Past Present & Future

Bangladesh and Citizenship: Discrimination against women

More nation-state woes. Right: so discrimination against women is rampant in Bangladesh, as in other parts of the world. But I was really shocked when i found out recently about some pretty fundamental discrimination: citizenship laws and how they affect women. That seems to me rather critical. Okay so basically I’m a Bangladeshi citizen –> I hold a Bangladeshi passport. Now if a Bangladeshi man marries someone who isn’t a Bangladeshi citizen, fine no problemo mrs. x can become a bangladeshi citizen if she wants to, and basically has the ability to get a ‘Visa Exemption’ stamp in her passport on proving that she’s married to some Bangladeshi bloke. Same with kids of aforementioned bangladeshi bloke - they’re entitled to nationality of their father - if they so choose - and if they don’t get themselves a Bangladeshi passport, they can still get themselves the ‘Visa Exemption’ thingie in their (say) British passport.

Right : so what’s the problem here? Men are able to transmit their nationality - and effectively - rights to visiting their country - to their spouse and children. Fine. You wouldn’t expect any less. But is the same right extended to women? OH NO!

No it isn’t. If you are a Bangladeshi WOMAN married to some one who isn’t a BANGLADESHI citizen already - forget about the right to transmit your nationality along. You haven’t the right. TO your own children. If your child is born in Bangladesh - i guess that’s a different story. ( But i’m not sure of the detail - it generally seems to all rest upon who the father is. Such a paternalistic system)

But the fact remains, as a Bangladeshi citizen who lives somewhere else, if you’re a man, you can sort your wife and children out, but if you’re a woman, they don’t recognize your right to bring your children into the country, and your husband. they have to apply for visas like any tom dick and harry. so okay they might not mind, and as some folks have said, a bangladeshi passport isn’t something that everyone wants to have. Ha - you don’t say! but that’ ain’t the point. The point is that as a Bangladeshi woman, i am very annoyed with my government for thinking they can coolly make such statements and not piss me off. It’s my right to transmit my nationality to my child if i have one. Certainly, it’s discrimination in any case. I’m frightfully annoyed by this.

Patriarchy indeed.

Check out the guidelines for ‘Visa Exemption’ published by the Bangladeshi High Commission, U.K. I have to do my research to check up what the actual laws surrounding citizenship are in Bangladesh - i’ve heard the mention of the Citizenship Act of 1951 back in the East Pakistani days - which may not have been amended since - who knows - either which way, watch this space for more information.

UPDATE:

The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (the CEDAW Convention) is a human rights treaty for women. The UN General Assembly adopted the CEDAW Convention on 19th December 1979. It came into force as a treaty on 3rd September 1981 -CEDAW is one of the most highly ratified international human rights conventions.

I’ve found a statement by one Hameeda Hossain, To the Committee on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women, On the Fifth Periodic Report of the Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh at the 31st CEDAW Session, New York, in 2004 - as follows:

“..I would like to raise four critical areas of systemic discrimination against women:..”

And the second item on the list was:

” Citizenship Rights: Our second concern is that two outdated laws: The Bangladesh Citizenship Act, 1951 and The Bangladesh Citizenship (Temporary Provisions) Order 1972, deprive women of equal rights in citizenship. The prescription that the right of citizenship be passed on to children from “father and grandfather” is clearly inconsistent with constitutional guarantees of equality in Article 28(1 & 2). Although Article 6 of the Constitution states that citizenship will be determined and regulated by law, but its intention cannot be to create different classes of citizenship. These laws are also inconsistent with Bangladesh’s ratification of Article 9 of CEDAW. The government in its answer to question no 34 of the Committee has stated that the matter was discussed in the meeting of the National Council of Women in September 1992, but a decision was not taken. It is our submission that the amendment required is a minor one of language and not of principles or policy and the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs could, therefore, be tasked, to draft the amendments for adoption by Parliament, within a stated time period. We would further submit that both section 5 of the Bangladesh Citizenship Act 1951 and Bangladesh Citizenship Act (Temporary Provisions) Order of 1972 be amended to remedy discrimination with regard to citizenship.