|
Bangladesh Islamists protest women's inheritance law
 Hundreds of members of a group campaigning for Islamic rule in Bangladesh clashed with police on Friday over a plan to give women the same inheritance rights as men. Police fired teargas and used batons to break up the protests, after members of the Islami Constitution Movement (ICM) threw stones as they emerged from Friday prayers at the the Baitul Mokarram mosque in the centre of the capital Dhaka, witnesses said. A Reuters reporter said that at least 100 people were injured in the protests despite a ban on such gatherings under a state of emergency imposed after an army-backed interim administration took power in January last year. A police officer described the scene as a virtual battlefield. On Thursday, nearly 50 people were injured as members of the Khelafat Majlis group clashed with police in the capital over the same issue. The activists anger was triggered by reports in the local media of a draft law that gives equal inheritance rights, including property, to men and women. The ICM, which is one of several groups campaigning for Sharia-based laws in Bangladesh, said the proposed womens rights law was against the Sharia law of inheritance. We are not against womens rights, but it has to be according to the guidelines of Islam, said Muhammad Ismail, a protester. Several other groups joined the protests, including the Ahkame Sharia Hefazat Committee, backed by the countrys biggest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami. Posted by: Fred 2008-04-12 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=236573 |