Anbarasan Ethirajan
BBC News
Provided
Asha Roy was to participate in a football tournament against which the Islamists recently protested
Asha Roy, 17, was delighted to participate in a women’s football tournament, but his hopes were destroyed when the Islamists forced the organizers to cancel the match in northern Bangladesh.
Shortly before the start of the match earlier this month, the Islami group Andolan Bangladesh announced a protest rally against the event in the Rangpur region, saying that it was not Islamic.
Fearing from trouble, local police intervened and the members of the women’s team were invited to return home for their safety.
“I was frustrated and frightened. We had never faced such a situation before. It was disappointing that we came back without playing,” Ms. Roy told the BBC.
Bangladesh, a Muslim majority nation, is currently undergoing a political transition after general demonstrations have ousted its authoritarian government last year.
An interim administration is currently in charge, but it is feared that the Islamist groups, which had been pushed on the sidelines, be embarrassment again.
The women’s football match was the third to be canceled in the north of Bangladesh in less than two weeks due to the objections of religious wrinkles.
In the Dinajpur region, about 70 km (43 miles) west in Rangpur, Protestant Islamists against a game clashed with residents who supported it, leaving four people injured.
For girls like Asha Roy, who come from rural areas, football and other sports are a source of female empowerment and a way to get out of poverty. Those that shine can be selected to play for sponsored teams and some represent Bangladesh internationally.
Many girls have been inspired to occupy football thanks to the success of the national women’s team, who are considered heroes after winning two consecutive football championships in South Asia in recent years.
Ms. Roy’s teammate, Musammat Tara Moni, said she wouldn’t stop playing despite the threats.
“It’s my dream of representing our national team. My family supports me, so I don’t lose hope,” said the 16 -year -old.
For their coach Nurul Islam, objections were a surprise. “I have taken the team to many tournaments in the past seven years, but this is the first time that we have faced a situation like this,” he said.
Tomal Rahman
Football is a source of female empowerment for young Banglades
The Islamists insist that the match they arrested was against their religious values and say they are determined to prevent future football matches.
“If women want to play football, they should cover their whole bodies and they can only play in front of spectators. Men cannot watch them play”, Maulana Ashraf Ali, the head of Islami and the Bangladesh and the Bangladesh in the Taraganj region in Ranpur, BBC told.
Mr. Ali also insisted that the group wanted to “definitively” the Islamic Sharia law hard in Bangladesh.
The cancellation of women’s football matches caused an uproar on social networks, leading the authorities to reorganize one of them. They also launched an investigation into incidents, but say that the fear of radicalism is exaggerated.
“There is no truth in the allegations that the government complies with Islamists,” Shafiqul Alam, acting chief Muhammad Yunus, told the BBC Shafiqul Alam.
Mr. Alam stressed that hundreds of female sports matches took place as part of a national youth festival in January and that they were played across the country without any problem.
Some people are not reassured. Samina Luthfa, assistant professor of sociology at the University of Dacca, told the BBC that the cancellation of women’s football matches was “definitively alarming”.
“The women of Bangladesh will not stop playing football and will not stop going to work or doing their business,” she said, adding that “everyone will fight” to withdraw women from public spaces .
Sohel Raana
In Dinajpur, Islamist demonstrations against women’s football have encountered resistance in certain regions
Other decisions made by the acting government, because it assumed power in August in relation to Islamist extremism, has also raised concerns.
They include the dismissal of a ban on the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-E-Islami, which was introduced in the last days of the government of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Jashimuddin Rahmani, the leader of the Militant Islamist prohibited group Ansarullah Bangladesh (ABT) – now known as Ansar al Islam – was released in August after a court granted him a deposit. He was sentenced to five years in prison as part of the murder of a secular blogger in 2013, but had been kept behind bars due to other pending cases.
According to local media, several other people accused of having links with extremist groups have also been released on deposit in recent months.
“Although the security forces say they will monitor liberated people, it will be difficult for them to put everyone under surveillance given the limits,” said Dr. Tawohidul Haque, criminal analyst of the University of Dacca.
While most Bangladais practice moderate Islam and secular values dominate society, Islamic extremism is not a new phenomenon in the country. Ten years ago, religious fanatics targeted secular bloggers, atheists, minorities, foreigners and others in a series of attacks – kill dozens and send other people fleeing abroad.
In one of these incidents, a group of Islamist armed men stormed the Holey craft bakery in Dacca in 2016, killing 20 people.
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Actor Pori Moni says that she was recently prevented from opening a store due to religious objections
It is not only the women’s football games that have been targeted recently either. Last week, dozens of Islamist students vandalized a book stand at the famous Ekushey Book Fair in Dacca.
The demonstrators were angry with the exhibition of a book by the feminist author exiled Taslima Nasrin, who in the past received death threats from Islamist groups for what they say to be his blasphemous writings.
Muhammad Yunus condemned the incident saying that the attack “shows a contempt for the rights of Bangladais citizens and for the laws of our country”. The police investigate.
Meanwhile, one of the most famous actors in the country, Pori Moni said that she had been prevented from inaugurating a department store in the city of northern Tangail after reporting objections from religious groups.
“Now, I really feel helpless, as well as insecurity. It is part of my work to participate in the opening of an exhibition hall or a similar event. No one stopped me all These years, “Ms. Moni told BBC Bengali service.
Similar events involving two other actors, Apu Biswas and Mehazabien Chowdhury, were also canceled following threats by Islamists.
Minority groups like Sufi Muslims say they also attend growing attacks against their places of worship. Islamist extremists consider Sufism as heretical.
“A hundred of our sanctuaries (Mazars) and centers have been attacked in the past six months,” the BBC Anisur Rahman, secretary general of the Universal Sufism Foundation, told the BBC.
“We have not seen this kind of sudden extremist attack against us since the country’s independence in 1971,” he added, warning that the country risked “Talibanization” if the situation continued.
Police said only 40 sanctuaries had been damaged and that they had intensified security on religious sites.
The authorities also had trouble maintaining the law and the order following the departure of Sheikh Hasina. Earlier this month, thousands of demonstrators vandalized houses and buildings linked to Hasina and senior leaders of her Awami League party.
People from other groups and parties, including Islamists, have joined other demonstrations in the capital, Dacca and across the country.
The authorities defended the security forces not to intervene, saying that it would have cost lives.
The rights defense groups have expressed their concern about the security situation.
“If the government does not act, the Islamists will feel embraced. There will be more self -censorship for women and girls, they will be more intimidated by participating in public events,” said Shireen Huq, an eminent Activist for women’s rights, at The The BBC.
“I am always optimistic that this phenomenon does not support,” she added.
Additional BBC Bengali service reports in Dacca
