B’desh court orders ‘virgin’ removed from marriage cert

The word “virgin” must be removed from Muslim marriage certificates in Bangladesh, the country’s top court has said, a landmark verdict after campaginers challenged the “humiliating and discriminatory” term.

Under the South Asian country’s Muslim marriage laws, a bride has to select one of three options on the certificate -- whether she is a Kumari (virgin), a widow or divorced. In a brief verdict on Sunday, the court ordered the government to remove the term and replace it with “unmarried”, deputy attorney general Amit Talukder said.

The court is expected to publish its full verdict by October, with the changes to the certificate expected to come into effect then. “It is a landmark verdict,” Aynun Nahar Siddiqua, a lawyer for the groups which filed the case challenging the term in 2014, told AFP on Monday.

The judgement also ordered authorities to introduce the options “unmarried, widower or divorced” for the groom on the certificate.