DHAKA: Amid a latest tide of bashing women under the edicts of Islamic clerics, the High Court Monday issued a rule asking the government to explain within a week why such extra-judicial punishment through fatwa and Islamic Sharia law “should not be declared illegal”.

This incidentally comes as a repeat whipping of the informal justice, as a High Court judgment had already declared ‘unauthorized and illegal’ the much-talked-about fatwa meted out by a section of maulanas through their interpretation of the Sharia rules.           

An HC bench comprising justices Mohammad Golam Rabbani and Nazmun Ara Sultana gave the landmark ruling on January 1, 2001, when there had been a row over the lashing of women and hilla marriage following fatwa in different parts of the country.       

In another rule Monday, the court asked the government to explain within the same period why it should not be directed to incorporate an article on fatwa in textbooks “at all levels of education” to mould opinion against such bigoted actions that contradict country’s secular laws.

An HC bench of justices Gabinda Chandra Thakur and Mahmud Hossain gave the twin-orders upon a writ petition filed by three Supreme Court lawyers—barrister Mahbub Shafique, Advocate KM Hafizul Alam and barrister Emranul Hye.

The petition was filed following a report published in a daily on May 22, headlined ‘101 dorrah (lashes of whip) for a woman at Bancharampur’.

After the hearing on the case, the High Court also directed the deputy commissioner of Brahmanbaria to submit an investigation report on the incident of fatwa against the woman of Bancharampur upazila before this court within seven days.

The HC also directed the media not to disclose the name and photo or any video footage of a victim girl for the sake of her safety.

BDST: 1440 HRS, May24, 2010
JA/SA/AK/SMS/MUA