given that her childhood days, Ayesha Siddiqua has watched absolute male dominance in solemnising Muslim marriages. She all the time nurtured the dream of breaking into the guys's area via fitting a feminine Kazi in Bangladesh.
a local of Dinajpur's Fulbari, she took a bounce of faith and applied for the position of Nikah or marriage registrar. but she turned into grew to become down for being a woman. Undeterred, she hooked up a criminal problem against non secular gender discrimination to earn her right to turn into a Kazi in 2014.
A high courtroom ruling now stands between Ayesha and her dream however she is determined to continue her uphill battle for ladies's empowerment.
"i'll proceed the legal combat at the maximum level of Bangladesh in my try and assure ladies's rights," she told bdnews24.com, referring to her efforts to problem the excessive court docket verdict.
"I consider the court will rethink the ruling," Ayesha talked about as she turned into now not satisfied by the court docket's arguments.
Ayesha feels the verdict, which upheld the law ministry's decision, has the undercurrents of gender discrimination.
"i'm respectful to the legislation. but I feel a girl is being disadvantaged of her rights after being given a incorrect explanation of the count number," spoke of the 39-year-historic, who like her husband, works as a homoeopath after passing Fazil exams from Darul Sunnah Senior Siddiqia Madrasa.
Ayesha begun waging her prison fight six years in the past after the names of three girls have been proposed for the appointment as Kazi for Fulbari's wards No. 7, 8 and 9. Her name got here up first in the panel.
Registering marriages is not a govt job and a Kazi or marriage registrar can do so with a licence from the govt for a hard and fast payment.
The requirements to turn into a marriage registrar are laid out in the guidelines issued with the aid of the Ministry of legislation in 2009.
The suggestions stipulate that a candidate ought to at least have achieved the Alim assessments from a known college or madrasa registered with the Madrasa Board. Candidates have to also be between 21 and forty years of age while being a resident of the enviornment wherein they need to be the Kazi or marriage registrar.
Ayesha ticked the entire crucial containers, so why then became her application turned down?
The legislation ministry in 2014 observed it struck down Ayesha's licence application in view of the "floor reality in Bangladesh", where it's "no longer viable for girls to act as marriage registrars".
The same yr, an individual named Sikandar Ali become appointed because the Kazi of the area.
Ayesha consequently moved the high court against the resolution now not to employ her according to her gender.
The court docket then issued a rule asking why the law ministry's decision to reject the inspiration would no longer be deemed unlawful and why the appointment of Sikandar Ali may still no longer be declared out of prison authority within the easy of a supplementary petition filed later.
however in February 2020, the excessive court dominated against her and upheld the decision of the legislations ministry. The high court these days launched the total textual content of the decision, triggering a debate about gender equality.
The bench of Justice Zubayer Rahman Chowdhury and Justice Kazi Zinat Hoque followed within the verdict that the simple job of a Nikah registrar is to manage the wedding between Muslim couples, which is nearly a spiritual adventure.
Some Muslim families are conducting the marriage formalities in mosques in urban areas now because of a scarcity of house, the decision referred to.
however it should be saved in intellect that certain physical conditions of ladies avoid them from coming into the mosques and asserting their each day prayers at a definite length every month, it said.
The 'actual disqualification' (menstruation) doesn't permit them to perform many religious activities and all have to be aware that marriage is a non secular programme of the Muslims; therefore it'll be held based on the rules of Islam, the ruling added.
Contesting the high court's reasoning about a girl's physical unfitness, Ayesha argues, "durations are not a disqualification. It has been given by using the Creator."
She thinks there are no religious bars to a lady fitting a marriage registrar because the job in particular entails registering a wedding and not conducting the procedure of marriage.
"the marriage certificate carries separate signatures of a groom, a bride, groom's representative, bride's consultant, an imam and the registrar. Then how does a lady not qualify to be a wedding registrar?" she asked.
Mahmudul Hasan, Nikah registrar of Gazipur metropolis enterprise's ward No. 35, mentioned Nikah registrar and Kazi are certainly the same factor - the first one being a legal time period while the second one is spiritual.
"A Nikah registrar above all registers the marriage. And any Alem can administer the wedding whereas it is not mandatory to do the job at mosques."
Ayesha is now gearing as much as take the depend up with the optimum court in the land. lawyer Fawzia Karim, the chairman of basis for legislations and construction, who is assisting Ayesha with the attraction, stated she has bought the complete text of the high court verdict. She is making ready a plea looking for court's depart to file the enchantment.
Ayesha contends the legislation ministry guidelines issued in 2009 on the appointment of Nikah registrar, do not point out that simplest guys can do the job. Bangladesh's constitution also ensures equal rights for guys and ladies.
When girls are making strides in politics, judiciary, legislations enforcement and a lot of other professions, why then, should still the job of a registrar be exclusive to guys, she asks.
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