bangladesh
Compared to Pakistan, women in Bangladesh
have participated even more in social and political
movements; they participated in the various peo-
ple’s movements against Pakistan’s government,
such as the language movement of 1952 and the
student movement of the 1960s. Women cultural
activists were in the forefront of the resistance to
the assault on Bengali culture. The country’s lead-
ing female poet – Begum Sufia Kamal – was the
conscience and leader of civil society, protesting
against autocratic military rule and demanding a
secular and democratic polity. In the 1954 provin-
cial assembly election women were directly elected
to seven reserved seats in the assembly. Several
women gained prominence as top ranking leaders
of political parties. In 1966, Anwara Khatun led
the main Bengali nationalist party, the Awami
League, when its male leadership was imprisoned.
During the 1950s and 1960s, several women’s
voluntary neighborhood associations emerged pro-
moting literacy and skill training for women. In
1969, the country’s largest women’s organization,
the Mahila Parishad, was established to advocate
for the release of political prisoners. The Mahila
Parishad is now a multi-faceted organization for
women’s rights with more than 100,000 members
throughout Bangladesh. Following the birth of
Bangladesh in 1971, thousands of NGO women
fieldworkers went to villages to mobilize millions
of rural women to access education, health care,
credit, and employment. Though the majority of
women involved in NGO activities are either field-
workers or “beneficiaries,” women lead some pro-
minent NGOs such as Nijera Kori, Ain o Salish
Kendra, and the Preep Trust.
Many NGOs emphasize women’s issues (Jahan
1995). Over 500 women’s organizations are regis-
tered with the women’s ministry. Some, like
Women for Women and Nari Pokkho, focus on
feminist research, advocacy, and training. Others,
like Bangladesh Mahila Ainjibi Samity, focus on
women’s rights. Some work in specific sectors, for
example, garment workers, commercial sex work-
ers, and migrant labor. Others, such as Sammalito
Nari Samaj and the National Committee on
Beijing, are umbrella organizations, lobbying for
specific policy and action.
In the three decades since independence, gender
issues have certainly entered the mainstream dis-
course. Beginning with issues of “women in devel-
opment” (WID), women’s rights activists have
expanded the feminist discourse to include sex-
uality, violence, human rights, and political par-
ticipation. They have also built alliances with a54 civil society and democracy ideologies
broad array of civil society organizations headed
by men. Civil society protests around issues of vio-
lence againstwomen draw widespread participation
of men.
Women’s increasing participation in civil society
organizations is accompanied by increasing partic-
ipation in politics. At the time of independence,
there were no women directly elected by the citizens
to the national parliament. The 1973 constitution
provided for 300 general and 15 reserved women’s
seats to be elected by the general members of the
parliament. Later the number of women’s reserved
seats increased to 30. Similarly a 30 percent quota
for women was reserved in local councils, again
indirectly elected. In the early 1980s, the two major
mainstream political parties of the country chose
two female leaders, Sheikh Hasina (the Awami
League) and Khaleda Zia (Bangladesh Nationalist
Party) as party presidents in order to hold the vari-
ous feuding factions together. In the last quarter
century these two women not only maintained their
hold on the party but also led pro-democracy move-
ments and ruled the country after winning three
successive democratic elections.
While Hasina and Khaleda owe their leadership
positions primarily to dynastic connections (Jahan
1987), several women (Motia Chowdhury and
Sajeda Chowdhury in the Awami League) have
emerged as top ranking leaders without any famil-
ial ties. As prominent figures in civil society, some
women led political movements that had major
social and political impact. For example, in the late
1980s and early 1990s Jahanara Imam, a literary
figure, led the Ghatak Dalal Nirmal Committee
(committee to eliminate killers and collaborators),
which mobilized public opinion against the post-
1975 military government’s policy of rehabilitating
collaborators with the Pakistanis.
With the return of democratic elections, women’s
organizations started a public advocacy campaign
in favor of direct elections for 30 percent of
women’s reserved seats in the national parliament
and local bodies. In 1997 direct elections were
introduced in local elections, but not for the
national parliament. Since the expiration of the
women’s quota system in 2001, women hold just 2
percent of the parliamentary seats; however 9 per-
cent of cabinet posts are held by women. Women’s
voting percentage has also steadily increased and at
present they vote in higher numbers than do men.
Many observers have argued that in 1996 election
results were determined by the women’s swing vote,
when they voted in favor of the Awami League to
resist the rising strength of the officially sponsored
Islamist forces.