Dhaka: A Bangladeshi cricketer was embroiled in controversy on Monday over misogynistic social media posts denouncing working women, just days after making his impressive international debut.
Tanzeem Hasan Saqib took India captain Rohit Sharma’s wicket with just his fourth delivery in international cricket when they met the neighbors in the Asia Cup on Friday, before holding his nerve in the final over to ensure Bangladesh’s victory.
However, the resulting adulation for the 20-year-old turned into scorn from women’s rights activists and feminists after his misogynistic social media posts surfaced.
“If the wife works, the husband’s rights are not guaranteed,” the organization wrote on Facebook last year. “If the wife works, the rights of the child are not guaranteed. If the wife works, her elegance is damaged.
“If the wife works, the family is destroyed. If the wife works, the veil is corrupted. If the wife works, society is corrupted.”
Women make up the vast majority of the workforce in the garment factories that have driven much of Bangladesh’s economic growth in recent years.
But conservative patriarchal attitudes remain widespread in the Muslim-majority country.
In another publication, the men’s organization warned that their children would not have a “modest” mother if they married “a woman who is accustomed to mingling freely with her male friends at university.”
These comments sparked violent reactions, with Paris-based feminist writer Janaton Naeem Preeti pointing out that the Bangladeshi team’s jerseys are made in factories whose employees are mostly women.
She added: “I feel sorry for you because you do not consider your mother to be a normal human being.”
Writer Swakrito Nauman described the comments as “extremely offensive” in a widely shared Facebook post, and demanded that the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) question the organization and apologize to the player.
Journalist Majboul Haq added on Monday: “Putting up this distorted form of misogyny is unacceptable. No matter how big his star is!”
BCB said it was investigating the matter.
“This case has come to our attention. We are investigating the matter,” head of cricket operations Jalal Younis told AFP.
Tanzeem played 12 first-class matches during his short career with the team, having helped Bangladesh win the Under-19 World Cup in 2020.
