Custodial Laws: Insult to Women

Every year Bangladesh sees some three thousand divorces many of them resulting in heartrending separations of mothers from their children thanks to patriarchal laws which give fathers custodial rights.

The laws allow divorced women mere caretakership of sons until the age of seven and that of daughters until puberty. Many ex-husbands also succeed in forcibly taking away their younger wards from helpless mothers.

According to Bangladesh's legal system, on divorce, the father is recognised as the legal guardian of children, a provision which often results in maltreatment by stepmothers who may be burdened with the care of their own offspring.

A typical case is that of Renu, a post-graduate degree holder. When her husband divorced her two years ago to marry again, he secured custody of their five-year-old son through a family court. Two years later when the boy suffered maltreatment from his stepmother - who had delivered a child of her own meanwhile - he ran back to his mother's home.

But the father promptly accused Renu of abduction and got her arrested. Renu who was finally rescued by human rights activists can do nothing but agonise for her son as her husband has kept the case against her pending.

In Bangladesh, no child can be admitted to school unless the father's name is mentioned in the application form. Recently, in neighbouring India, courts upheld the equal right of women to act as guardians for their school-going children.

With hundreds of divorced women sharing a similar plight women's rights groups are clamouring to do away with laws which deprive children the care and affection of their natural mothers.

"The women of Bangladesh should unite to wage a movement to do away with these highly discriminatory laws," says Ela Chanda, a lawyer and human rights activist.

According to Chanda these laws are not only a violation of human rights but also an insult to womenfolk who have to cope with childbearing and infant care but do not enjoy the natural rights of motherhood.

Uniform Family Code Demanded

In poverty-ridden Bangladesh where medical facilities are meager, pregnancy and childbirth can be an ordeal for most women and often prove fatal. Every year, complications related to childbirth claim the lives of 30,000 women.

Rights activists see the problem as part of the larger issue of improving the status of women in a country steeped in patriarchy and Islamic values.

Khusi Kabir, coordinator of 'Nijera Kori' a leading non-government organisation (NGO) involved in human rights activities has demanded that the government introduce a uniform family code irrespective of religion and gender.

"A uniform family code is the only way to equal rights for women in the matter of child custody as well as in other issues that affect women such as a share in the property of parents," she said.

The subordinate status of women in society is evident in their limited say in family matters and in ineritance laws which say they can only claim half the share that a brother gets in their parents' property.

According to a UNICEF report, women in this country are exposed to violence more in their own homes than outside and are frequently subjected to mental and physical torture by husbands and in-laws. Women do not enjoy the right of choosing their life partners and often they see their husbands, chosen for them by parents or other relatives, for the first time at the nuptials.

From childhood, women are taught to unquestioningly obey orders from male family members. Marriage brings little security and husbands have cited such flimsy reasons as delay in serving food for demanding divorce.

But commoner reasons for divorce are failure to bring in sufficient dowry, or fulfill dowry commitments, failure to produce a male child, sexual maladjustment and easy availability of women for subsequent marriages.

While it is illegal for a man to take a second wife without the permission of the first, few men register subsequent marriages which makes it difficult to launch legal proceedings though there is little chance of that succeeding.

In Bangladesh's patriarchal society women can expect little support when conflicts arise and consequently have to put up with threats, violence and even illicit relationships from their husbands if they are to avoid divorce.

Rights activists says that education and empowerment alone are insufficient to change such an entrenched situation and have called for enlightenment of both men and women to ensure a future in which there is mutual respect between the sexes.
(Source: Inter-Press Service)