of fundamentalist censors. Women’s rights groups
also defended Nasreen’s rights to free speech. In the
hands of the Hindu Right, the rhetoric of freedom
of expression was deployed to construct the Mus-
lim “other” as the violator of democratic rights and
to deflect attention from the similar absence of a
respect for free expression within its own ranks.
The Hindu Right became the self-appointed cham-
pion of the rights of Nasreen, a Muslim, and
deployed the violation of these rights as a way of
attacking the Muslim community as a whole.
Women’s groups championed Nasreen’s right to
free speech as an assertion of her civil and human
rights. However, they also found themselves in the
awkward position of being aligned with the Hindu
Right, who opposed the fundamentalist attack on
Nasreen to further constitute itself as secularist.bangladesh
The right to women’s sexual expression and sex-
ual autonomy in Bangladesh is also enjoined by
cultural practices and the rise of right-wing funda-
mentalism that views women’s conduct through a
moral lens. For example, in rural areas a salishor
tribunal is frequently used to settle local disputes.
Women are excluded from participating in the
salish. Village religious leaders have developed the
practice of making declarations, which they call
fatwas, on individual cases dealing with marriage
or divorce, or meting out punishments for perceived
moral transgressions. These proceedings have been
manipulated by local religious leaders to find women
guilty of extramarital sexual affairs and other acts.
Punishments are dispensed in accordance with reli-
gious laws as interpreted locally, and these are often
in contravention of the existing penal code. Some
women have been flogged publicly and a few have
also committed suicide.
In January 2001 the high court ruled illegal all
fatwas, or expert opinions on Islamic law. Gen-
erally, only muftis (religious scholars) who had ex-
pertise in Islamic law were authorized to declare a
fatwa. While the court’s intention was to end the
extrajudicial enforcement of penalties by religious
leaders, primarily in the villages, the ruling declared
all fatwas illegal and resulted in violent public pro-
tests. The appellate court stayed the high court’s
ruling and the case is pending further hearing.
The moral framework in which sexual expres-
sion is addressed finds its most explicit manifesta-
tion in the Anti-Terrorism Ordinance of 1992. The
ordinance provides punishment for all kinds of ter-
rorism including harassing women. Sexual harass-
ment provisions should promote women’s rights to
equality, sexual autonomy, and sexual expression.180 freedom of expression
However, the equation of sexual harassment with
terrorism associates women’s sexual purity, honor,
and dignity with the honor, dignity, and security of
the nation-state. The ordinance does not enhance
women’s rights to sexual autonomy or expression,
but rather recasts her sexual integrity as an ex-
pression of nationhood. Securing her sexuality is
equated with securing the nation. Women’s conduct
and sexual behavior are strictly monitored and they
are harshly dealt with if implicated in any moral
transgressions.
Women’s rights to free speech and expression
must be understood against the increasingly con-
servative nature of the government and its moral
clean-up campaign. In 1999 police forcibly re-
moved 267 sex workers from a large brothel district
in Tanbazar and Nimtoli, Narayanganj as part of
its clean-up and cultural purity efforts. Authorities
claimed that the women wanted to be rehabilitated.
The women asserted that they had the right to live
in their homes, and practice their trade. The women
were confined in a center for vagrants, where some
alleged that they were abused. Eventually all of the
women were released, and most returned to work
in other locations. The case triggered a major cam-
paign against the eviction, though women’s claims
to sexual expression were not simultaneously
endorsed. The speech issue in this instance was
overshadowed by the right to freedom of associa-
tion and the challenge to the arbitrary actions of the
government. The conservative moral authority of
the state to restrict women’s rights to sexual speech
and expression was not in any way challenged or
altered.pakistan
In Pakistan, the right to free speech of women is
being threatened with the rise of the religious fun-
damentalist parties in the North-West Frontier
Province. These groups have successfully lobbied
for the adoption of Sharì≠a law in the province. The
government is seeking to establish a Vice and Virtue
Department “to restrict the faithful from wrong-
doing.” Girls over the age of twelve must wear the
burqa≠. Young men are tearing down billboards
with images of women whose faces are unveiled.
The dominance of hardline Islamic parties and the
support they have previously expressed for the
Taliban has added to fears that the province is a
new breeding ground for Taliban-style ideology.
These parties are intent on imposing their values, by
force if necessary, and are against all forms of
modernity, especially women’s rights.
Another complex area is the right to free speech
of women in minority communities in Pakistan.