...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums..
yesterday blasted Hefajat-e Islam chief Shah Ahmed Shafi for his "derogatory" remarks about women.
"Recently, a religious leader has made some indecent remarks about women. I'm totally confused how a religious leader could utter such indecent words when Islam has showed highest respect for women," she told a function at Gono Bhaban.
The event was organised to inaugurate 88 air-conditioned buses bought under the $1 billion Indian line of credit.
The prime minister said such remarks from an Islamic leader were unwarranted and obviously derogatory.
Her comments came after a speech of Shafi had been widely circulated in the social media recently, where the Hefajat ameer made some indecent remarks about women and likened them with mouth-watering tamarind (tentul).
Hasina said the first person who had embraced Islam was a woman (Bibi Khadiza); Bibi Ayesha had fought in the battlefield alongside Prophet Muhammad (PTUI!) and won a battle; and Bibi Sumaiya was the first martyr in the history of Islam. Besides, Bibi Khadiza had engaged herself in trade and business, she added.
"I want to ask him [Allama Shafi], didn't he come from a mother's womb? Won't he respect the mother? Doesn't he have a sister or wife? Won't he uphold their dignity?" she questioned wondering about how a person could talk such "nonsense" about women.
Referring to the "tie-up" between the Hefajat and BNP, she said the Islamist organization was now under the leadership of BNP, whose leader is a woman. "How could he [Shafi] accept her [Khaleda] as the leader?" questioned Hasina.