There is no denying that, over the decades, Bangladesh has made notable strides in women’s empowerment, at least when discussing economic participation. However, our country’s political landscape remains stubbornly male-dominated. With a population that is half female, our democracy cannot thrive on symbolic representation alone, which is why the recent call from women's rights activists at Central Shaheed Minar this week demanding direct elections to reserved seats, is not just timely but essential.
According to reports, women’s rights activists on Saturday demanded direct elections to the reserved seats for women in the National Parliament, urging political parties to ensure meaningful representation and end the current system of nomination that often sidelines women’s leadership.
This is absolutely true. The current practice of nominating women to reserved parliamentary seats, while intended to boost inclusion, often limits female leaders to ceremonial roles within tightly controlled party structures. But our women politicians deserve to be elected and not simply selected. Without direct electoral mandates, their voices remain subordinate and their capacity to bring about real progress, not only for women but society at large, gets all the more stunted.
With rising violence against women and limited accountability among nominated MPs, genuine representation becomes more than a numbers game. Even more so in the context of a deeply patriarchal society such as ours, where women are not only oppressed economically, despite record numbers of women joining the formal workforce, but socially as well, with their rights often trampled due to retrograde beliefs.