Bangladesh rules women need not say if virgins on marriage certificates

Bangladesh’s top court 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. 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.

Source: yahoo.com/news