Press & Public Statement: JMBF Strongly Condemns the Recent Violent Attacks on Cultural and Spiritual Heritage Sites in Bangladesh

Paris, France; January 12, 2024 – The France-based human rights organization, JusticiteMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF), strongly condemns and protests the recent attacks on the Hazrat Shah Sufi Syed Kalu Shah (RA) Shrine in Mymensingh on January 8, 2025, the Al Chishti Shrine in Natore on the night of December 30, 2024, and the Doja Pir Shrine in Sherpur on November 26 and 28, 2024, by radical Islamic fundamentalist groups.

JMBF believes that this wave of extremist violence targeting cultural and spiritual heritage sites in Bangladesh represents an alarming escalation of intolerance, sectarian violence, and fundamentalist aggression against Bangladesh’s centuries-old traditions of Sufism and spiritual practices. These attacks are clear violations of human rights and religious freedom.

STATEMENT: JMBF is gravely concerned about the detention of four lesbian girls in Manikganj and Natore by the homophobic public.

Paris, France; March 20, 2024: JusticeMakers Bangladesh in France (JMBF) is gravely concerned and aggrieved about the recent detention of four lesbian girls in Manikganj and Natore districts by the homophobic public, respectively on March 09 and February 23, 2024, due to expressing their sexual orientation and willingness to get married.

The France-based rights organization, JMBF, considers their detention and handing over to the police by the homophobic public, due to the expression of same-sex relationships and willingness to get married, clear violations of their fundamental human rights and dignity.

JMBF urges the concerned authorities to take immediate action against those homophobic individuals involved in such heinous incidents of interfering with personal lives and privacy.

According to reports from various online newspapers in Bangladesh, on March 9, 2023, two lesbian women were detained by local residents in Singair, under the Manikganj district.