Bangladesh’s law minister on Sunday said that transgender people in the country would soon be able to inherit property, following the latest spate of reforms aimed at giving minority groups more rights in the conservative nation.

The South Asian country, home to 168 million people is officially secular, but property legislations in the country are in strict accordance with religious laws, reported AFP. The transgender community in country are barred from inheriting estates on the death of their parents.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a cabinet meeting earlier this week stated that new inheritance laws were being drafted for the Hijra community, an umbrella term referring to someone who is born male but does not refer to themselves as a man or woman.

“We’re trying to frame a legislation in accordance with the Islamic sharia law and our constitution which will ensure the property rights for a transgender family member,” reported AFP quoting Law Minister Anisul Huq.

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While the bill is yet to be placed in the parliament, the Hasina government expects to pass the bill without hassle.

Bangladesh allowed it’s transgender people population of 1.5 million to identify as separate gender since 2013, as per AFP report.

In 2019, the community was accorded to register to vote as a third gender and in October 2020, the country also inaugurated its first Islamic school for Transgender Muslims.

Right activists welcomed the reform but were apprehensive about the law being enforceable on families that abandon their transgender offspring.

Ananya Banik, who spearheads the transgender rights group Sadakalo stated, “As an activist, I am happy the issue is getting focus. But it’s not just a matter of legislation, rather it requires a change in the entire society.”

Banik added that she came out as a transgender at the age of 16 and said, “I had to leave my family because of the pressure they received from other families when I was growing up. And I’m not alone, there are hundreds of thousands of members in our community who had to leave their families behind.”

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Right’s groups however fear a backlash from religious hardliners.