Bangladesh does not have enough female decision-makers at the policy level, which leads to women being neglected in society, Education Minister Dr Dipu Moni said.
She was speaking as the chief guest on Thursday at a seminar, titled "Gender Equality in Sustainable Development: Palli Karma-Sahayak Foundation (PKSF) and SDG-5", to celebrate International Women's Day 2022.
"There are many women who are working in many sectors. But today, it’s also true that those who are working for women's empowerment can’t play any significant role at the policy level although our prime minister, deputy Leader of parliament, speaker, and opposition leader are all women,” the minister said.
"The Ministry of Education is a large sector. I'm a woman who works at the ministry. There are many female teachers across the country, but they still play little part in decision-making," she said, adding that the 1972 constitution gives women equal rights.
She emphasized the National Women Development Policy of 1997, describing it as a landmark policy.
"In 1997, the policy was formulated to establish women's rights. There were a number of fundamental issues, including equal property rights for women. However, in 2005, that policy was fully abolished by the government in office at the time. But in 2011, we re-established the policy, although we were still unable to achieve the same level of success as in 1997. We have to go there again,” she explained.
The minister also said: “People believe rape and a woman's dignity are linked. However, respect and dignity do not exist in certain areas of a woman's body," she said.
"Why should a woman's life be destroyed because she was raped? Why can't she show her face in public? When she seeks legal help, why is she harassed so much more? Why should we believe that her life is over because of this?" she questioned.
Dipu Moni also mentioned that Bangla language is not respectful to women.
"Language has its patriarchal nature, which is why it is being used by this society to subjugate women year after year. There are thousands of words and comments in Bangla which are offensive to women. So, we need to make significant linguistic modifications as well,” she continued.