The Parliamentary Standing Committee on the Liberation War Affairs Ministry has recommended presenting state honours at freedom fighters’ funerals by male government officials in areas where the Upazila Nirbahi Officers are women.
At its 19th meeting on Sunday, the committee also recommended presenting state honours to deceased freedom fighters during the day.
Sources at the meeting said the first recommendation was made after objections surfaced regarding the presence of female officials at namaz-e-janaza of war heroes. Recommendations were made to assign male Assistant Commissioner (Land), Upazila Education Officer, or any other official of the same rank for the task.
Liberation War Affairs Minister AKM Mozammel Haque, who was also present at the meeting, declined to comment on the recommendation.
“Anyone can recommend anything. Let it come to us and then we will look into it,” he told The Business Post.
Waresat Hossain Belal, a member on the committee, told The Business Post that objections were raised from different quarters regarding the “presence of female officials at state honours as the Islamic Shariah does not permit women to conduct the funeral”.
“However, we at the committee said that female officials do not conduct the funerals. They only carry out a state task,” he said.
He, however, said that he was not aware of any such recommendation by the committee that called for assigning a male official for giving state honour to freedom fighters where the UNO is a woman.
“Yes, we did discuss the issue. I do not think we made any such harsh recommendation. I will look into it,” he added.
Back in November last year, the government updated its State Honouring Order, 2020 regarding the death of the heroic freedom fighters.
