DHAKA: The word “virgin” must be removed from Muslim marriage certificates in Bangladesh, the country’s top court has said, a landmark verdict after campaigners challenged the “humiliating and discriminatory” term.
Under the South Asian 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,” deputy attorney general Amit Talukder told AFP.
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 which filed the case challenging the term in 2014, told AFP on Monday.
Rights groups have long criticized the term — used in certificates since they were introduced in 1961 — saying it is “humiliating and discriminatory,” and that it breaches the privacy of the woman getting married.
The judgment also ordered authorities to introduce the options “unmarried, widower or divorced” for the groom on the certificate.
Bangladesh is the world’s third-largest Muslim majority nation and nearly 90 percent of its 168 million population are Muslims.
Bangladesh court orders ‘virgin’ removed from marriage cert
Bangladesh court orders ‘virgin’ removed from marriage cert
- Bangladesh is the world’s third-largest Muslim majority nation and nearly 90 percent of its 168 million population are Muslims
Russian drone attack forces power cuts in Ukraine’s Kryvyi Rih, military says
- Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid
KYIV: Russian drones struck infrastructure in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Wednesday, forcing emergency power blackouts for more than 45,000 customers and disrupting heat supplies, military administration head Oleksandr Vilkul said.
“Please fill up on water and charge your devices, if you have the chance. It’s going to be difficult,” Vilkul said on the Telegram messaging app.
Water utility pumping stations switched to generators and water remained in the system, but there could be pressure problems.
The full scale of the attack was not immediately known. There was no comment from Russia about the strike.
Russia has repeatedly struck Ukraine’s power plants, substations and transmission lines with missiles and drones, seeking to knock out electricity and heating and hinder industry during the nearly four-year war.
Kyiv says the campaign has forced rolling outages and emergency cuts to cities across the country, as repair crews work under fire and Ukraine relies on air defenses and electricity imports to stabilize the grid.
Kryvyi Rih, a steel-and-mining hub in the Dnipropetrovsk region and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, has been hit repeatedly, with strikes killing civilians and damaging homes and industry.
The city sits close enough to southern front lines to be within strike range, while its factories, logistics links and workforce make it economically important and a key rear-area center supporting Ukraine’s war effort.
