Outcry in Bangladesh over politician’s call to curb women in workforce
The proposal has sparked concerns that it would damage the country’s vital garment sector, which is dominated by female workers
Shafiqur Rahman, the chief of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, also ruled out the possibility of a woman assuming the Islamist party’s top post.
In a TV interview, Rahman said women with babies should be given the option of fewer working hours after maternity leave.
“Maternity leave is only for six months. It is not sufficient, we feel. A child never grows up in six months,” he told Al Jazeera last week, adding that a woman should be given such a choice to enable her to continue in a job without causing hardship.
In the same interview, he said women should bear children due to their physical attributes, but a woman’s parenting responsibility would limit her ability to lead his party.
The interview followed a recent social media post by him in which he also referred to the need for curbs to be placed on working women. He later deleted the post after a backlash from students and women’s groups.