Ground realities

Many readers may not have detected the almost ground-breaking approach taken by Syed Badrul Ahsan in his July 24 column “When women are endangered species.” While the subject is not new anymore, it is almost unheard of in the media in Muslim countries to argue for gender equity without regaling the reader with the same, worn-out selective history lessons. What happened in 1013 is of little relevance to the world of 2013, and I appreciate Mr. Badrul Ahsan courageously pointing it out with examples. This is Bangladesh where the supreme law of the land is a Constitution that, for all its flaws, mandates the equal treatment of men and women before the law. Unlike Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan, our laws do not use gender as a qualifier for which citizen is able to wear which clothes, undertake what professions, travel in whose company, and testify in which court cases. Those pseudo-religious figures who encourage their audiences to act contrary to that Constitution and its subsidiary laws are deserving the contempt that is incumbent upon those who incite willful lawbreaking.