High Court issues rules on Bangladesh Bank’s ‘sexist’ job posting

The High Court has asked the authorities why it will not declare illegal the condition for a married female applicant to mention her husband’s permanent address as her own in a Bangladesh Bank job posting.

After an initial hearing of a writ petition, the court in a set of rules Tuesday also asked why it will not order the central bank to issue a new job advertisement for assistant director (general) posts by dropping the condition.

Justice JBM Hassan and Justice Md Khairul Alam gave the public administration secretary, the commerce secretary, the finance secretary, the Bangladesh Bank deputy governor and the director of its human resource department four weeks to respond.

Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust or BLAST and Naripokkho, a women’s rights organisation , filed the public interest litigation attaching a bdnews24.com report on criticism of the Bangladesh Bank job posting.

“A married female applicant must mention the permanent address of her husband as her own,” reads the point No. 14 of the job posting issued on Dec 1.

Making it mandatory for a married female applicant to mention the permanent address of her husband as her own is a violation of the constitution, Ainun Nahar Siddiqua, the lawyer for the petitioners, told bdnews24.com.

She referred to Articles 28 and 29 of the constitution that ban discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and ensure equality of opportunity in public employment.

Moreover, the condition set in the job posting is a breach of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women or CEDAW and other international conventions to ensure gender equality, she said.

“It’s also against the government’s efforts to ensure gender equality,” Siddiqua said.

The court also asked the Bangladesh Bank why the central bank will not make effective guidelines to remove gender discrimination and train its employees about the issue.