Divorced women should get half of conjugal wealth

Divorced women should receive an equal share of property accumulated by the couple during their conjugal life, suggested law professionals yesterday.

They stressed the need for inclusion of such a legal provision in the country's laws relating to women.

"A woman who is divorced after 30 years of marriage is left without a penny. Even the Mahr (money in Muslim marriages) given to the woman at the time of marriage amounts to nothing over time," noted Prof Md Abdul Alim, a researcher of gender-based issues from Rajshahi University.

Senior district judge Shamshun Nahar Mema also made similar comments and recommended continuous trial sessions for cases related to violence against women.

They were addressing a roundtable on the implementation and limitation of laws enacted to prevent violence against women, at the office of the daily Prothom Alo in the capital.

The programme, funded by USAID, was organised by the newspaper in association with Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA), and Plan International, Bangladesh.

The event was organised in observation of International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women today, and the 16 days of activism against gender based violence till Human Rights Day on December 10.

Towhida Khandaker, director of BNWLA, presented data on cases filed under the Dowry Prohibition Act 1980 and Women and Children Repression Prevention Act 2000 (amended 2013), and under USAID funded Protecting Human Rights (PHR) and BNWLA's legal aid programmes.       

Towhida said 2,220 cases were filed between January 2012 and October 2015, but only 28 were convicted in the same period.

Towhida Khandaker stressed the need for more special tribunals and judges for cases filed under these laws.  

Mukta Dhar, senior assistant police commissioner of Women Support and Investigation Division of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police, noted how transfer of doctors often delays medical report crucial in rape cases.

Fawzia Karim Firoze, president of BNWLA, among others, spoke.