Protecting Women's Family Rights in a Minority Community: Hindu Family Law Reform in Bangladesh

<p dir="ltr">Family laws in Bangladesh are shaped by religious laws and traditions which have traditionally shown discrimination towards women irrespective of their religious identities. There has been an emphasis on reforming Muslim family laws to abolish discrimination and to ensure equality in conformity with international human rights standards. In recent times, however, civil society actors have attempted a range of reform initiatives on Hindu family laws, particularly in relation to marriage registration and inheritance. They have achieved partial success but have faced resistance from the Bangladeshi state as well as from conservative Hindu religious leaders.</p><p dir="ltr">This paper explores how backlash manifests in law reforms relating to minority communities. The authors examine the nature of backlash from the state, the Hindu community, and Hindu religious leaders, as well as the strategies taken by pro-reform actors to counter this backlash, and the effectiveness of these strategies.</p>