Hefazat-e-Islam chief Shah Ahmed Shafi violated the constitution – which promotes equal rights for men and women – by making derogatory comments about women, said State Minister for Women and Children’s Affairs Meher Afroz Chumki.
“The government is thinking about taking legal action against Shafi, as he violated the constitution,” said the state minister while talking to reporters in an urgent press briefing at the conference room of the ministry on Sunday.
Calling Shafi “mentally sick,” Chumki said: “Shah Ahmad Shafi insulted not only women through his comments, but men as well.”
She also highlighted that Islam gave women the right to run businesses and work at jobs.
Hefazat boss Shafi, in a recent speech that has been widely circulated on social media, made indecent remarks about women and likened women to the “mouth-watering fruit” tamarind.
Shafi in his lecture said his statements were quoted from the Qur'an and that he was following the directives of the Almighty.
He said: “Sura Ahazab [in the Quran] says [women] should stay at home… Your duty is to stay inside your husband’s house and safeguard his property. Your primary duty is to stay home and look after your family and children only. Do not go out even for shopping.”
Shafi asked men to educate girls only up to class four or five. He said the girls need only as much education as to be able to handle the accounts of their husbands’ earnings.
The video of Shafi showed him speaking at an Islamic conference at Hathazari in Chittagong, where he is the principal of a Qawmi madrasa.
A person named Akash Malik uploaded the video on July 6. It was distributed by Al-Arab Enterprise of Madrasa Market in Hathazari.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and a number of women’s rights leaders have lambasted Shafi for his derogatory comments about women.