Petition at High Court requests suspension of Women's Affairs Reform Commission

A writ petition has been filed at the High Court challenging several recommendations made by the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission.

In addition to seeking a stay order to prevent the implementation of those recommendations, the petition also asks the court to instruct the formation of an expert committee comprising constitutional experts, Islamic jurists and civil society representatives to review and advise on any future reforms related to religious and family laws.

The High Court bench of Justice Fatema Najib and Justice Sikder Mahmudur Razi is likely to hold a hearing on the petition this week.

A lawyer named Rowshan Ali filed the petition with the relevant division of the High Court on Sunday.

The petition claims that the proposal to give equal inheritance to men and women in property in Chapter 11 of the reform commission’s report is “directly contrary to Surah Nisa of the Quran”.

The reform commission report also proposes to ban polygamy. The petition states that polygamy is a provision “permitted in Islamic Sharia”. As a result, it says, the commission’s recommendation “violates the right to practice religion” under Article 41 of the Constitution.

The writ petition states, “By blindly supporting the slogan ‘My Body, My Choice’, an attempt has been made to cross the line of morality without basing it on Sharia law.”

“A proposal to recognise the professions of sex workers (sex work) as a legitimate profession has been made. Such a proposal is against Islamic values and Articles 2(a) and 26 of the Constitution.”

The language used in the report on gender identity and transgender people is “un-Sharia law and contrary to religious beliefs,” Rowshan says.

He says, “The various recommendations of the report are directly contrary to Islamic Sharia law, our Constitution and the values of the religious people of the country. This petition is not against any individual or group. It is a legal step taken to protect the country’s religious values, constitutional balance and social order.”

Religious parties have been opposing the Women's Affairs Reform Commission formed by the interim government since it submitted its report to the chief advisor on Apr 19.

Hifazat-e-Islam, one of the country's Islamist platforms, has demanded the scrapping of the report while Jamaat-e-Islami has “rejected” the report.

Hifazat's objections are mainly to the observations and recommendations made by the commission on Islamic inheritance law and Islamic family law.

Jamaat has called some of the recommendations “abhorrent” and said that these issues will push society towards “extreme instability”.