DHAKA, JAN 29: Plucky Khadiza Parvin, a barely-literate traditional birth attendant, is a proud new member of the `Union Council' that administers both her village and a few others in northern Bangladesh. She contested and won the important local government election last month after the government, for the first time, allowed women to directly run for office in a move to strengthen their political influence.Khadiza was among some 45,000 women who filed papers in the face of stiff opposition from male politicians afraid of losing to newcomers, and influential village mullahs (clerics) who issued `fatwas' deeming women who participated in the polls unislamic.
A rich rival hoping to tempt Khadiza to withdraw from the race offered her 50,000 takas (1,100 dollars). A mullah in her Tangail village also tried to dissuade her by warning ``that mixing with men was a sin.'' ``If women can become prime ministers in Bangladesh,'' Khadiza bluntly asked the mullah, ``why is it a sin for me to contest in the UnionCouncil election and become a member?''
A high voter turnout among women - 75 percent of the 23 million women on the electoral rolls - on election day ensured that nearly all the more than 1,000 Union Councils across the country have women members and some are even led by women. It was only in a few villages that the mullahs succeeded in preventing women from exercising their franchise, by intimidation and threats of dire consequences. Through `fatwas' or edicts, some mullahs claimed that Islam prohibits women from participating in elections, and only ``shameless'' women would leave the protection of their home. In some on the southern districts like Barishal, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Barguna and Noakhali, they went from house to house to dissuade women from voting, and spoke in mosques against female franchise and the leadership of women. But Bangladesh's Constitution guarantees equal rights for women and men. Its two main political parties are led by women, including present Prime Minister Sheikh HasinaWajed of the Awami League.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
