Mahila Anjuman, the women wing of Rajarbagh Darbar Sharif, has demanded the use of biometric system while maintaining the full veil in the national identity card. The demand was made at a press conference at the National Press Club on Monday (March 21).
Speaking at the press conference, Sharmin Yasmin, a member of the Mahila Anjuman, said, “There are a huge number of women in the country wearing full veil to maintain ‘Parda’ as per the directives of the Quran and the Sunnah. But as a citizen, in order to get the benefits of the state, one has to open the veil and take pictures by showing the face in order to get various papers including national identity card.”
Due to not taking pictures like this, these women are not able to make many government papers including national identity cards. Biometric methods are being used recently for identification. Therefore, Sharmin Yasmin demanded to use biometric method instead of photo ID method to identify the women who wear the veil.
She also argued that the picture would not be of any use if the twins looked alike.
Every woman present at the press conference on behalf of the organizers was fully covered in black veils. Their voices were also low.
Rahima Ahmed and Tahira Jahan, who were present at the press conference, said that they could not produce their identity cards as they did not take photos of their faces.
As stated to the press conference, Article 41 (1) of the Constitution states that every citizen has the right to practice and propagate his religion. So a veiled woman has the right not to be photographed. It is not possible to accurately identify one’s identity through photographs. One hundred percent accurate identification can be done by fingerprint or biometric method.
Anjuman members Sumaiya Ahmed and Mashhurah Firdausi were present at the press conference.
The organization claims that the most widely used method of identification in modern times is the biometric system. As it is technology dependent, its identification is almost 100% accurate. In this way no match is ever found between two persons. There is no difference in this method even with the change of age or physical condition.