A radical Hindu group threatened a Christian organization in Bangladesh for allegedly promoting “activities against Hindus.”
The group Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mahajote said “terrible consequences” will happen to the Christian group Banchte Shekha (Learn to Survive) if it would not stop its activities.
The non-government organization, which promotes women’s rights and issues, is led by Angela Gomes, a Catholic and a recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award.
Gomes denied the allegation of the Hindu group in an interview with AsiaNews. “[We are] not working against Hindus,” she said, but “we work for people of all faiths.”
Gomes’ group has been in the forefront of the campaign for equal opportunities for women, including changes in the country’s inheritance laws.
Banchte Shekha has been working since 1976 to improve the socio-economic status of women and girls.
Several Hindu groups have issued statements to defend Banchte Shekha from the allegations raised by the Bangladesh Jatiya Hindu Mahajote.
Legal experts and civil society groups have been lobbying for amendments of the country’s laws to ensure equal rights for women.
They said some of Bangladesh’s laws date back to the colonial period and are holding back half the population, namely, women.
The existing Hindu inheritance law states that daughters are not equally eligible to inherit properties. Unmarried daughters and married daughters with sons can inherit, while childless widowed daughters or daughters having no sons or with no possibility of having sons are excluded.
Justice Krishna Debnath, the country’s first Hindu woman judge, has earlier pointed out that Hindu traditionalists are the main obstacle when it comes to reforming the Hindu law of inheritance.
“The government is ready to reform the law but a few parochial Hindus in the community are not in favor of reforming the law,” she said in a webinar in March.
