After having reiterated his controversial speech, Shah Ahmed Shafi, ameer of Islamist group Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh, on Saturday said he was being disgraced by partially broadcasting one of his speeches, which was delivered long ago.
“I have not called women tamarinds; I just compared them with the tamarind. It’s true that whenever anyone witnesses a children chewing tamarind, his tongue becomes wet with saliva,” he said, while addressing a grand rally at Hathazari College ground in the afternoon.
“I have also compared the women with the flower. Whenever anybody sees a flower; he wants to bring it near his nose and smell it. So I have told women not to roam around naked,” he added.
He also said if anybody comes close to a beautiful woman in an enclosed situation, he would become lustful if he was a “real male.”
“I am being discredited with the campaign that I will not allow the females to be educated and have jobs, although I have not directed females to refrain from being educated. I have just directed them to maintain hijab,” he said.
He also said there was an ill campaign against them that they would persecute minorities, which he claimed was totally baseless, adding that there was a church beside the Hathazari Madrasa which had not been touched by them for the past 150 years.
Regarding the accreditation of the Qawmi madrasa certificates, he said they would accept the accreditation if the government gave it complying with their conditions.
He also said the prime minister offered him a donation for the Qawmi madrasas during a visit at Ganabhaban.
However, he had refused it, as the government would have tried to intervene in Qawmi madrasa education system after providing donation.
Junaid Babunagari, secretary general of Hefazat, said there would be thousands of corpses if the government tried to harm the Qawmi madrasas. “Qawmi madrasas will not go under the control of anyone in exchange for the certificate,” he added.
He also said they had not asked to close the garment factories down adding that they were just seeking separate workplaces for the women where the women would be able to engage in jobs maintaining hijab.
Meanwhile, they declared grand rallies on November 7 in Sylhet, November 8 in Khulna and November 15 in Dhaka.
