Call to Action: End Unlawful Travel Restrictions & Moral policing on Women

The Spectrum Rights Observatory (SRO) urgently draws your attention to the recent incident at the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport where three adult women holding valid passports, visas, and flight tickets were barred from traveling to Nepal purely on the grounds of being unmarried and traveling without male guardians. The incident shows a blatant disregard of womens’ constitutional rights and reveal a deeply rooted patriarchal bias within immigration enforcement.

Articles 27 and 28 of the Constitution of Bangladesh guarantee equality before the law and prohibit discrimination based on gender. Articles 31 and 32 ensure the right to protection of law and personal liberty, while Article 36 guarantees the freedom of movement for all citizens. Inquiring into an adult female traveler’s marital status, demanding parental consent, or questioning her social choices forms no legal basis under Bangladeshi travel regulations. Treating adult female citizens as minors requiring male supervision severely undermines their autonomy, dignity, and citizenship rights. Such discriminatory behavior can never be justified under the pretext of anti-trafficking measures.

SRO demands:

1. Immediate cessation of arbitrary and discriminatory questioning: Issue clear administrative directives ordering immigration officers to cease arbitrary questioning purely based on traveler’s gender, ethnicity, or religious affiliation.
2. Accountability and policy reform: Conduct internal investigations into officials engaging in such moral policing and enforce strict administrative measures, if found guilty.
3. Human rights and gender-sensitivity training governance: Implement mandatory training programs for border security and immigration staff to eliminate discriminations based on gender, race, ethnic origin, or religious affiliation.
4. Remedies and compensation for unlawful interference: Establish transparent guidelines to compensate the affected travelers.
5. Protection of the constitutional right to travel: Guarantee that no adult citizen is restricted from exercising their right to travel freely inside or outside the country solely based on gender, race, ethnic origin or religious affiliation.

SRO urges Bangladesh Ministry of Home Affairs and Police Headquarters to uphold the rule of law and ensure that airports function as facilitators of citizen mobility, rather than sites of moral policing.

Issued by Spectrum Rights Observatory