Dear readers, this week Your legal advisor is Ishrat Hasan, Advocate, The Supreme Court of Bangladesh. She is Managing partner of the renowned law firm namely, 'The Law Consultant', Eastern Mansion, 67/9 Pioneer Road, Kakrail, Dhaka, which professionally deals mainly with corporate law, commercial law, family law, employment and labor law, land law, banking law, constitutional law, criminal law, IPR and in conducting litigations before courts of different hierarchies. She can be reached at - cell: 01521515654 e-mail: ishrat.hasan@outlook.com
Query
I got married to a non-resident Bangladeshi last year but he never took me with him, he didn't want dowry initially but now he says he wants the flat where my parents are living and my gold jewellery. My husband wants to divorce me now because my dad refused to accept his dowry demands. I don't want to beg my husband to live with me but I want him to clear the debts incurred by my dad during the wedding as he had only criminal intentions before the wedding and he never wanted to live with me. My father has retired and feels looted as harassment started within months. I badly need your advice in this regard.
Mehzabin Khandakar
Badda, Dhaka
Opinion
Thanks for your query. Women's dignity as core value of human rights law is deeply entrenched in numerous international instruments under which Bangladesh also assumes affirmative obligations to respect and ensure this right. The Constitution of Bangladesh apparently provides sexual equality.
The modern feature of dowry means the transmissions of large sums of money, jewellery, cash and other goods from the bride's family to the groom's family. Dowry is a serious and growing problem in Bangladesh.
Mentionable numbers of women are reported to die because of dowry-related violence. One of the methods used by families who are unhappy with dowry includes acid throwing, in which concentrated acid is thrown on the bride's face to cause disfiguration and social isolation. For this dowry system divorce, doing suicide, mental and physical tortures, number of broken family are increasing day by day. It is also affecting on the new generation. In a village, most of the people think Dowry is their legal right which has to pay the daughter's family in a marriage. In a town, people think that giving dowry in a marriage creating more status in society. Dowry-related violence is particularly problematic in Bangladesh. Dowry has been one of the leading causes of torture of women in Bangladesh.
Moreover, day by day, marriage has become a kind of business and exploitation of the parents of a girl. The parents of a bride should understand that by giving dowry they may not be giving their daughter any happiness; it has been claimed that it is only increasing her misfortune. The parents of the bride are not in fact giving the dowry to their daughter but to their son-in-law and his family; this increases greed for more dowry. Parents should rather safeguard their daughters from economic deprivation and violence by educating them about their rights within marriage as the dower right.
We have the Dowry Prohibition Act-1980 which outlaws dowry with a maximum penalty of 5 years imprisonment, and safeguard from physical abuses. Besides this several pieces of legislation including the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh1972 under Article 35(5); Penal Code-1860 under Section 324, 331 gave protection against physical abuse. Recently The Women and Children Repression Prevention (Special Provision) Act- 2000 exaggerated the punishment in most cases up to death penalty for crime against women and children. You can avail the fruit of those laws by filing a complaint or report before the court or the police station against your greedy Husband.
In addition, you can also file case against your husband for fraud under Section-420 of the Penal Code where the punishment shall be imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to seven years, and shall also be liable to fine
Apart from those, you can claim your dower money and maintenance as well as stated in the Muslim Family Law Ordinance, 1961. Here, you have the absolute right to get those. Hopefully, this Advice finds you well.
