Around 3,000 women rallied Friday in Bangladesh for the country's interim government to openly support a commission tasked with addressing gender-based violence.
The Women's Affairs Reform Commission was set up by the caretaker government of Nobel Peace prize winner Muhammad Yunus in November as part of its efforts to reform systems established during the iron-fisted rule of former Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina.
Bangladesh's influential coalition of hardline Islamist parties has called for the commission to be abolished, saying the reforms it suggested were against Islamist ideology.
Jannatul Ferdous, a 40-year-old labourer, who took part in the rally, told AFP violence against women had been increasing.
"The situation is worse than it was 16 years ago. The (Islamist) hardliners have gained too much strength," she said.
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