Women's lib advocates should rule country

Women's freedom was one of the core ideals of the country's Liberation War, so the forces holding those ideals should be in state power, said former caretaker government adviser Sultana Kamal yesterday.

Otherwise, progress made in this regard so far would be reversed, she told a rally of Shamajik Proktirodh Committee, a platform of NGOs, in observance of International Women's Day.

Meanwhile, Nari Pokkho and Biplobi Nari Sanghati protested the government plan to allow parents the prerogative to marry their daughters off at 16, and the courts to approve such marriages.

Quoting the historic March 7 speech by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Sultana Kamal said that although the part of his speech, "The struggle this time is for liberation, the struggle this time is for independence", was most widely quoted, she would like to highlight for now where he had said, "stay prepared with whatever you have…Build fortresses in every household" because the current state of the country resembled that of the Liberation War era.

"Anti-liberation forces still hold much clout," opined the rights activist.

"If we want to see the dreams of the Liberation War come true, we must support the progressive political forces and resist the conservatives from going to power," Sultana Kamal said.

Addressing the Biplobi Nari Sanghati rally at Dhaka University, coordinator of the organisation Shyamoly Shill said the government was portraying Saudi Arabia's lifting of the ban on hiring Bangladeshi women as domestic helps positively.

"But due to numerous allegations of severe torture, different countries including Indonesia, Philippines and Sri Lanka are already bringing back their female citizens working in Saudi Arab as domestic helps," she said.

Addressing the Nari Pokkho rally at Rabindra Sarobar, Kamrun Nahar said child marriage spoiled the prospects of women in the beginning through imposing many responsibilities.