshi women’s rights activists might want to cut the Mullahs a little more slack. Women inherit less not because they are considered inferior but because male heirs have a financial obligation to support the female heirs. In reality it is the female heir who comes out ahead in the end.
Abdus Samad
Bronx, NY, USA
***
A National Policy for Women Development has been announced by the Government of Bangladesh on March 8, 2008. But some political parties, including Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, are deadly opposed to one provision in the policy which seeks to allow women rights to property equal to men. According to them, this will violate Islamic inheritance laws.
I prepared and presented a policy paper on ‘gender-sensitivity of Bangladesh PRSP’ last week at my university here in Belgium. While I was reading Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) of Bangladesh, I found an article (article 5.141) in the PRSP document under the heading of ‘Women in agriculture’. It says:
‘Women’s role in crop production also needs to be enhanced and in this respect women’s access to land ownership need to increase through change in inheritance law and distribution of khas land to the poor women.’
This PRSP was prepared in October, 2005 by the then four-party alliance government of which the Jamaat was a part. But before the new policy for women’s development was announced the Jamaat submitted a written protest to the government. The Jamaat owes an explanation to the people for its contradictory stances.
Belayeth
On e-mail
Repatriation of expatriate workers
The government’s so-called discovery of a new way of cheating adopted by a section of Bangladeshi workers in Saudi Arabia is a tall claim. Many expatriate workers of the sub-continent, Pakistan and India included, run away from their employers and continue to work there illegally. There are many reasons behind this phenomenon like low salary, sub-standard living condition etc. Many others from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Indonesia go there with Hajj and Umrah visas and overstay to work there. Every year, normally a few months’ after Hajj, the Saudi Arabian Police run operations to arrest those overstayers and illegal workers. The police keep them in detention centres and repatriate them to their respective countries with one-way tickets by using Saudi Arabian government’s Jakat Fund. Poor expatriate workers take advantage of this good gesture of the Saudi Arabian government for their home coming. On many occasions, they surrender themselves to the police.
Recently, the State of Bahrain started repatriation of three thousand Indian workers to India. The Saudi Arabian government is aware of the humanitarian background of this issue and hence also extends support to Bahrain, Oman and other countries in their repatriation efforts of poor third world workers by providing fund.
The Bangladesh government is probably the last government to sign MOU with Middle Eastern governments to protect the interests of both the employees and employers. The Indian, Pakistani and Philippines missions extend their full support to their citizens in distress. They provide financial, humanitarian and legal support to their citizens who happen to be there. These types of support from any Bangladesh mission was never heard of.
MH Khan
On e-mail
Cyber crime
If we think the world is not a safe place anymore and try to seek solace in the virtual world of the Internet, we will be disappointed to find out that the Internet is not devoid of crime, debauchery and exploitation. The Internet is not a safe place with the increasing number of virtual criminals that lurk behind the virtual walls awaiting their victims to log on to the net and fall prey to their malicious tactics and easy baits.
Internet crime is a recently escalating form of crime that started with the rise of the Internet era. Any criminal activity, which is carried out on the Internet or by means of the Internet, is generally termed as Internet crime.
There are various ways in which criminal minds can use the power of the Internet to abuse and cheat people. Here is a list of some of the most dangerous criminal activities over the Internet: Hacking, Phishing, Internet extortion, Pornography and Cyber-terrorism etc.
Safe and anonymous Internet browsing is the key to stay away from cyber crime. We should avoid giving away personal details like credit card number, social security number, home address, telephone number, and account passwords on the Internet. Financial transactions should be carried out over the Internet only when we are certain about the credibility of the website. Online shopping from suspicious websites should be avoided. Besides, enactment of strict laws is very important for thwarting cyber crime.
Mohammad Shahidul Islam
On-email
