Religion: Protests Against Women's Policy Cripple Bangladesh

Police clashed with demonstrators and arrested dozens in Bangladesh as a hard-line group enforced a paralyzing general strike Monday protesting a new policy giving women equal inheritance rights.

While the strike was called to broadly seek the adoption of Islamic law in the Muslim-majority nation of 150 million people, its specific agenda was to oppose the government's new policy on women's inheritance rights.

Under the government's new rules, every child inherits the same amount.

Despite being governed mostly by secular laws, Bangladesh generally follows Islamic law in family-related matters, including marriage and inheritance.

The Quran's elaborate rules on inheritance are complicated. However, while there are several exceptions, in most cases a daughter inherits half of what is received by a son.

For more, see Protests Against Women's Policy Cripple Bangladesh by The Associated Press, April 4, 2011 at NYTimes.com.