Bangladesh rules women need not say if virgins on marriage certificates

Grooms will now also have to disclose if they are unmarried, divorced or a widower

Bangladeshi women and children ride on a rickshaw in Dhaka, Bangladesh, 23 August 2019. EPA

The top court in Bangladesh has ruled that women need no longer declare if they are virgins on marriage certificates, after a five-year legal battle by women's rights groups trying to protect women's privacy and potential humiliation.

Marriage laws in the Muslim-majority country in South Asia had required a bride had to state on her marriage certificate if she was a "kumari" — meaning virgin — a widow, or divorced.

But the nation's High Court on Sunday ordered the government to remove the word "kumari" and replace it with "unmarried", a move welcomed on Tuesday by women's rights groups.

The ruling orders that the groom would now also have to disclose if he was unmarried, divorced or a widower.

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No one from the government was available to comment about the change or when it was to take effect.

Ainun Nahar Siddiqua, one of two lawyers involved in the case, said the case dated back to 2014 with the filing of a writ petition to change in the form provided under the 1974 Bangladesh Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act.

"It's a ruling that gives us the belief that we can fight and create more changes for women in the future," Ms Siddiqua, of Bangladesh Legal Aid And Services Trust, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

"We filed a writ petition because asking whether someone's a virgin or not is against the person's right to privacy."

Mohammad Ali Akbar Sarker, a Muslim marriage registrar from Dhaka, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that registrars like him were waiting for the Ministry of Law and Justice to officially inform them about the changes in the form.

"I have conducted many marriages in Dhaka and I have often been asked why men have the liberty to not disclose their status but women don't. I always told them this wasn't in my hands. I guess I won't be asked that question any more," said Mr Sarker.