The word “virgin” must be removed from Muslim marriage certificates in Bangladesh, the country’s High Court has said, a landmark verdict after campaigners challenged the “humiliating and discriminatory” term.
Under the country’s Muslim marriage laws, a bride has to select one of three options on the certificate — whether she is a kumari (virgin), a widow or divorced.
In a brief verdict on Sunday, the court ordered the government to remove the term and replace it with “unmarried,” Bangladeshi deputy attorney general Amit Talukder said.
The court is expected to publish its full verdict by October, with the changes to the certificate expected to come into effect then.
“It is a landmark verdict,” Aynun Nahar Siddiqua, a lawyer for the groups that filed the case challenging the term in 2014, said on Monday.
Rights groups have long criticized the term — used in certificates since they were introduced in 1961 — saying that it is “humiliating and discriminatory,” and that it breaches the privacy of the woman getting married.
“It’s a ruling that gives us the belief that we can fight and create more changes for women in the future,” Siddiqua said. “We filed a writ petition because asking whether someone’s a virgin or not is against the person’s right to privacy.”
Mohammad Ali Akbar Sarker, a Muslim marriage registrar from Dhaka, said that registrars like him were waiting for the Bangladeshi Ministry of Law and Justice to officially inform them about the changes in the form.
“I have conducted many marriages in Dhaka and I have often been asked why men have the liberty to not disclose their status, but women don’t. I always told them this wasn’t in my hands. I guess I won’t be asked that question anymore,” Sarker said.
The judgement also ordered authorities to introduce the options “unmarried, widower or divorced” for the groom on the certificate.
Additional reporting Thomson Reuters Foundation
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