CC Liu, Ashley Wells, Wisdom Quarterly; Kathmandu Post (ekantipur.com); BBC News America;
Proposed law is discriminatory
(KP) Burma’s human rights record will hit a new low if a proposed marriage
bill becomes law. Couched in an idiom that merely seeks to give
“protection and rights” to Buddhists, the proposed law targets the
country’s Rohingya Muslim minority and forbids Muslims from marrying
into the majority community.
Spearheaded by a monk, Ven. Wirathu, the move,
it seems, has officialdom’s blessings. President Thein Sein, succumbing
to pressure from the extremist lobby, asked parliament to consider
enacting such a law, which proposes a 10-year jail sentence for a
Rohingya marrying a girl from the Buddhist community without obtaining
her parents’ permission.
Vaguely worded, the proposed law, which bans
polygamy, would “balance the increasing population” -- of whom, the
legislation doesn’t specify. The proposal has also been criticized by
Aung San Suu Kyi, who called it “a violation of women’s rights and human
rights.”
Already subjected to a discriminatory two-child policy, the
Rohingya community is considered by the UN as the world’s most
persecuted group. The state doesn’t recognize the Rohingyas as Burma’s
citizens [regarded as rightly belonging in neighboring Muslim Bangladesh, who rejects them] even though most of them have been living in Burma for
generations. They are not allowed to own land, and they cannot travel
without permission. More
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