Denied Property Right of Transgenders in Bangladesh

SOURAV AND HUSSAIN

Social convention says there are two types of people based on their chromosome and genitalia: men and women. Charles Darwin’s writings on sexual selection reaffirms, only these two sexes exist for the purpose of reproduction. But in fact, various cultures have long recognized members who buck the biological binary. These people are neither man nor woman; or both; or people with male body and female behaviour or vice versa. Today there are many populations with alternative identities, such as hijras in South Asia, kathoeys in Thailand, and muxes in Mexico. Surprisingly, there also remains state like Iran that does not recognise alternative genders and legalise sex reassignment surgery.

Though the concepts of human rights and equal rights have been a matter of 20th century, only recently has the fight for legal recognition and respect of a ‘third category of gender’ along with male and female gender has begun to bear fruit. The terminology not only categories itself as third but also makes a superiority and inferiority between the rest two genders identity. From ancient Greece to digital Bangladesh, the political, cultural and legal emergence of a complex, controversial term, ‘third gender’ has not been so easy. 

However, ‘Hijra’ or mostly male to female transgenders have a long history in South Asia.

The saga of plights of hijras, a community that includes intersex people – those born with both male and female biological traits, transgender people – those whose gender identity does not match their sex assigned birth, eunuchs, unix and even cross-dressers have a long history in this region which got legal shape by enactment of the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 during the colonial era. This piece of legislation tagged them as genetically criminal which ultimately condemned the dignity of transgender people, humiliating them in social echelons and consequently forcing their family to separate them form society. Eventually they had adopted begging, prostitution and other questionable professions for their survival. This Act was repealed in 1949 but exploitation and discrimination towards them continued. 

On this note we should remind ourselves, the Nepal Supreme Court (2007) was the first in this south-east Asia region to officially recognise the third gender people. At least 10,000 hijras currently live in Bangladesh, according to national statistics, but the number can be 10 times higher. They have had the right to vote since 2009. In November 2013, the government announced the recognition of "hijra" as a third gender category in all national documents and passports. But no progress has been made so far to ensure the rights of the “third gender” citizens of Bangladesh. Even severe allegations rise from them that basic rights like access to public toilets and burying after death are also being denied due to the only reason of their unique gender identity.

Various rights groups are continuously pressurizing the stakeholders to eliminate the social stigma towards transgender community and ensure equal civil rights to merge them within the mainstream. Like many other basic rights, transgender people are also deprived from inheriting property. However, the much-needed discussion on right to inherit property of a transgender person is highly neglected in this territory. Alike most south Asian countries, also in Bangladesh being biologically non-binary, i.e. neither male or female, is socially considered to be a "gender disorder", hence at the birth or early childhood, most of the parents get rid of their transgender babies which also in the long run influence to form a mentality in both parents and transgender children that s/he is not a part of that family, hence not entitled to inherit property.

However, by national law none can be deprived of getting his/her ancestral property due to their gender identity only. We should be mindful of the fact that the principle of equality and non-discrimination along with human dignity and social justice has been incorporated under the Constitution of Bangladesh. Moreover article 27 guarantees 'equality before law' and 'equal protection of law' while article 28 prohibits any discrimination only on the grounds of sex, gender, race, place of birth, religion etc. Rather this apex law of the soil, empowers government to take special initiative in favour of underdeveloped and marginal people. Hence denying right to inherit property from family on the basis of purely generic non-conformed gender identity is a clear violation of constitution, the supreme charter of the land. 

Depending on the type of law the state has, Inheritance law governs the rights of a decedent's survivors to inherit property. However, the share of property is highly dominated by gender identity of each person according to religions which are also discriminatory. Nonetheless, State cannot deny one’s basic rights to inherit property by alleging the absence of provision in religion merely. If the religion is silent on this point, then the State must take initiative to fulfil its constitutional obligation not to differently treat anyone and to ensure equality among it's citizens. It would be erroneous to forget that every human has right to choose his/her gender identity and the State cannot discriminate anyone based on such issue.

However, in 2014, the Law Commission of Bangladesh has recommended the Government to legislate the draft Elimination of Discrimination Act which is under active consideration of the government now. The draft includes discrimination against any individual and community and the grounds for discrimination are religion, faith, community, race, caste, custom, culture, occupation, ethnic originality, gender (including transgender), sexual orientation, disability, pregnancy, marital status, place of birth etc. It suggests punishment for creating obstacles in getting inheritance property rights up to ten years imprisonment or ten lac taka fine or with both. Regrettably we have yet to notice any development regarding upholding rights of third gender community while government shows its concern to eliminate discrimination from the society.

In addition, neither any of the law having force in the country prohibits transgender persons’ from inheriting property nor any religious practice banned them from getting property. Rather both the national law and religious rules remained long silent on this matter. Our conservative society has only argument in hand that there is no precise provision of distribution of property to the transgender or Hijra in religion, but this cannot be an acceptable argument to snatch away individual’s such significant basic rights with huge monetary value. 

Therefore, the State must come forward to uphold a legitimate right of a community and must arrange a mechanism to ensure their property right. It's worth mentioning here that in December 2009, the Supreme Court of Pakistan ordered that the government shall officially recognise a separate gender for Pakistan's hijra community, which includes transgendered people, in much discussed Khaki v Rawalpindi case. The same court also ordered the authority to take effective initiative for non-binary citizens' right to inheritance, education, marriage, registration for identity, voting etc. Besides this, in August 2017 two bills aimed at achieving equal rights for the transgender community have been tabled by Pakistan’s National Assembly. The bills seek to safeguard the rights of trans people “as par with other citizens and residents of the country” by amending the Pakistan Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Bill 2017 has also been introduced. The proposed legislation would make it illegal for transgender people to be denied of property inheritance, education, and access to housing. The law, if enacted, would also forbid anyone from harassing or discriminating on the basis of gender identity.

Therefore, this is high time for Bangladesh to legislate a new piece of law to ensure their equality, all sorts of rights including right to inheritance of property and to eliminate exploitation and discrimination from every sphere of their life in order to facilitate social acceptance of this community and access to State provided social services. Additionally, in absence of any religious edict the legislature may make mandatory provision for the parents to gift or make a will of certain portion of property for their transgender children.

MR. SOURAV IS PURSUING LLM IN INTERNATIONAL ENERGY LAW AND POLICY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF STIRLING, UK. He is also an Assistant Professor & Coordinator, Department of Law, Dhaka International University, Dhaka, Bangladesh; Advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh; Legal Researcher & Activist. His personal blog is: www.legalviewsofsourav.blogspot.com and facebook profile is: raisul.sourav

MS. HUSSAIN IS A BARRISTER AT LAW (THE HONOURABLE SOCIETY OF LINCOLN’S INN). She is also an Advocate at Dhaka Judges’ Court, Legal Researcher and, Equality and Human Rights Activist. Her personal blog is: www.farzanashumona.co.uk and facebook profile is: farzana.shumona

Published on the Young Observer of the Daily Observer on 18 January 2018 at page 8 & 9.

The Culture of Higher Education in the UK

United Kingdom (UK) is one of the major destinations for our higher education since colonial period. We all know prominent figures like Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Michael Madhusudan Dutt and many others went to the UK from this region for their higher education and career. At that time, people returned from the UK after ending their education were called as “Bilet Ferot” which dignified their social status. Still, the trend remains the same due to world-class education, high quality of graduates, good employability rate, standard research, famous teachers including Nobel laureates, top-ranked universities etc.

Apart from these, the overall educational environment distinguishes UK from Bangladesh. One can get real flavor of education from here which we don’t usually get in our country due to many factors. However, during my short stay in the UK for higher educational purpose, I noticed some unique characteristics of their higher education. Nevertheless, those may be negligible in the eye of others but all of them contributed to reach today’s standard together. Let I share some of my academic and non-academic experiences of UK’s higher education.

Students’ Union: Each and every universities of UK must have a students’ union. It is the rule to set up a university and they can’t imagine a university without having students’ union activity. There is no formal political activity inside the university, but the students would be able to uphold their interest through the union. Students’ union is mainly responsible to represent students in decision-making process. Every year there will be an election to elect the executive body. The union generally negotiates to protect the interest of the students with the university. In addition, they also operate various surveys about the services of the university and the union as well. Often, they organize various skill development programmes for the students. There are also union shops where students may employ as a part-time worker.  Further, there are various societies under the union where students can join according to their choice. There will be one annual general meeting and other meetings where general students can cast their vote to pass any resolution.

Academic Affairs: From whole semester’s class schedule to exam date, everything is well designed and preplanned in the UK. Typically most of the study materials are uploaded at the beginning of the semester on the university’s distinct learning portal. There are clear policies everywhere like exam policy, students’ leave policy, exam exonerating policy, pregnancy policy, what may constitute academic misconduct etc. Students are expected to learn the materials earlier and participate in class. Everything is well informed in advance and every opportunity is equal to all. In addition, all the examinations are not only written rather it varies on the nature of the module. However, module representatives will get formal recognition after successful completion of their responsibilities throughout the course. Apart from the teachers’ evaluation at the end of the semester, the module representative together with the module coordinator needs to prepare a students’ feedback report on the basis of the feedback given by the students and further decisions relating to improvement of that module will be taken on the basis of that.

Use of Email: Every student has official email address and all university communications will be made through that address. Additionally, every student has a personal tutor who will primarily responsible to deal with all academic aspects of that student. However, if anybody needs to consult any teacher beyond class hour, then s/he has to create an appointment with that teacher via email earlier. Unlike Bangladesh, once the appointment has been created, the teacher will maintain the schedule except any inconvenience occurs at that time. In that case, s/he normally seek apology and offer another time. Teachers are very friendly and cooperative in solving academic matters here as there are separate divisions to deal with financial, emotional and employment matters. Additionally, they are very timely and responsible in class.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is regarded as serious academic misconduct and punishment of which may range from warning to expulsion from the university depending on the gravity. All academic works must be tested by plagiarism detecting software before submission.

Accommodation: There are two types of accommodation i.e. on campus and off campus run under the university authority. These accommodations can also be divided into many categories e.g. undergraduate accommodation, postgraduate accommodation, family accommodation, male, female, mixed, non-alcoholic, non-smoking etc. However, male and female can reside in same house in UK students’ accommodation. The living environment is very quiet and calm, and none can create any nuisance that may disturb others. If anyone makes any complaint or if anybody infringes any condition like smoking in the room, late night party without authorization, living with guest etc. then the authority will take action which may lead to cancellation of accommodation. The houses are furnished with furniture and necessary electronic machineries including washing machine, refrigerator, microwave oven, vacuum cleaner etc. Each room is allotted to one student only for a fixed tenure according to course duration. So, there is no scope of stay beyond. However, accommodation services often conduct survey about the satisfaction of the resident and response reasonably while making any complaint to them.

Thanks and sorry: You shall listen these couple of terms so many times in a day in the UK. That is why they are regarded as most civilized nation all over the world. Everybody will tell you thank you after every event and if somebody is not able to assist you, s/he will start the sentence with I’m wondering/I’m afraid instead of directly saying you sorry. Moreover, in that event, that person approaches you in such a way that you’ll rather feel embarrass for his/her inability to do so. Another interesting thing is when someone enter into a room and sees you are coming to that room, s/he will keep the door open until your entrance. This is a normal courtesy to them.

Harassment: The university takes any kind of harassment including bullying, sexual harassment, racist uttering etc. very seriously. Both the university and union are doing survey on it regularly and these are handled very sensitively. That is why no teacher is allowed to involve with any kind of emotional relationship with the students during their studentship. Likewise, students are also not allowed to take part in any kind of violent activity. However, pet and kiss are common phenomena in this country. Any person normally can kiss his/her loving one anywhere.

All these little attributes together contribute to enhance the quality of higher education in the UK and still they can attract the students around the globe to go there. Nevertheless, higher education is also a big business there, hence they are very conscious to maintain the standard.

 Published on the Daily Observer (Young Observer) on 11 January 2018

Write a Conclusive Conclusion

We all need to write essay, article or at least need to answer question in exam. It is undebated true that every write up has a conclusion as everything has an end. However, writing a convincing conclusion is not always an easy task. Usually conclusion portraits your finishing thoughts on that particular matter and it is very significant to present an ending with a vibrant writing. Moreover, final part is also your last chance to make an impression to your reader(s). Hence you should know how to write an attractive conclusion. Although there is no formula rather it’s your skills and creative way to give a satisfaction to your reader.

Often people struggle to write a definite conclusion and it becomes weak while losing its track due to many reasons including repetition, equivocation, go off on a tangent, take on an afterthought, introduction of a new thought and so on. However, many people like recommend some actions to be done along with the conclusion. There is no wrong with that, but recommendation portion must be separated from the conclusion as both have individual significance.

As there are too many ways to go wrong, hence you should always be cautious in drawing your conclusion. So, making of a clear-cut plan is very important. Think how can you give a clear picture of your write up to your reader. Frequently, people are only reading the introduction and the conclusion to get a conception at the first instance. Hence, you should be steady in concluding your thoughts as usually we are doing hurry at this stage due to stress, time constraint, lack of thoughts etc. That is why, think about the ending all through the writing and if possible, provide a foreshadowing where necessary. This will assist you to provide a sense of natural conclusion rather than implemented one. Instead, you can through a question at the starting and can put your final decision at the ending.

Moreover, it’s a good technique to terminate by shedding some light of hope in your conclusion. In addition, you can invite further thinking on the issue from your reader at the finishing. Alternatively, you can something to be inquisitive to explore further on the sector. Otherwise, you can put your judgment or concrete decision if the nature of the essay ask that. Actually, it is mainly the nature of your write up which will ultimately tell you what need to be done at the conclusion. Therefore, make yourself clear earlier in this regard.

However, your ending must match your purpose of writing and it should be in proportionate to the rest of the work. Nevertheless, it would be a worthy way to invest your time to read some notable conclusions from a writer’s perspective that you like most to learn how to write a good conclusion. Deeply look into the way they followed to finish. Then you would be able to think best way to rap your thoughts in more conveniently. Nonetheless, still I do a lot of mistakes in drawing a decisive conclusion; hence my final advice to you: try to learn from your errors. Interestingly, I’m going to finish my this write up by giving you some suggestions what should you do and what should not do in writing a better conclusion instead of sketching a good conclusion!

What should do:

Use new language instead of what you already using in your work;

You should also show critical thinking skills by reflecting on the significance of what you’ve written in a new light;

Leave the reader to consider the larger implications of your argument;

Try to make a relationship between introduction and conclusion. What you are saying to your reader at the beginning and what actually we are doing.

What should not do:

Conclusion is more than a summary;

Do not call for a different thing in your conclusion;

Do not make it irrelevant by losing coherence with other parts.

[The writer acknowledges different sources of information with gratitude.]

Published on the Young Observer of the Daily Observer on 4 January 2018.