Why does a woman travelling solo trigger suspicion at immigration?

A woman is travelling abroad alone. She has a valid passport, a ticket and all the necessary documents. Yet at the immigration counter, she faces questions like where is she going? Why is she going? Does her husband know about her trip? Why is she travelling without a guardian? Sometimes an immigration officer would even take her husband’s phone number and call him to verify. Even women in their fifties find themselves subjected to extensive questioning.

Following a recent incident where three unmarried adult women were barred by immigration from traveling to Nepal, these long-standing experiences have once again sparked public discussion. The three women have moved the court, alleging that despite carrying valid travel documents, they were prevented from traveling abroad without any legal justification.

The three women are not the only ones to have faced such questions while travelling abroad alone. Whether traveling for a workshop, attending family events or on an award trip, many others traveling abroad alone have encountered similar questioning. None of them were ultimately prevented from travelling. But they were repeatedly asked about their marital status, whether they had their husbands’ permission, whether a guardian was accompanying them by immigration officials.

The three young women from Dinajpur, Thakurgaon and Naogaon, who faced difficulties while travelling to Nepal, did not remain silent. They have taken legal action and asked the state why they were not allowed to travel.

Following a writ petition filed by the three women, the High Court issued a rule and an order after a preliminary hearing on 29 September. The rule asks why the action of barring the three women from travelling abroad should not be declared beyond lawful authority.

The court also asked why the relevant authorities should not be directed to formulate and issue appropriate guidelines to ensure that adult female citizens are not prevented from making lawful international travel solely because they are unmarried, are travelling without a guardian or on the basis of similar gender-based considerations.

According to the three petitioners, they went to Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport at 9am on 8 August to travel to Nepal. Their flight was scheduled for 10:05am. All three were adults and had the necessary travel documents and tickets.

Yet, they alleged that Immigration Police Officer-in-Charge (OC) Abdullah refused to grant them departure clearance. The petition noted that they were not given any written notice or legal justification. The three women said that there were no court orders or legal impediments barring their foreign travel. Whether an adult woman is unmarried or whether her parents or a guardian are accompanying her cannot by itself constitute a legal basis for restricting her lawful international travel, they said.

Advocate Ishrat Hasan represented the petitioners at the hearing. She told Prothom Alo that the main question was why the women were prevented from travelling despite having valid documents. In her view, such conduct by the immigration officer raises questions regarding the constitutional guarantees of equality and non-discrimination on the basis of gender under Articles 27 and 28, the right to the protection of law and personal liberty under Articles 31 and 32, and freedom of movement under Article 36.

Ishrat Hasan said a legal notice had been sent to the additional inspector general of police but no response was received.

When contacted on the official phone number of the Special Superintendent of Police (Immigration Operations) of the Special Branch (SB) regarding the incident, a person answered the phone but declined to identify himself.

The person, while refusing to give his identity, said, “Ask the lawyer of those three women why they could not show hotel bookings. Why could they not say which seminar they were going to?”

Several police officers speaking on condition of anonymity said the Bangladesh government had been warned that Nepal was being used as a route for human trafficking from Bangladesh. As Nepal offers visas on arrival, particular attention is being paid to checking passengers’ documents at airports, they said.

The officers claimed that passengers are stopped if any of their documents appear suspicious. They also claimed that although the three women said they were travelling to attend a seminar, they could not show invitation letters.

However, Assistant Inspector General AHM Shahadat Hossain of the police headquarters’ media wing told Prothom Alo that the matter was now sub judice and therefore he could not comment.

After the incident involving the three women came to light, Sabina Parveen, a gender expert who works at an organisation, shared her experience on social media. She wrote on Facebook that while many people are surprised by the immigration hurdle faced by the three women, many women like herself have faced similar interrogations throughout their lives. Those stories that rarely make the news or are shared on social media.

Sabina Parveen said she and others were travelling to Nepal in November last year to attend a family event. A 52-year-old friend of her sister was also travelling with them. The immigration officer then held the woman back simply because she was not a member of the family. She was later taken to another senior official.

According to Sabina, the officials suspected that the woman could be a victim of human trafficking. After a lengthy argument, the woman eventually received her passport back.

Sabina told Prothom Alo that society has a tendency to view women as subordinate to men. Immigration officials are also part of that very society. In her view, when a woman travels independently, instead of treating it as normal, there is a tendency to question her personal life.

Sabina said, “Trafficking is usually an excuse. Normally, there isn’t this much eagerness to catch traffickers. The mere sight of a woman travelling abroad alone seems to bother them.”

Ferdous Ara Rumi, spokesperson for the political platform Network for People’s Action (NPA) and a rights activist had a similar experience. Writing on Facebook, she said that several years ago, five women were travelling to Nepal to attend a seven-day workshop. They were representatives of five NGOs. All of them had invitation letters for the workshop. Four cleared immigration, but one was stopped.

After asking her various questions, an immigration officer asked the woman whether her husband knew that she was travelling to Nepal for seven days.

Even after the woman said yes, the questioning did not end. The officer took her husband’s phone number and later called him from the officer’s own phone to confirm the matter, Ferdous Ara wrote on Facebook.

Ferdous Ara Rumi herself was also questioned once while travelling abroad alone. As the immigration officer was stamping her passport, he asked, “You didn’t bring your husband?”

Ferdous Ara Rumi told Prothom Alo that such behaviour could stem from a tendency to deny women their independent identity and from prevailing negative perceptions about women. She believes immigration officers sometimes consider such behaviour normal because they have grown up within a patriarchal social structure.

In her view, there is often an assumption that a woman travelling somewhere alone must have questionable character. She said women tend to face greater suspicion when travelling to countries such as Thailand and Nepal.

This reporter was also not spared from facing questioning at immigration while traveling alone. 23 years ago, she obtained her passport after starting her journalism career. Her profession is listed as journalism in the passport. Around 14 years ago, one of her reports won first place in the print category of a competition. As a prize, she received a ticket to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. Since her relatives lived there, she decided to stay at their home.

Her flight was early in the morning, so she went to the airport around midnight and faced immigration. The officer repeatedly examined her passport. It contained her profession as a journalist, information showing that she was married and stamps from previous foreign trips. Yet the officer repeatedly questioned her about why she was travelling to Abu Dhabi.

Even after she explained the reason for the trip, the officer remained suspicious. At one point, he asked her to call the relative living in Abu Dhabi. It was probably around 3am there. The reporter was reluctant to wake her relatives at such an hour. But because the officer remained insistent, she eventually made the call and had the relative speak to him.

She was eventually allowed to travel to Abu Dhabi. But the experience of being questioned at immigration in the middle of the night stayed with her for a long time.

Professor Tania Haque of the Department of Women and Gender Studies at Dhaka University believes it is important to investigate why the three women were not allowed to travel abroad.

She told Prothom Alo that the authorities should disclose the circumstances in which the women were stopped from travelling. If there was no evidence of any criminal activity, there was no justification for preventing three adult women from travelling abroad merely on the basis of suspicion, she said.

If the incident is found to involve negligence of duty or abuse of power by anyone, those responsible should be held accountable, Tania Haque said.

Alongside the questions raised by the court over the case involving the three women, the experiences of other women who have faced similar treatment while travelling abroad alone have also come to light. Screening and verification are necessary to prevent human trafficking. But the question now is whether an adult woman should have to face additional suspicion based on her marital status, her husband’s permission or the presence of a guardian in the name of such screening.