Tasmiah Nuhiya Ahmed
This year the campaign theme for International Women’s Day was #EachforEqual. This has been the theme because it is believed that an equal world is an enabled world. Under this campaign, each one of us is supposed to help create a gender equal world.
However, if we look into women’s participation in politics, the picture is quite frustrating globally and Bangladesh is not an exception even though Bangladesh is considered a role model in achieving women empowerment goals. There is a famous quote that “There will be no equality for women unless women make the law”.
Conventionally politics is viewed as a male dominated activity which is typically masculine in nature. According to G. Hofstede (2013) masculinity pertains to societies in which social gender roles are clearly distinct. The predominant pattern is for men to be more assertive and for women to be more nurturing. Therefore, women have always been encouraged to participate in politics. In most contexts, there is a culture that imposes on women a role different from the one that is set aside for men. This conservative attitudes and cultural expectations for women create barrier to their political representation across the world.
It is undeniable that the value of political equality is central to the normative theories of democracy which considers that women are equal citizens and therefore should share equal rights to that of men in public decision making. However, this objective is yet to be achieved across the globe. Globally women’s under representation is attributed to many factors like lack of education, economic inability, family responsibilities, religion, stereotypes in society, electoral system, party ideology, psychological barriers (lack of assertive power, low self -esteem) etc. Most of the developing countries are struggling to remove these barriers. Bangladesh has progressed a lot in eradicating these barriers, however; we still have a long way to go.
In Bangladesh, one definitely has to appreciate the current key political positions held by women: head of the government, leader of the opposition, Chief Speaker at the national parliament.
Although the third amendment to the Representation of the People Order (RPO) 1972 requires political parties to set the goal of reserving at least 33 percent of all committee positions for women including the central committee, progressively achieving this goal by the year 2020, in reality almost all major political parties have failed to incorporate gender equality in their party structure. A review of political party documents and election manifesto showed that women's representation within the major political parties is still very low.
In the 11th general election, 22 women were directly elected among in 299 constituencies. Despite this, the percentage of women elected to parliament is less than 8%—not even reaching double digits. With 50 seats already reserved for women, the total percentage of female representatives stands at 20.3%. Among the 22 directly-elected members of parliament (MPs), 19 are from the ruling Awami League, two from Jatiya Party (JaPa), and one from Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal (JSD).
The tenure of the reserved seats for women was extended to 25 years under the government led by Awami League. However, until the major political parties nominate more women to run for directly-contested seats, a gender balanced parliament cannot be achieved.
According to “Global Gender Gap Report 2018” published by the World Economic Forum (WEF), Bangladesh has closed over 72% of its overall gender gap, retaining its topmost position among the South Asian countries in ensuring gender equality.
Experts claim Bangladesh has been a role model for women’s empowerment in the past decade, and consequently the society has experienced a positive change because of the efforts made in this regard.
Bangladesh has made commendable progress in making a gender equal society under the leadership of our Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has been awarded for her contributions in women empowerment. All these achievements make me feel proud as a woman of Bangladesh. However, experts still are saying that almost all registered political parties are set to miss their target of ensuring 33 per cent representation of women in their committees by 2020.
While concluding, I would say that we must not lose hope as the incumbent government is relentlessly working for ensuring women’s rights through empowering us. The Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibar Rahman started the process of uplifting the women status by establishing equal rights of woman with man in all spheres of the state and of public life as constitutional obligation under Article-28.
The Government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has undertaken various steps to ensure women and children development in Bangladesh. Present government is committed to attaining the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of gender equality and empowering women as well as implementing the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and the Beijing Platform for Action.
Bangladesh has already substantially achieved the MDG3 as it has achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education at the national level, among other successes of the MDGs. Bangladesh has been working tirelessly to ensure women’s overall development by ensuring their equal and active participation in the mainstream socio-economic activities and removing the various impediments to their empowerment.
During this Mujibborsho, as a representative of women of our society, it is my humble request to our honorable Prime Minister that make politics accessible to an ordinary woman who has no influence or connections. “A woman can achieve everything and anything”- let us prove that though ensuring more participation of women in politics.
For the entire nation, this is a very special year as we are observing the birth centenary of our Father of the nations. On this special occasion, I believe our current government shall undertake more initiatives for increasing women’s participation in politics.
Tasmiah Nuhiya Ahmed is an Advocate of Bangladesh Supreme Court