Bangladesh bans women working as marriage registrars because they menstruate

Women's rights organisations in Bangladesh have reacted with anger after women were banned from working as marriage registrars because they menstruate.

Details have only just emerged of the High Court ruling, made last February, which cited “certain physical conditions” that women experience “during a certain time of the month” that disqualify them from becoming Nikah (Muslim marriage) registrars.

“Muslim marriage is a religious ceremony and has to be guided by the terms and dictates of Islam,” wrote the High Court bench justices, Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Kazi Zinat Hoque. Under Islamic scripture, menstruating women are prohibited from entering a mosque and excused from daily prayers.

The ruling also cited “practical difficulties”, including the need to travel far, using public transport, and at night, which mean it is “not ideal that the Nikah registrar should be a lady”.

Activists have slammed the verdict as unconstitutional and marking a backwards step in women’s rights.

“This is a violation of a woman's constitutional right," Naripokkho, a leading feminist group, wrote in a statement.

The High Court hearing came about after a Bangladeshi woman called Ayesha Siddqua responded to a job advertisement for marriage registrars in her home district of Dinajpur, in north-eastern Bangladesh, in 2012.

After passing the first stage of interviews, her application was rejected when it was sent to the Ministry of Law for approval. In an interview with a Bangladeshi newspaper, the Daily Star, Ms Siddqua said she was turned down because she was a woman.

Ms Siddqua later challenged this decision but last February the High Court ruled in favour of the ministry.

Egypt, which like Bangladeshi is also a Muslim-majority country, has taken a different view on employing women as marriage registrars. Here, women have been officiating over marriages since Amal Suleiman became the first to take on the position in 2008.

In Bangladesh, as in many countries, the registration of the marriage and the religious ceremony are often carried out separately, the former by a registrar and the latter by an Imam. And the legal part of marriages do not always take place in mosques, women's organisations have also pointed out.

“How is religion related to this?” asked Ms Siddiqua, who has filed an appeal against the decision, in a response.

The judgement will exacerbate existing taboos around menstruation in the country, warned Sharmin Kabir, who runs Wreetu, an NGO promoting menstrual health.

“Once a girl gets her period in Bangladesh she’s seen as impure,” she said, adding that although the particular taboos vary between different communities, the stigma attached to periods cuts across religious divides.

Many rights organisations and NGOs have been working to bring about a change in mindsets and in culture, said Ms Kabir. “But people take very seriously what the government says”.

“With this judgement all of our work, which has taken years, is now at risk”, she continued. It legitimises and justifies “ideologies that promote harmful practices and misconceptions” regarding menstruation.

The ruling will create new barriers for women in other forms of employment, said Muktasree Chakma Sathi, another women’s rights campaigner working on menstrual health advocacy.

Some institutions, particularly those which are religious-based or led by religious or conservative individuals, she said, will make use of “this ridiculous judgement” to disqualify women from jobs.

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