Rights organisation Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangha (BNPS) has demanded appropriate steps against Bogura-7 MP Rezaul Karim Bablu for his speech at the parliament that feminists are to blame for the rise of rape incidents across the country. BNPS Executive Director Rokeya Kabir sent a letter to Speaker Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in this regard yesterday.

The letter requests the Speaker to remove the speech of Rezaul Karim from the Parliament's minutes.

On November 17, MP Bablu said, "In the name of women's liberation, feminists are continuing to make women vulnerable to rape. This has increased the acceptability of rape so much among rapists that they are encouraged to commit the act."

He even advocated the implementation of the "tamarind theory (women are like tamarinds, men will salivate at the sight of them, and so they must remain covered)" of late Hefajat-e-Islam supremo Ahmad Shafi.

BNPS said, "We strongly protest such utterances as his speech was against the spirit of our constitution, Liberation War and equal rights of women and men."

The organisation demanded necessary action against the lawmaker and asked the Speaker to not let such incidents reoccur.

In the letter, BNPS also thanked the Parliament for passing the Women and Children Repression Prevention (Amendment) Bill, 2020, which added death penalty as the highest punishment for rape.