Bangladesh women pressured to cancel soccer amid Islamist threats

Asha Roy, 17, was excited to participate in a girls’s soccer event, however her hopes had been dashed as Islamists pressured the organisers to cancel the match in northern Bangladesh.

Shortly earlier than the sport started earlier this month, the Islami Andolan Bangladesh group introduced a protest rally in opposition to the occasion in Rangpur area, saying it was un-Islamic.

Fearing hassle, native police stepped in and the ladies’s staff members had been requested to return to their dwelling for his or her security.

“I used to be pissed off and frightened. We had by no means confronted such a state of affairs earlier than. It was disappointing that we got here again with out enjoying,” Ms Roy advised the BBC.

Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority nation, is at present present process a political transition after widespread protests ousted its authoritarian authorities final yr.

An interim administration is at present in cost however there are issues that Islamist teams, which had been pushed to the fringes, have grow to be emboldened once more.

The ladies’s soccer match was the third to be cancelled in northern Bangladesh in lower than two weeks because of the objections of non secular hardliners.

Within the Dinajpur space, roughly 70km (43 miles) west of Rangpur, Islamists protesting in opposition to a recreation clashed with locals who supported it, leaving 4 folks injured.

For women similar to Asha Roy, who come from rural areas, soccer and different sports activities are a supply of feminine empowerment and a manner out of poverty. Those that shine will be chosen to play for sponsored groups and a few go on to symbolize Bangladesh internationally.

Many women have been impressed to take up soccer because of the success of the nationwide girls’s staff, who’re thought of heroes after profitable two consecutive South Asia Soccer Championships in recent times.

Ms Roy’s teammate, Musammat Tara Moni, stated she wouldn’t cease enjoying regardless of the threats.

“It is my dream to symbolize our nationwide staff. My household helps me, so I’m not shedding hope,” the 16-year-old stated.

For his or her coach Nurul Islam, the objections got here as a shock. “I’ve taken the staff to many tournaments for the previous seven years, however it’s the primary time we have now confronted a state of affairs like this,” he stated.

The Islamists insist that the match they stopped was in opposition to their non secular values and say that they’re decided to stop any future soccer video games.

“If girls wish to play soccer, they need to cowl their whole physique, they usually can play solely in entrance of feminine spectators. Males can’t watch them play,” Maulana Ashraf Ali, the chief of the Islami Andolan Bangladesh within the Taraganj space of Rangpur, advised the BBC.

Mr Ali additionally insisted that the group “undoubtedly” need hard-line Islamic Sharia legislation in Bangladesh.

The cancellation of the ladies’s soccer matches triggered an uproar on social media, main the authorities to reorganise one among them. They’ve additionally launched an investigation into the incidents however say the worry of radicalism is exaggerated.

“There isn’t a fact within the allegations that the federal government is pandering to Islamists,” Shafiqul Alam, press secretary to interim chief Muhammad Yunus, advised the BBC.

Mr Alam identified that lots of of girls’s sports activities matches had been held as a part of a nationwide youth competition in January, and that they had been performed throughout the nation with none hassle.

Some persons are not reassured. Samina Luthfa, assistant professor of sociology within the College of Dhaka, advised the BBC the cancellation of the ladies’s soccer matches was “undoubtedly alarming”.

“The ladies of Bangladesh is not going to cease enjoying soccer and won’t cease from going to work or doing their issues,” she stated, including that “everybody will struggle” efforts to take away girls from public areas.

Different choices made by the interim authorities because it assumed energy in August in relation to Islamist extremism have additionally raised issues.

They embody revoking a ban on the nation’s largest Islamist social gathering, Jamaat-e-Islami, which was launched within the final days of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s authorities.

Jashimuddin Rahmani, the chief of banned Islamist militant group Ansarullah Bangladesh (ABT) – now often called Ansar al Islam – was launched in August after a courtroom granted him bail. He was sentenced to 5 years in jail in reference to the killing of a secular blogger in 2013, however had been saved behind bars due to different pending instances.

Based on native media reviews, a number of different folks accused of getting hyperlinks with extremist teams have additionally been given bail up to now few months.

“Although safety forces say they may monitor these launched, it will likely be tough for them to place everyone underneath surveillance given the restrictions,” says Dr Tawohidul Haque, a criminal offense analyst from the College of Dhaka.

Whereas most Bangladeshis practise average Islam and secular values dominate society, Islamic extremism just isn’t a brand new phenomenon within the nation. A decade in the past, non secular zealots focused secular bloggers, atheists, minorities, foreigners and others in a spate of assaults – killing dozens and sending others fleeing overseas.

In a single such incident, a bunch of Islamist gunmen stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery in Dhaka in 2016, killing 20 folks.

It isn’t simply girls’s soccer video games which were focused not too long ago both. Final week, dozens of Islamist college students vandalised a e-book stall at Dhaka’s well-known Ekushey E-book Honest.

The protesters had been indignant over the show a e-book by the exiled feminist creator Taslima Nasrin, who has up to now acquired demise threats from Islamist teams for what they are saying are her blasphemous writings.

Muhammad Yunus condemned the incident saying the assault “exhibits contempt for each the rights of Bangladeshi residents and for the legal guidelines of our nation.” The police are investigating.

In the meantime, one of many nation’s best-known actors, Pori Moni stated she was stopped from inaugurating a division retailer within the northern city of Tangail after reported objections from non secular teams.

“Now I am actually feeling helpless, in addition to insecure. It is a part of my job to participate in opening a showroom or an identical occasion. Nobody has stopped me all these years,” Ms Moni advised the BBC Bengali service.

Related occasions involving two different actors, Apu Biswas and Mehazabien Chowdhury, have additionally been cancelled following threats by Islamists.

Minority teams just like the Sufi Muslims say they’re additionally witnessing rising assaults on their locations of worship. Islamist extremists view Sufism as heretical.

“A couple of hundred of our shrines [mazars] and centres have been attacked up to now six months,” Anisur Rahman Jafri, Secretary Common of the Sufism Common Basis, advised the BBC.

“Now we have not seen this sort of sudden extremist assault on us for the reason that nation’s independence in 1971,” he added, warning that the nation was prone to “Talibanisation” if the state of affairs continued.

Police stated solely 40 shrines had been broken and that they’d stepped up safety round non secular websites.

The authorities have additionally been struggling to keep up legislation and order within the wake of Sheikh Hasina’s departure. Earlier this month, hundreds of protesters vandalised properties and buildings linked to Hasina and senior leaders of her Awami League social gathering.

Individuals from different teams and events, together with Islamists, joined in different demonstrations within the capital, Dhaka, and throughout the nation.

The authorities have defended the safety forces for not intervening, saying doing so would have value lives.

Rights teams have expressed concern over the safety state of affairs.

“If the federal government fails to behave, then Islamists are going to really feel emboldened. There can be extra self-censorship for ladies and women, they are going to be extra intimidated collaborating in public occasions,” Shireen Huq, a outstanding girls’s rights activist, advised the BBC.

“I’m nonetheless optimistic that this phenomenon is not going to maintain,” she added.

Further reporting from the BBC Bengali service in Dhaka