HAF Joins Prominent Bangladesh Human Rights Groups at United Nations Panel: Highlight Abuse Against Minority Women in Bangladesh

March 6, 2009 (New York, NY)--The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) joined the Human Rights Congress for Bangladesh Minorities (HRCBM) and other prominent NGO's in addressing a panel discussion on violence against minority women and girls in Bangladesh at the United Nations on March 6. The meeting brought together NGO's in consultative relationships with the United Nations and was arranged as a part of the parallel sessions of the 53rd conference of the Commission on the Status of Women. HAF's Director of Public Policy, Ishani Chowdhury represented the Foundation at the conference that inlcuded North American leaders of HRCBM, several academic experts on Bangladesh and the Venerable Bimal Bhikku, a Buddhist monk from the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.

 

Often harrowing in their depictions, the panelists detailed abuses of Hindu and Buddhist women and girls in today's Bangladesh solely on account of their religions. Pressure to convert to Islam, the use of rape as a tool for humilation and the Vested Property Act that dispossesses Hindus of their properties were among many issues discussed. 

"Bangladesh is a land where the Buddha himself visited and stupas were built heralding the peaceful coexistence of a new faith alongside the ancient Hindu tradition," said Ishani Chowdhury during her address. "Sadly, today it is also a land spiraling to a path of intolerance for non-Islamic faiths, lack of respect and justice towards its female population and the inability to coexist in an ever shrinking global village."

Chowdhury went on to provide several case examples of girls as young as fifteen who were subject to gang rape or kidnappings due to their faith taken from 306 specific incidents documented in the Foundation's annual human rights report for 2008 that is set to be released next month. By some estimates Hindus have overall been dispossessed of 2.2 million acres of land--whose monetary value is more than half of the Bangladesh gross domestic product. 

Venerable Bhikku focused on the plight of the native non-Muslim inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, their forcible displacement and government funded migration of Bengali Muslims into their region. The Bangladesh government is currently propagating a "One Bangla, One Culture" campaign that Venerable Bhikku argued was tantamount to a government decree of cultural annihilation.

"As a Bengali Hindu, I am alarmed to see the trend toward radical Islamic fundamentalism in Bangladesh as Hindus flee villages every day," Chowdhury added. "If this trend continues, I may never have a chance to visit the land of my ancestors, but it will be an even greater loss to the world, as a society of such an ancient heritage plunges into the depths of exclusivist intolerance."

The HRCBM holds consultative status with the United Nations, and provides on-the-ground reports from Bangladesh to HAF that are often published in the Foundation's annual human rights report. The Commision on the Status of Women's session included a large program of parallel events or activities organized outside the formal program of the Commission to provide an opportunity for U.N. Member States and NGO's to focus on critical issues during the international 53rd conference.