Bangladesh: Islamists Stop Two Women’s Football Matches – OpEd
The increasing clout of Islamist radicals in Bangladesh after the installation of the interim government headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus came to light on Wednesday when a women’s football friendly match in the northern town of Joypurhat Bangladesh had to be cancelled following fierce protests by students from religious seminaries.
The students were joined by Islamist radical activists in damaging the venue, the second such incident in as many days.
The northwestern city of Joypurhat was due to host a friendly football match on Wednesday between its district women’s team and another from nearby Rangpur, but the venue and its facilities were vandalised, local organisers said.
“The Islamists in our area gathered in a field and marched toward the venue. There were hundreds of them,” tournament organiser Samiul Hasan Emon told media. “The situation worsened, and we had to cancel the match, for which tickets had been sold.”
Abu Bakkar Siddique, the headmaster of a local religious school, said he had led the protests with his students and teachers and those from several other religious schools.
“Girls football is un-Islamic,” he said. “It is our religious duty to stop anything that goes against our beliefs,” Siddique was quoted as telling media.
The incident happened after another match was postponed in the nearby city of Dinajpur on Tuesday following a similar demonstration by protesters wielding sticks.
“The match had to be suspended half an hour before the kick off. We had to quickly move the girls to a safer place,” teacher Moniruzzaman Zia told media.
Local government officer Amit Roy said four people were injured when protesters and those opposing them were involved in brickbatting.
Wednesday’s incident was swiftly condemned by the Bangladesh Football Federation (BFF).
“Football is for everyone, and women have full rights to participate in it,” BFF media manager Sadman Sakib said in a statement.
Women football has become very popular in Bangladesh after the country’s women team first won the South Asian Football Federation (SAFF) in 2022 and then successfully defended it two years later. The women footballers like Krishnakali Sarkar, Rituparna Chakma, Monica Chakma, Sabina Khatun and Masura Parvin became instant heroines in a country starved of sporting glory. They were accorded tumultuous reception on return from Nepal, holding aloft the trophy in open truck.
Many saw the victory of the women football team as a success of women empowerment in Bangladesh, so far a moderate Muslim nation, where Bengali language and culture were seen as markers of national identity .
“Attempts to stop women football smacks of Taliban-style efforts to restrict women to the household space. If the radical Islamist fringe gets away with this, they will be emboldened to deny women jobs and education,” said Barrister Tania Amir, a leading advocate of women empowerment in Bangladesh. “Bengali women will never accept a Taliban-type dispensation. Our empowerment cannot be compromised by religious hardliners.”
Another top women journalist and rights activist Masuda Bhatti lambasted the Yunus administration for “putting the clock back on women empowerment”.
“There was a discernible progress in women empowerment in the last 15 years of Awami League rule. But now there is a vicious effort to deny women their rights. On this question, a Nobel laureate like Yunus seems to be on the same page with religious fanatics like Azheri and Sayadee,” Bhatti posted on her Facebook account.
Awami League leaders have also lashed out at the Yunus-led interim government for “allowing a free run to Islamist radicals” since August.
“This is an illegal government installed by force and violence. Bangladesh’s constitution has no place for an interim government but Yunus has no intention of holding early elections and wants to enjoy power without a peoples mandate,” says Awami League spokesperson Dr Selim Mahmud, who taught law in Dhaka University.
Mahmud contends that after the ouster of the Awami League government headed by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August last year, there has been surge in Islamic radicalism.
The interim government headed by Nobel Laureate Mohammed Yunus has pandered to the Islamist radicals by lifting the ban on Jamaat-e-Islami and releasing scores of convicted Muslim terrorists like Jasimuddin Rahmani, Chief of Ansarullah Bangla Team (ABT) , which is known to be affiliated to the Al Qaida. The ABT has in the past threatened media companies with dire consequences if they continued to employ women journalists.
Many of the top student leaders who led the movement to oust Hasina are known for their close links to banned radical group Hizb-ut Tahrir. Some of these leaders like Mahfuz Alam have been inducted into the interim government by Chief Adviser Muhammed Yunus, as a payback for their role installing the Nobel laureate as the head of the interim government.
The Yunus administration has also warmed up to Pakistan, no longer insisting as the Hasina government had done on a formal apology by Islamabad for the horrendous atrocities inflicted on the Bengalis by the Pakistan army and his cohorts. Bangladesh official statements claimed 3 million Bengalis were killed and quarter of a million women were raped by Pakistani soldiers during the eight-month long secessionist campaign that led to the emergence of an independent Bangladesh.
There has been a flurry of high level military exchanges between Pakistan and Bangladesh, in which even production of Pakistani ordnance in Bangladesh has been discussed.
On the other hand, relations between India and Bangladesh, at its best during the Hasina government, has nosedived. The Yunus government is miffed over India providing shelter to Hasina and demanded her extradition to stand trial for dozens of cases filed against her. India is upset over increasing atrocities against Bangladesh’s religious minorities and the release of convicted Islamist radicals who could pose threats to India’s security.