Bangladesh

Formerly part of India, and subsequently forming the eastern wing of Pakistan that was carved out of India in 1947 when British colonial rule ended; Bangladesh is located in the northeastern region of the Indian subcontinent, and has been independent since 1971. Following its independence, Bangladesh experienced coups d’état, periods of military rule, and political upheaval until parliamentary democracy was restored in 1991. Sheikh Hasina rose to prominence in the 1980s as a leading pro-democracy campaigner against military rule, and was elected prime minister in June 1996. However, the country’s last elections that international observers considered to be free and fair were in 2008.¹

In August 2024, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s increasingly authoritarian Awami League government was ousted following public demonstrations. Hasina resigned and fled the country and an interim administration – led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus – was sworn in soon after and promised accountability and reform. Despite the changes, there were reports that some patterns of abuse by the security forces remained.²

According to the 2022 Census, 91% of the population are Muslim, 8% Hindu, the remaining 1% comprises Buddhists, Christians and other minority religious groups. The census does not record the number of non-religious people living in the country.³

Constitution and government

Political turmoil and ongoing uncertainty

Since coming to power in 2009, Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League government gradually consolidated power. Her increasingly autocratic leadership became characterized by the harassment and arbitrary arrest of activists, crackdowns on protest – including the use of sweeping internet shutdowns – and the use of enforced disappearance against her opponents. Opposition parties have boycotted elections, including in January 2024, when Sheikh Hasina secured her fourth consecutive term in office.⁴

In August 2024, Sheikh Hasina’s government was removed from power following its brutal repression of public demonstrations. The protests began as peaceful student demonstrations against discriminatory and politicized quotas in government jobs. The movement later grew into nationwide protests calling for governmental reform. An interim government headed by Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus, who was appointed Chief Adviser, promised accountability and reform. However, Human Rights Watch reports that,

“Due to the deeply ingrained systemic obstacles to accountable governance, a disturbingly familiar pattern of security force abuses and political reprisals has reemerged, this time targeting perceived Awami League supporters.”⁵

In the first months of governing, the interim government established eleven commissions in two phases to make reform and policy recommendations. The first phase was aimed at recommendations to reform the judiciary, the electoral system, public administration, police, the anti-corruption office, and the Constitution. The second had the goal of forming policy recommendations on media, health, labor rights, and women’s rights.⁶

Media reports have indicated that the Constitutional Commission recommended sweeping reforms to the Constitution that propose to establish a bicameral parliament and to revise the fundamental principles of the State.⁷

From secularism to pluralism: current constitutional guarantees & proposed constitutional reform

The 1972 Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh (last amended in 2018)⁸ and other laws and policies guarantee freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as freedom of opinion and expression. However, certain laws and policies continue to restrict freedom of religion or belief, as well as freedom of expression and media freedom.

Article 8 of the Constitution includes secularism as one of the four fundamental principles of the State used to guide the governance of the country, including in the creation of all laws. Article 12 elaborates on how secularism is to be ensured:

“The principle of secularism shall be realised by the elimination of –

(a) communalism in all its forms ;
(b) the granting by the State of political status in favour of any religion ;
(c) the abuse of religion for political purposes ;
(d) any discrimination against, or persecution of, persons practicing a particular religion.”

A constitutional amendment passed in 2011 reaffirmed secularism while retaining Article 2A, which declares Islam as the state religion but allows for the “equal status and equal right” to practice Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and other religions. The amended Constitution includes further provisions elaborating on freedom of religion, such as Article 28 which prohibits “discrimination by the State against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth.” Article 39 also declares that “freedom of thought and conscience is guaranteed,” but also states that it is subject to “public order, “decency,” or “morality.”

Among key recommendations made by the Constitutional Reform Commission in January 2025, the Commission recommended the deletion of Articles 8 and 12 of the Constitution, among others. In response to concerns raised about the removal of secularism, the head of the Commission, Ali Riaz, argued that secularism as professed and practiced by the Hasina regime was “limited to toleration of religious diversity.” Riaz indicated that the inclusion of the term “pluralism” is wider in scope and therefore “more encompassing” of the country’s long tradition of pluralism – be it cultural, linguistic, religious, or ethnic.⁹ Riaz stated,

“Pluralism, by definition, professes the coexistence of people of various backgrounds and ensures equal participation in social and political lives. It will not only address religious diversity such as Hindus, Buddhists, Ahmadis and Bahais but will also be inclusive to other marginalized sections of the people, such as Dalits and people of third gender. Interestingly, despite having secularism as a state principle, minority persecution went unabetted for decades.”¹⁰

Under the recommendations, the Constitution would retain Islam as the State religion. In justifying this recommendation, Riaz referred to consultations with stakeholders, including 50,000 survey responses, as well as the existence of a State religion or reference to “faith in Almighty” in over 80 countries across the globe. He stated,

“The Bangladeshi state’s relationship with religion under the revised Constitution as recommended by the [Constitutional Reform Commission] would not be different from past decades. Until religion acts as the source of legal measures or challenges the politico-legal institutions, there are few reasons to be alarmed. Often state religions are more symbolic than substantive.”¹¹

The interim government has recommended that the Constitution’s founding principles be revised and nationalism, socialism, and secularism are removed, while equality, human dignity, social justice, and pluralism are added. The Constitution Reform Commission has also called for the inclusion of the right to food, education, healthcare and the right to vote – new rights not previously recognized in the Constitution.¹²

As of late 2025, the interim leadership backed a cross-party reform charter, the “July National Charter,” which is linked to a national referendum planned to be held alongside the planned February 2026 parliamentary election.¹³

Education and children’s rights

Article 41(2) of the 1972 Constitution states:

“No person attending any educational institution shall be required to receive religious instruction, or to take part in or to attend any religious ceremony or worship, if that instruction, ceremony or worship relates to a religion other than his own.”

Providers of education may broadly be grouped as follows: (a) public and private schools and madrassahs – Islamic educational institutions – that follow the national curriculum including both secular and religious subjects; (b) unregistered and autonomous Quomi madrassahs that follow Deobandi curricula – these schools are generally independently managed and locally funded while offering Islamic education for free or for a minimal cost; and (c) schools that follow a British curriculum.¹⁴

There are often an insufficient number of teachers that provide education for students from religious minority groups in Bangladeshi schools. In instances where students are from a minority faith, parents or local religious groups typically hold classes outside of school hours and students are exempted from religious education in the school setting. For Islamic, Christian, Hindu and Buddhist students, religious education of their respective faith is mandatory and part of the curriculum found in public schools.¹⁵

There is no provision for religious education in the national curriculum for children who do not adhere to one of the four major religions. Moreover, the system offers no institutionalized interreligious/interfaith learning opportunities.¹⁶

Private schools are not required to teach religious education. Both Catholic and Islamic religious groups run a significant number of educational institutions.¹⁷

Bangladeshi madrassahs are broadly grouped under two categories: madrassahs under the purview of the government’s Madrassah Education Board, the Alia madrassahs, and autonomous Quomi madrassahs. However, other groups also run largely unregulated madrassahs. Madrassahs in Bangladesh are almost entirely established and managed by non-state actors. Only three madrassahs are reported to be completely State-funded. There is no consensus on the actual number of privately-run madrassahs due to their largely unregulated nature and lack of any comprehensive survey.¹⁸

The Alia madrassahs system, which offers a 16 year-long education, is regulated by the Bangladesh Madrassah Education Board (BMEB) under the Ministry of Education that centrally manages the financial, curricular, assessment, and degree offering responsibilities. As part of the public-private partnership, the government pays salaries for teachers and administrators of selected Alia madrassahs.¹⁹

The Quomi system also follows a loosely constructed Dars-i-Nizami curriculum, which is Quran and Hadith based. Several of these madrassahs reportedly teach secular subjects such as Bangla and English language and literature, geography, history, and mathematics up to Grade 8. However, how much academic attention is given to these subjects along with questions and assessments around teacher quality is uncertain.²⁰

In 2017, following the intervention of Islamic religious scholars, a number of poems and other content deemed to be “atheistic” were removed from textbooks. The changes followed years of lobbying and protests coordinated by Hefazat-e Islam – a coalition of Islamist organizations²¹ – to demand changes to textbooks, mandatory religious education and punishment for “atheist bloggers”.²²

Child marriage

The minimum legal age for marriage in Bangladesh is 18 years for girls and 21 for boys.²³

However, the Child Marriage Restraint Act 2017²⁴ includes a loophole where a court can allow child marriage in “special circumstances as may be prescribed by rules in the best interests of the minor, at the directions of the court and with consent of the parents or the guardian of the minor” (Article 19). The vague wording of the provision has led advocacy groups such as Girls Not Brides to fear that “this loophole will allow girls under 18 in cases of rape and early pregnancy to marry their perpetrators to avoid social stigma and shame.”

A report released by the Bangladesh Sample Vital Statistics in March 2024 indicates that the incidence of child marriage is increasing in the country. Almost 42% of young women in Bangladesh were married before they had turned 18, 8% before the age of 15.²⁵ Child marriage is reported to be more prevalent in rural areas, and correlated to school drop out rates. Drivers of child marriage are reported to include poverty, traditional gender norms and conceptions of “honor”, and climate emergencies.²⁶ Media reports indicate that few child marriages are officially registered.²⁷

Family, community and society

Religious influence in family law

Laws concerning marriage, divorce, and adoption differ significantly depending on the religious beliefs and genders of the persons involved. Women typically fare worse in terms of the extent of the rights and benefits afforded to them compared to men in family law. Muslim and Hindu family laws are codified in the legal system and are enforced in secular courts.²⁸

The family laws of the religions of the two parties concerned govern their marriage rituals and proceedings. Interreligious marriage is subject to considerable social stigma, and is possible to varying degrees based on the gender and religious background of the persons involved. For example, under the Muslim family ordinance, a Muslim woman may not marry a non-Muslim; men, by contrast, may marry women from other Abrahamic faiths.²⁹

The long out-dated and ambiguous 1872 Special Marriage Act³⁰ allows Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and the non-religious to marry outside of their religion. Couples married under this act are not allowed to adopt; succession, maintenance, custody and guardianship of children and inheritance is not clearly defined either, creating an unclear legal situation.

With both parties’ agreement, certain family and civil disputes may be resolved through alternative processes rather than court proceedings. Lawyers, court officials, or community leaders may be selected to support mediation or arbitration and the outcome may later be presented in court. Such alternative processes do not apply to disputes over land ownership.³¹

Islamic Sharia law plays some role in civil matters pertaining to the Muslim community.³² There is no formal implementation of Sharia, and it is theoretically not imposed on non-Muslims, however there is a very high likelihood that some non-religious individuals would be presumed religious and socially pressured to conform to religious arbitration in family matters.³³

Women’s rights

Social and cultural norms, alongside prevailing patriarchal attitudes, impose discriminatory and stereotypical roles, rights and responsibilities according to gender.³⁴

As indicated above, religious personal laws governing women’s rights in relation to marriage, divorce, maintenance and property inheritance are largely discriminatory against women.

According to Human Rights Watch, sexual and gender-based violence are widespread and women and girls in Bangladesh have little recourse to seek protection or access justice for these crimes.³⁵

LGBTI+ rights

Same-sex conduct is criminalized under Section 377 of the Penal Code (Act XLV of 1860)³⁶ with penalties from ten years to life in prison. There are no legal protections against discrimination on the basis of sexuality, and LGBTI+ organizations face obstacles to operating in the country.³⁷ LGBTI+ people and advocates have reported increased threats of violence.³⁸

Due to social taboos and societal pressure to conform to heterosexual, cultural and religious norms, including marriage and having children, the majority of LGBTI+ people in Bangladesh are reported to choose to keep their sexual orientation a private matter to avoid discrimination, social exclusion and hostility from their families and wider society.³⁹ Further, according to a report by the International Republican Institute, “The intersection of religiosity and family honor forced many participants [in their focus groups] into a tenuous agreement with their families to hide their sexual or gender orientation in public.”⁴⁰

Conversion practices – reportedly performed by individuals, family members, medical professionals, and religious and community leaders – are widespread.⁴¹

Religious tension

After Sheikh Hasina’s government was toppled in early August 2024, reports quickly emerged of communal attacks on religious minorities, and particularly the Hindu and Ahmadiyya communities.⁴² In response, human rights groups, such as Amnesty International, called on the interim government to ensure that minority religious groups were protected and investigations were carried out to ensure accountability.⁴³

Since then, observers have continued to document abuses and intimidation affecting minority religious communities, alongside ongoing allegations that ethnic minorities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts face discrimination and violence involving State security forces. As Bangladesh approaches the February 2026 national elections, there have been reports of a renewed rise in attacks on religious minorities and increasing violence against women and girls.⁴⁴ The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) also reported that, while the interim authorities said they made arrests related to attacks on distinct religious and indigenous groups, many perpetrators of the violence continued to enjoy impunity.⁴⁵

Freedom of expression, advocacy of humanist values

The Constitution guarantees freedom of expression, subject to limitations to maintain “public order.” While Bangladesh’s media landscape is vibrant and diverse, authorities have imposed serious restrictions on freedom of expression, particularly to suppress criticism. Several legislative restrictions unduly restrict the right to freedom of expression, including provisions within the Penal Code that make criminal defamation,⁴⁶ sedition⁴⁷ and religious insult offences. To date, these provisions have been used to imprison activists, writers, bloggers and journalists critical of the authorities. This in turn has led to self-censorship on some religious and political topics.

In September 2023, amid growing domestic and international condemnation, the government replaced the previously abusive Digital Security Act (DSA) with the Cyber Security Act, 2023 (CSA).⁴⁸ Although framed as a more moderate alternative, the CSA retained several controversial provisions, including sections that criminalize “hurting religious sentiments” and “disrupting communal harmony”. The CSA grants arbitrary powers to law enforcement for arrest, search, and seizure, and empowering authorities to block or filter content with minimal oversight.⁴⁹

On 4 November 2023, the law was used to arrest 19-year-old atheist blogger Selim Khan after a fellow member of a private Facebook group for atheists photographed a comment made by Khan and shared it publicly, “causing public agitation.”⁵⁰ Khan was subsequently released on bail, but remained in jail as of June 2024 due to procedural delays.⁵¹

In May 2025, the interim government repealed the CSA and replaced it with the Cyber Security Ordinance. However, the freedom of expression organization, ARTICLE 19, reported that the interim government failed to conduct meaningful consultations with stakeholders when formulating the draft version of the law.⁵² Civil society groups and human rights organizations have cautioned that the new 2025 law still relies on vague and ambiguous concepts that can be used to criminalize legitimate expression – including criticism of religious dogma. In late 2025, the government also moved to dismiss many legacy cases brought under the 2018 Digital Security Act, through amendments associated with the Cyber Security Ordinance.⁵³

According to Human Rights Watch, “As of November [2024], authorities had filed murder charges against at least 140 journalists in relation to their reporting on the Monsoon Revolution and scrapped more than 150 press accreditations required to attend official events. When questioned about the criminal cases targeting journalists, Chief Adviser Yunus said that the charges had been filed “following the old laws and practices,” underscoring the point that without systemic reform, the target of police will change but the abusive practices will remain the same.⁵⁴

Freethought under threat

The failure of the authorities to bring the perpetrators of murders of freethinkers (see ‘Highlighted cases’ below) to justice and the lack of security provided to any bloggers under threat lead to a stifling climate for free expression. In addition, police and government officials threatened to arrest bloggers for writing about “atheism” or simply advised them that they should stop writing about atheism if they wished to be safe.⁵⁵

De facto “blasphemy” laws

Chapter XV of the Penal Code⁵⁶ provides for several criminal offenses related to religion, including defiling places of worship, interrupting services and trespassing on burial grounds. Several provisions in this chapter have been used to prosecute and imprison atheist and secularist activists.

Section 295A states:

“Whoever, with deliberate and malicious intention of outraging the religious feelings of any class of the citizens of Bangladesh, by words, either spoken or written, or by visible representations insults or attempts to insult the religion or the religious beliefs of that class, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.”

Section 298 states:

“Whoever, with the deliberate intention of wounding the religious feelings of any person, utters any word or makes any sound in the hearing of that person or makes any gesture in the sight of that person or places any object in the sight of that person, shall be punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to one year, or with fine, or with both.”

Documented “hurting religious sentiment” arrests have reportedly continued under the interim government.⁵⁷

Enforced disappearances

The use of enforced disappearances as a means of stifling criticism became characteristic of the Sheikh Hasina era. It is estimated that more than 700 people were forcibly disappeared between 2009 and 2024.⁵⁸

Following the fall of Hasina’s government, the interim government established a Commission of Inquiry into all enforced disappearances and acceded to the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearances.⁵⁹

Freedom of assembly

In July 2024, violence erupted after Hasina’s Awami League party supporters and police attacked students peacefully protesting a politicized quota scheme for government jobs. Security forces used excessive force, including tear gas, stun grenades, and rubber and live bullets, to disperse protesters. Protests continued until Hasina stepped down and fled the country. A UN fact-finding mission later concluded that the former government was complicit in gross human rights violations in connection with the repression of the protests.⁶⁰

Highlighted cases

In July 2020, police indicated that they were seeking to arrest human rights activist and secular blogger Asaduzzaman Noor, also known as Asad Noor, after new criminal charges were brought against him under the Digital Security Act on July 14 for ‘spreading rumours’ and ‘defaming Islam’ via a Facebook video.⁶¹ Noor had previously been targeted under the DSA’s predecessor, the 2013 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Act. In January 2017, the then 25-year old was arrested at Dhaka airport and charged with defamation of religion for content he had posted on social media.⁶² Though released briefly on bail in August 2018, he was subsequently re-arrested after a radical Islamic organization known as Hefazat-e-Islam Bangladesh called for him to be imprisoned and subjected to the death penalty. He was only released from prison again in January 2019. These charges against him remain outstanding. He lives in hiding following threats to his life.

Between 2013-2018 several humanist or freethinking authors, bloggers and secular publishers were attacked, many of them killed. In February, 2013, the atheist blogger Ahmed Rajib Haider (pen name: Thaba Baba), was murdered in a machete attack at his home. Avijit Roy, an author of books on humanism and science, was killed in February 2015 outside the International Book Fair at Dhaka University, his wife Rafida Ahmed was also seriously hurt in the same attack; Washiqur Rahman Babu, a young blogger known as a “progressive freethinker”, was killed in March 2015; Ananta Bijoy Das, who blogged against fundamentalism, in favour of science, justice, and free expression, was struck down in May 2015; Niladri Chatterjee (penname: Niloy Neel), a humanist known as much for his blogging on minority and women’s rights as for his atheistic views, was killed in his own home in front of his partner in August 2015; and on 31 October 2015, coordinated gun and machete attacks on two publishing houses in Dhaka – both publishers of books by Avijit Roy and other secular authors – took the life of Faysal Arefin Dipon (Jagriti publishers), and seriously injured Ahmed Rashid Tutul (Shuddho-Shor publishers), author and blogger Randipam Basu and poet Tareq Rahim; Xulhaz Mannan, founder of the nation’s first LGBTQ+ magazine was killed at his home in April 2016; that same month, writer Rezaul Karim Siddique, an English professor, and Nazimuddin Samad, an atheist blogger, were killed in separate attacks; in 2018, after a year-long break in killings, publisher, blogger and secular political activist, Shahzahan Bachchu was killed.

The feminist author and atheist activist Taslima Nasrin remains in exile from Bangladesh because of the threat of death or government persecution should she return to her homeland.

Testimonies

“Bangladesh is a country where even if you kill or rape, no one will hate you as much as if they find out you are an atheist. You might already know about the killing of bloggers and atheists in Bangladesh? Since 2013, more than 20 atheists have been hacked to death by Islamic groups. I have received thousands of death threats as a human rights filmmaker and writer.”
Sahadat, 14 June 2023

“[The new law banning “defamation of religion”] has now become almost a fear instigating tool inside Bangladesh against any Atheist or non-believer. This is the tool Pakistan used to rapidly turn into a fundamentalist, broken nation. That we see today, Bangladesh is not far.”
— Anonymous

“If you are a true activist, you are the most vulnerable person in the country. You could be arrested by the government or be targeted by an Islamist.”
— Bangladeshi secular activist

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17. Sudipta Roy, Samia Huq, Aisha Binte Abdur Rob, “Faith and education in Bangladesh: A review of the contemporary landscape and challenges,” International Journal of Educational Development,
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