A viral Facebook post reported that, Maulana Khaled Saifullah of Charkadia Union at an annual waz mahfil held in Aulianogor Madrasha ground, gave a speech where he imposed several Islamic restrictions on girls about using mobile phones and making burka wearing mandatory for them. Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) strongly condemns and protests such derogatory statements.
According to media reports, the Union Parishad Chairman Maulana Khaled Saifullah threatened to take action against the parents if they send their daughters without a burka including imposing various other restrictions at an annual waz mahfil held at Aulianagar Madrasa ground in Charkadia Union on 11, 12, and 13 February 2022. The speech went viral on Facebook. ASK thinks that such utterances by a responsible individual such as the Chairman of the Union Council, in the name of promoting Islamic education, violate women’s right to equality guaranteed in the article 28(2) of the Constitution, principle of non-discrimination enunciated in the human rights instruments, Bangladesh’s international obligation under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), and all the National Action Plan adopted by the Government, the Women’s Development Policies, gender equality, and the Sustainable Development Goals. While the government of Bangladesh is trying to ensure equal rights and equality of women through undertaking various measures, such statements utterly disregard the stance of the government and various laws and policy frameworks in this regard. ASK believes that the chairman has breached the essence of the oath of allegiance to the people as an elected representative, and requests to take prompt action against him.

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