Bangladesh’s women: Visible yet powerless in politics
Source: The Business Standard
As Bangladesh awaits the result of the 2026 national parliamentary election, one statistic should give us pause. Only 78 women are contesting the election — just under 4% of nearly 2,000 candidates. It is being described as a "record number".
Even in the 2024 national election, 128 women (4.71%) contested among 2,713 total candidates. In 2019, 22 women were elected to general seats. This backsliding says more about how political power is structured in Bangladesh than about women's political capacity.
Recently, at a day-long national conference titled Rupture, Reform, and Reimagining Democracy: Navigating the Agony of Transition, organised by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) at BRAC University to reflect on Bangladesh's political transition, a speaker jokingly asked: "Is Bangladesh ready for a male prime minister?"
As Bangladesh awaits the result of the 2026 national parliamentary election, one statistic should give us pause. Only 78 women are contesting the election — just under 4% of nearly 2,000 candidates. It is being described as a "record number".
Even in the 2024 national election, 128 women (4.71%) contested among 2,713 total candidates. In 2019, 22 women were elected to general seats. This backsliding says more about how political power is structured in Bangladesh than about women's political capacity.
Recently, at a day-long national conference titled Rupture, Reform, and Reimagining Democracy: Navigating the Agony of Transition, organised by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) at BRAC University to reflect on Bangladesh's political transition, a speaker jokingly asked: "Is Bangladesh ready for a male prime minister?"