70pc Jamaat women not ready for polls

Jamaat-e-Islami did not nominate any female candidates for directly elected parliamentary seats as 70 percent of its women members expressed unwillingness or lack of readiness to contest the national election, party lawmaker Mardia Mumtaz said on Tuesday.

Mardia, a member of parliament from a reserved women’s seat, said the decision was taken democratically by the party’s Majlish-e-Shura, its highest consultative council.

She made the remarks at a day-long conference organised by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) at the BRAC Centre in Dhaka.

Explaining the reasons behind the decision, Mardia said many female Jamaat members had been forced to shoulder family responsibilities while their male counterparts were imprisoned during the Awami League government’s tenure.

As a result, many women were unable to adequately prepare themselves to participate in electoral politics, she said.

Mardia, however, insisted that Jamaat was not opposed to women’s participation in politics, stressing that female members needed proper training and preparation before contesting elections.

She said the party aimed to develop the leadership capacity of its women members over the next five years so that they could participate in future elections.

Asked whether Jamaat would nominate female candidates for general seats in the upcoming union parishad elections, she said the party was unlikely to do so this time.

“I do not think we will be able to field women candidates for general seats this time. However, we hope we will be able to do so in the future,” she said.

Meanwhile, Umama Fatema, former spokesperson of the Students Against Discrimination, expressed concern over the declining participation of women in politics following the July Uprising.

Speaking at the same conference, she said thousands of women had actively participated in demonstrations across the country and played significant roles in organising the mass movement.

However, their presence in political activities had substantially diminished after the uprising.

“Political parties have used patriarchal structures to push women out of politics. Young women are made to feel that they cannot be political leaders if they speak about women’s rights,” she said.

Umama alleged that existing political structures continued to marginalise women, depriving them of opportunities to assume leadership positions.

She also identified the absence of prominent female political role models, weak support networks and social media algorithms that reinforce gender stereotypes as major barriers to women’s political participation.

“What is particularly concerning is that young men in politics are using institutional and political mechanisms to exclude women. They are not doing this unknowingly,” she said.

Calling for structural reforms within political parties, Umama emphasised the need to strengthen women’s networks and address online harassment and hostility against female political activists.

She warned that unless meaningful changes were introduced, the contributions of women during the July Uprising would not translate into sustainable political representation or leadership.

The conference brought together academics, researchers, activists and legal experts from Bangladesh and abroad to discuss women’s political leadership, transitional justice and the institutionalisation of women’s rights in Muslim-majority societies.