Women can never be chief of Jamaat-e-Islami, Shafiqur tells Al Jazeera
Regarding how many women Jamaat has nominated for the national election, the party’s ameer said, “In the parliamentary election, not a single one. But we are preparing."
Jamaat-e-Islami Ameer Shafiqur Rahman has said that women cannot be the chief of the party, citing what he described as God-given differences between men and women.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, when asked, "Could a woman become the head of the Jamaat?" Shafiqur Rahman responded, "It's not possible. It's not possible because Allah made everyone in its own entity. Because you will never be able to bear a child.''
He added, "We will never be able to feed our breast to a child. This is God given. And there are some differences between men and women. What Allah made, we cannot change it."
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Regarding how many women Jamaat has nominated for the national election, the party's ameer said, "In the parliamentary election, not a single one. But we are preparing. We have already participated in local government elections where our sisters contested and succeeded. But in future we are preparing for that in Parliament also."
Shafiqur added, "You will not see any substantial number (of women) in any other parties also because this is a cultural entity in Bangladesh. (But) we are getting prepared for that."
During the interview, the journalist challenged Jamaat's stance, saying, "Fascinating. You're saying that they can't be the head of an organisation while they can be the prime minister of a country of 170 million people. So clearly women are capable of leadership positions."
In response, Shafiqur Rahman said, "Even most of the countries in the world did not consider this feasible. This is the reality of the world."
When the journalist countered by pointing out that many countries, including Bangladesh, have had women leaders, Shafiqur Rahman replied, "Few countries."
The discussion then turned to Jamaat-e-Islami's past political alliance with the BNP, during which Begum Khaleda Zia served as prime minister.
Asked whether he thought Khaleda Zia did a good job as prime minister, the Jamaat Ameer responded, "It's not our decision. It's their party's decision."
