By Huang Yanan, Xinhua,
Dhaka : A prominent female lawyer in Bangladesh holds that in a still male-dominated society, women should be encouraged to work hard to realize real equal rights with men.
Although progress has been achieved in the past years, Bangladesh is still a male-dominated country with less women government officials, journalists and entrepreneurs, Lawyer Tania Amir said in an interview with Xinhua recently.
“In the rural areas, girls are not treated equally with boys,” she said.
Tania has been fighting for justice since she started the profession in the country in 1995 and her successful work has won the respect from all walks of life.
Tania studied law in London. After graduation in 1991, she worked in London for four years as a lawyer and then came back to Bangladesh.
“I did my first case independently. It’s a public interest case and also the first public interest case in Bangladesh,” Tania said.
In 1995 she read a story in a local newspaper telling 300 children mysteriously died after taking the same liquid medicine in some hospitals.
“The reporter who wrote the story did an investigation. He sent the liquid sample abroad to be tested and found it was unsafe,” she said.
“The reporter later found some pharmaceutical factories used unsafe but cheap materials which were bought from the market. And the Drug Administration didn’t test these liquid medicine carefully before they went on sale,” she added.
Tania said she contacted the reporter and expressed her willingness to be his lawyer if he filed a case against the Drug Administration. Then a case was filed.
“After consistent efforts, we were successful in the case. The court gave the order asking the Drug Administration to recall all the liquid medicine from the market and test them.”
“Since then the Drug Administration has been more careful when doing their job,” she said.
Tania has not only done a lot public interest cases but also given help free of cost to many poor people who have no money to pay a lawyer when engaged in a lawsuit.
Tania is also a woman activist who insists on equal rights between men and women.
With insistent efforts from women like Tania in the country for years, progress has been gained in the country. Women’s social activities are increasing.
Bangladesh has made some achievements in the field linking with women such as garment industry, education and family planning, she said.
In the country’s biggest foreign exchange earner — the garment industry, there are more than 4,000 factories employing 2.5 million workers, out of whom 85 percent are women.
Tania said more and more poor women have got employed. They are not dependent on their husbands as before. They can not only support themselves but also can support their families.
With the government policy, village girls can enjoy free education up to grade 10 and in Parliament, 30 seats are reserved for women, while the current caretaker government has drafted a Women Development Policy this year to award women and men equal inheritance rights.
Meanwhile, women in Bangladesh have also made a great contribution to family planning.
However, the woman lawyer noted that in general Bangladesh is still a male-dominated country. The whole society needs to give more concern to women issue and encourage women to work hard to realize real equal rights with men.