Is Civil Rights purely a Western phenomenon?

There is a tendency amongst many western liberals to think that the struggle for civil rights is mainly based in the West and less developed countries are too wrapped up with other problems to address civil rights issues. Let me try and illuminate a little from direct personal knowledge.

You will know from history that The Mahatma pioneered non-violence protests, initially in South Africa and later in India. Great people like Madiba and MLK followed his example and succeeded.

He fought for rights for the Harijans, meaning “Children of God”. I think they are called Dalits now, but before The Mahatma, they were shunned, literally were never touched. They could only work in the most disgusting jobs generation to generation. Jobs like manually carting away human excrement.

Now they have certain rights and are given affirmative action. Dalits are now “scheduled caste” and have many sources of support, although they still need more help as a group and the hatred persists to this day.

Now Bangladesh, I have certain degree of personal experience. They are 90% Muslim country and they do have their brand of extremists. But they are trying to weed out the crazies.

But what they have achieved in terms of civil rights puts many “western” countries to shame.

Firstly, they are secular and they have freedom of worship. Imagine that, 90% Muslims but all religions are free to worship. True there is some attacks by some stupid radicals, but by far the vast majority tolerate other religions, and even have national holidays for a few notable festivals. Majority of the people think these adherents of the other religions are stupid for believing things that are not true, but they live in the same communities and they are accepted. Attempts to restrict religious freedom have always been rebuffed since the inception of the nation.

Secondly freedom of expression is guaranteed. There was an incident in 21st February 1952 when Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the national language and ban Bengali. That backfired horribly and many young men died that day in the struggle. Even to this day they commemorate 21st February. Freedom of expression (particularly speech) is very jealously guarded. Recently a blogger was killed for criticising Islam and I believe all the perpetrators have been caught and sentenced to death. I don't condone the death penalty at all, but use it to demonstrate that justice is sought for crimes against freedom of speech.

Taslima Nasrin, author of “Amar Meyebela” (my girlhood) which criticised not only misogyny, but also Islam, is still around (not sure where). I have read the book, it's strictly a second rate book mainly because it's based on a false premise. She says that society uses the term “Chelebela” (boyhood) and so to rebel against the misogyny, she coined the term “Meyebela”. Well the term “Chelebela” is never used generally and it's also a term she coined. The term used is “Chotobela” which means “Childhood”. So given that, it reduces the impact of the book.

However the important thing is that she published the book and the country did not try to prevent it. She is the subject of various threats from those crazy radicalised nutters, but that is not State oppression.

Thirdly Women’s Rights. Women have equal rights under the law (and enshrined in the constitution). We have had two women Prime Ministers (repeatedly, and both are corrupt, but that is another story). But Bangladesh has some of the strongest rights for women, so much so the Supreme Court ruled in ’70s (I believe) that women had the right to do whatever they wanted with their bodies, even if it involves sex work. Legislation was then brought in to regularise this and protect the sex workers, and prevent trafficking and child prostitution. I believe the largest brothel in the world is in Bangladesh.

Women have full rights as men, and they are highly empowered, that is not to say that they don't have more to struggle for, but women can and do take lead in much social issues..

Whenever any of these civil rights are challenged, the whole country comes out to protest and can halt all business of the country. Much violence and bloodshed is caused and the civil rights are protected.

Don’t get me wrong, things are not all rosy. Gay people are persecuted, even though legally they also have equal rights. However there are not many strong voices supporting their cause, but they too are organising and they too will succeed in their endeavours, I am sure.

Not bad for one of the poorest countries in the world (but rapidly growing), with much corruption and awful politics. There is much poverty (people still die of hunger) and very low levels of literacy.

Also the country is regularly subject to terrible natural disasters. Sadly Cyclone Mora is making landfall as I write this and there will be many deaths. The country tried to evacuate 1,000,000 people, not sure how well they succeeded. Hope they are safe.

The aftermath will be terrible, not only because of the devastation to homes and infrastructure, and the immediate need for relief. But also much of the crops will be destroyed and there will be long term starvation due to failed crops. I wish them luck.

So please stop being West-centric and condescending. Less developed countries can have excellent civil rights too.