Political reform, stronger women’s leadership urged for gender-sensitive implementation of RPO

Bangla Press Desk:   Speakers at a dialogue stressed the need for structural reforms within political parties and the effective inclusion of women’s leadership to ensure the gender-sensitive implementation of the Representation of the People Order (RPO).

They said that overcoming the country’s long-standing political and social crises requires meaningful participation of women at every level of decision making.

A national level multi stakeholder dialogue on the Representation of the People Order from a gender perspective was held on Thursday at the Six Seasons Hotel in the capital’s Gulshan.

Addressing the dialogue, BNP Standing Committee member Selima Rahman said that the political realities of the past 17 years and earlier had cast a destructive shadow over society, with women being the worst affected. Referring to the 2024 mass uprising, she said women were on the streets until midnight, even risking their lives.

“Yet today, why are women becoming victims of cyberbullying and insecurity? These are the questions we must answer,” she said, calling for men and women to work together to rebuild Bangladesh.

Selima Rahman said, “Women from all political parties must remain united on women-related issues. When a woman moves forward, we often end up standing against her ourselves -- this mindset has to change.

BNP Training Affairs Secretary Rasheda Begum Hira said that women do not believe in violent politics, but despite their qualifications, they are deprived of fair representation.

She said that unless at least one of the three key posts in party committees -- president, general secretary, or organising secretary -- is made mandatory for women, political parties will fail to build strong connections with the people.

Joint Convener of the National Citizen Party (NCP) Monira Sharmin said the aspirations for change that young people brought into politics after 5 August were not reflected in practice.

“The strong political presence we expected to see in mainstream politics from the young people who were on the streets during the mass uprising did not materialise, which is deeply disappointing,” she said.

Expressing frustration over women’s parliamentary representation, she said discussions on how many women would go to parliament were largely dominated by male representatives. “From the NCP, we tried to ensure at least 25% nominations for women and advocated for electing 100 women directly to parliament. Unfortunately, no consensus could be reached among political parties on this issue,” she added.

Monira Sharmeen further said that women’s representation should not be limited to numbers alone; real change would only be possible when political parties recognise women’s roles based on merit, active participation, and their importance in decision-making processes.

She also pointed out the psychological bias in society, where the same statement is celebrated differently depending on whether it is made by a man or a woman, stressing the need for greater awareness and counselling among political party leaders and activists.

In this context, Wave Foundation, in partnership with ActionAid Bangladesh, is implementing the “Gender-Responsive and Inclusive Decision-Making for Democratic Reforms (GRIP)” project. Under the project, research is being conducted on political parties’ positions on the RPO, along with studies on gender-sensitive implementation in party constitutions and election manifestos, orientation sessions, and the preparation of evaluation-based reports.

BP/SP