On August 8, three women were stopped from boarding a flight to Nepal at Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport in Dhaka. Rifa Tamanna, Sohani Islam Samapti and Naznin were travelling to a mediators’ conference with the Bangladesh International Mediation Society, and say they had all the documents required.
According to their account, immigration officials raised their unmarried status and the absence of a parent or guardian travelling with them. No legal provision requires either.
Their lawyer, Ishrat Hasan, took the matter to the High Court. On September 29 the court questioned the legality of the obstruction and directed authorities not to prevent them from travelling in future without lawful grounds.
The cost was immediate. Tickets and bookings were cancelled, the money was lost, and the professional opportunity the trip existed for passed. A conference does not reschedule around an immigration desk.
What makes the case significant is the gap it exposes between written rules and discretion exercised at a counter. The law sets no marital or chaperone requirement for an adult woman leaving the country. The obstruction, on this account, came from officials applying a standard that does not exist in the statute, which is harder to challenge precisely because there is nothing on paper to point at.
The allegations remain subject to the court process, and the authorities have yet to set out their own account of what happened at the gate.
For women travelling alone on business, the practical lesson is unwelcome: holding correct documentation may not be sufficient, and the remedy currently available runs through the High Court rather than through anything that can be resolved at the airport.
