Eccentric Thoughts

VOTER: TO BE or NOT TO BE? (Part 1)

Intro: I have had a weird experience this year during Voter ID Card Registration. It is a looong story, and I wished to share it somewhere. I thought of writing for any newspaper, but couldn't dare to do so with my amateur hand. And this blog being my loyal friend for the last few years, I thought it was the best place to share.

Being too long a story to cover in one episode, I thought to divide it into a few. I am still in the process of finishing it. So it's going to take some time to come in full. So if there is any reader out there, thanks for reading, and being patient :).

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Being a first time voter, my enthusiasm was at peak for the voter registration this time. The feeling was really special when I first heard that this time there is going to be Voter ID Card with photo! “Excited” and “thrilled”, I would say, as the dictionary in my brain can’t find a better word to describe my feeling, I had been enthusiastically waiting for my day to come.

But my family decided to register in our village home, and so my long awaited chance was taking longer than expected. But in the meantime my friends already had experienced enough to share their stories with me. To my greatest dismay, it was not as happy as I thought.

Some commented they were not allowed to take picture with hijab, while others complained about being forced to show ears. It was time my feelings changed dramatically and the words now I thought most suitable were “shocked” and “astonished”! Thinking some of my friends might be exaggerating, I asked others, but the story was nevertheless, the same everywhere.

More surprising to me was the way I thought people agreed to it. But I realized they were forced to. Some did protest, but in vain. Some didn’t have the guts to but disliked it from the heart.

I was in a dilemma- what would I do. Though it is taking late, my chance was about to come…

Then one day, as I stepped out from university, there came a girl with hijab, and a notebook and a pen in her hands. To my surprise, she was speaking MY mind out!!

She was asking me whether I heard about this Voter ID card situation where women are being forced to show ears, and whether I agreed to it. I said NO in a loud voice and spoke out my mind. She described how she and other members of her “group” protested about it, and how their senior members went to meet the Election Commissioner, who then asked them to bring the proof that general people ARE REALLY against it.

So this was their attempt to prove it- they asked us to sign, and I didn’t hesitate for a moment to sign.

Later that week, newspapers reported their submission of petition to the EC-with more than 100 thousand signatures from females all over Bangladesh- who come from various walks of life. The newspapers also reported that the EC accepted their demand- that WOMEN COULD TAKE PICTURES WITH THEIR HIJAB ON- NO NEED TO SHOW THEIR EARS.

This was just a few days after the EC published a notice saying women and men are allowed to take pictures with hijab and cap- but in that case they need to show their ears!!!

Labels: expression of myself, thoughts

posted by eccentric_human @ 7:07 PM