Women’s political participation in Bangladesh

Arpeeta Shams Mizan writes for DOT :
With the national election just around the corner, the voting and political participation is on everybody’s mind. Amidst the entire political hullabaloo, let’s talk about women’s political participation in Bangladesh, Here; I will look at some issues taken for granted by the society.
Women and politics are not related
The relationship between woman and election is not a happy one, but there definitely is a relation. This relationship has two aspects: one is the participation as voter and contestant, and the other is the post election impact upon women, often in the form of violence.
Women have enough participation in Bangladeshi politics
When we talk about women’s right in Bangladesh, we mention safety, equality, employment and property rights. But political rights of women are no less important. The fact that women’s political participation is not highlighted is a consequence of the deep rooted patriarchy. Women’s political participation has always been a struggle. Even in United States of America, the self-proclaimed champion of democracy,women got voting rights in 1920, whereas even the black men could vote earlier. This is how racism trumped over gender equality in case women;s poltical right.
Only affluent have the luxury to vote
From a 2014 report by Meghna Gihathakurta, lower class women in Bangladesh vote more than welatier women, and local elections draw more women viters than national elections.
Women are not politically sharp
Women are not ‘treated’ or ’considered’ as political beings. That a woman will be a political enthusiast, have a good understanding of the political equation in the country is still unimaginable by many people. Girl children are not encouraged or allowed to be present during a political discussion by families, in many places women cannot attend political gatherings because of men’s presence, making women appear immodest. ‘Doing politics’ is a guy thing, so any politically active woman is a bad woman. Female student leaders are stigmatised, and labelled. For most female politicians, the main identity remains ‘women’, not politician.
Women don’t have political views
This not only affects women’s right to vote and political participation, but also restricts her freedom of expression and opinion. In many families, women are assumed to follow to have the same opinion as the male members. It is hard for men to think that his daughter, wife or sister may have different political view. There are instances where it was presumd and in fact, expected, that woman will change their political opinions to match those of her in law’s after marriage. Tthus, like every other sector of life, even in political belief, a woman loses her control. This has graver consequences in terms of applying political opinion: heaven forbid if your male family members are politically indifferent, and consider national elections a joke. if they decide not to attend the polls, it is highly unlikely that a woman would be able to go.
How can women’s political rights are bad in Bangladesh, when we have at least three women as prominent leaders of the three major parties?
Let’s look at it closely. Most prominent women politicians, who are on their own very much competent and prudent, did not start their political journey autonomously. The women in most South Asian countries start their political journey as someone’s wife, mother, daughter, sister. otherwise, their credibility becomes hard to establish. That is how women lose their agency. she is first a relation, and then a party leader. One exception is the celebrities, but then it can be questioned how much of it is due to their pre-existing popularity, because their political prowess is not always tested in the beginning.
Having women MPs does not make any difference
It does. there are many policy matters and legislative issues which need to pass through the gender filter. Laws and policies need to accommodate both men and women, and in absence of women in the parliament, the parliamentary debate will fail to dissect the bill from women’s perspective and end up having many loopholes. It took 47 years for Bangladesh to have baby change stations at the Hazrat Shahjalal Airport, and it was just last week that Supreme Court took steps to refurbish women’s restrooms with menstruation materials. without women in parliament, gender friendly decisions can hardly be made.
Bangladesh has ensured women’s participation through the reserved seats
On the contrary, the reserved seats are a testimony to women’s insufficient participation, that because for political, economic, cultural reasons women are historically lagging behind, positive discrimination must accommodate them. In the current Parliament, we have only 71 female parliamentarians, of whom 50 are from reserved seats. This means, only 21of 300 elected seats (roughly 7%) are women. When 50% of the population are represented by 7% in the parliament , this is not right.
The reserved seat MPs are ineligible or less eligible
Not at all. The reserved seats are needed not because there are no eligible women contestants, but because we failed to secure women’s sufficient contesting. many local level women politicians do not receive political or financial backing from their parties, and fail to do big campaigning. in a country where it is a struggle for women to secure a job, how many women can self finance their nominations and campaignings?
It is rather our prejudicial attitude that the law provides no accountibility for reserved seat MPs and less than necessary fund are allocated to them. They have no resources to work, and no option to talk. The end result is people seeing the reserved seat MPs are puppets. This is an injustice that we must not do against out female MPs. They deserve better.
Reserved seats for women is discrimintion against men.
No. When State will ensure equal participation from men and women, this reserved seats will be no more necessary.
Post election violence over women is not as serious as violence against men
It is very different and far more, if not equally, serious. Post election violence targets women, many not even politically active, because of their affiliations with male political workers. The ‘shame’ of an abused women is used as a weapon against the defeated party. Moreover, the women from the minority communities are far more vulnerable than majority communities. In many countries, fundamentalist governemnts struck down upon women as part of their post election celebrations. It is a war startegy, which the pakistani forces amply applied in 1971.
Without meaningful participation of half of the population, no election, and on a broader scale , no political process can be effective. Let us ensure that our women’s voice are heard and views honored in the upcoming elections.
The writer is a socio-legal analyst. She teaches at University of Dhaka. Email: amizan@llm15.law.harvard.edu