バングラデシュ、トランスジェンダーに相続権付与へ

【ダッカＡＦＰ＝時事】バングラデシュは15日、トランスジェンダーの家族への遺産相続が近く可能になると発表した。イスラム教徒が多数を占める保守的な同国において、性的少数者の権利拡大の取り組みが進められている。（写真は資料写真）
　バングラデシュの資産に関する法律規定は宗教法にのっとっており、トランスジェンダーの人々はたいてい、親の遺産相続が禁止されている。
　南アジアでは、男性として生まれの性を受けたものの、男女のどちらでもない性自認を持つ人たちは「ヒジュラ」と呼ばれており、シェイク・ハシナ・ワゼド首相は今週、ヒジュラの人々のための新相続法が立案中だと閣議で発表した。
　アニスル・ホク法相はＡＦＰに対し、「トランスジェンダーの家族に財産権を保障する法案を、シャリア（イスラム法）と憲法に基づいて起草している」と明らかにした。
　現時点で法案は提議されていないが、議会通過は容易だとみられている。
　人口１億６８００万人のバングラデシュは２０１３年から、同国にいる約１５０万人のトランスジェンダーに別の性を名乗ることを認めており、昨年には「第３の性」としての投票者登録が可能になった。また、今月初めには同国初となるトランスジェンダーのためのイスラム神学校が開校された。
　それでもなお、ＬＧＢＴＱＩの人々に対する差別は広く存在する。同性愛者間の性行為は、依然残っている植民地時代の法律に基づいて、実刑こそまれとはいえ、禁錮刑に処される。
　人権活動家らは新相続法制定の動きを歓迎する一方、トランスジェンダーの子孫を受け入れない家庭が多い中で法として強制力を持つか懐疑的な考えを示している。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2020/11/17-12:26）

Transgender people will soon be able to inherit property from their families, Bangladesh's law minister said Sunday, the latest effort to give the minority group more rights in the conservative Muslim-majority nation.
While the country of 168 million people is officially secular, property legislation still follows religious laws, with transgender people mostly barred from inheriting estates when parents die.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina told a cabinet meeting this week that new inheritance laws for the group, known as hijra -- an umbrella term referring to someone who is born male but does not refer to themselves as a man or woman -- were being drafted.
We're trying to frame a legislation in accordance with the Islamic sharia law and our constitution which will ensure the property rights for a transgender family member, Law Minister Anisul Huq told AFP.
The bill has yet to be proposed in parliament but is expected to comfortably pass the legislative body.
Bangladesh has allowed transgender people, who number around 1.5 million, to identify as a separate gender since 2013.
Last year they were allowed to register to vote as a third gender. Earlier this month, the South Asian country opened its first Islamic school for transgender Muslims.
But the LGBTQI community still faces widespread discrimination, with a colonial-era law in place that punishes gay sex by prison terms, though enforcement is rare.
Rights activists welcomed the move but were sceptical about whether the law would be enforceable with many families still rejecting their transgender offspring.
As an activist, I am happy the issue is getting focus. But it's not just a matter of legislation, rather it requires a change in the entire society, said Ananya Banik, 40, who heads transgender rights group SadaKalo.
Banik said she came out as transgender when she was 16.
I had to leave my family because of the pressure they received from other families when I was growing up. And I'm not alone, there are hundreds of thousands of members in our community who had to leave their families behind, Banik, who prefers to be called she, added.
She said many transgenders leave their homes at a young age, often driven away from family members, and could face violence if they return to claim their inheritances.
Rights groups also fear a backlash from religious hardliners.
In 2015 Islamist extremists hacked to death a leading gay activist and editor of an LGBTQI magazine, while other prominent homosexuals have since fled the country.