Women cannot be forced to wear burqa: B’desh court

“If any person tries to compel a woman to wear a veil against her consent … that would amount to a violation of her fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution,” the High Court said.

The ruling came on a public interest litigation suit filed by a rights group months after a government education official insulted a school headmistress using abusive words for her dress at a meeting at northwestern Kurigram.

The court also ordered transfer of the upazila or sub-district education official Arif Ahmed to a different place as punitive action though the bench earlier acquitted him of a criminal charge for his comments as he apologised to the female teacher before the High Court and she pardoned him.

The development came a month after a leading state-run health facility enforced strictly the uniform regulations for female staff banning burqas to prevent growing incidents of theft at the hospital.

“We have just enforced the regulation asking women staff to wear the prescribed hospital uniform and carry ID cards while they are on duty inside the patients wards,” administrative director of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University told PTI at that time.

Despite being a Muslim majority country,a small number of women population wear burqas in the country but many of them,particularly the teachers use headgears at schools.