By mid-May, the parliament will have completed the process of filling the 50 reserved seats for women. On Monday, the ruling BNP announced the names of its candidates for the 36 seats allocated to it in proportion to its representation in parliament, while Jamaat-e-Islami and others are expected to announce theirs soon. But in the wake of a mass uprising that intensified calls for parliamentary reforms—including increasing women’s reserved seats and holding direct elections for them—this otherwise routine procedure has become a test of whether the country is willing to move from symbolic inclusion to meaningful power-sharing.
And unless the current system is fundamentally reimagined, it risks reinforcing the very inequalities it claims to dismantle.
Ensuring equal participation and representation of women in parliament is not just a matter of democratic justice; it is foundational to democracy itself. But representation must go beyond tokenistic gestures. It must reflect the full diversity of women’s lived realities across class, ethnicity, religion, disability, and identity. Without this, inclusion becomes illusion, and democracy becomes exclusionary by design.
Globally, women remain underrepresented in political life, particularly in decision-making roles. For women from historically marginalised communities, the barriers are even steeper. While many countries have adopted gender quotas to close the representation gap, few have meaningfully addressed the layered disadvantages faced by minority women. Intersectionality remains the missing piece in most political systems, including Bangladesh’s, where structural inequalities continue to shape who gets to speak, who gets to lead, and who gets left behind.
The promise of gender parity in political leadership was set out decades ago, but progress has been uneven and, in many cases, superficial so far. Women continue to face structural barriers to participation: entrenched social norms, limited access to resources, and systemic discrimination within political parties themselves. These constraints shape their confidence, mobility, and access to political networks, ultimately limiting women’s capacity to lead and to act in the best interests of their communities and the nation at large.
The system of reserved seats for women in parliament has undeniably increased numerical representation. But numbers alone do not equal power. Too often, women elected to these seats are treated as second-tier legislators—without direct constituencies, without independent mandates, and without meaningful control over resources. Their political survival depends not on voters, but on party leadership, reinforcing a hierarchy that sidelines their agency.
In such a setting, accountability flows upwards, not outwards. When MPs owe their positions to party patronage rather than public trust, their ability and willingness to challenge party lines or advocate for transformative change is curtailed. Reserved seats, in this context, risk becoming a ceiling rather than a foundation—a mechanism that contains women’s political empowerment rather than expanding it or strengthening democratic accountability.
Across the country, violence against women in politics, whether physical, psychological, or digital, remains pervasive. In the past, we have seen how women MPs have sometimes faced harassment, intimidation, and gendered attacks aimed at silencing them or diminishing their credibility. Without proper institutional safeguards and enforcement mechanisms, as well as cross-party commitments to address such abuses, the political arena will remain hostile terrain for many, deterring future generations of women leaders.
Media representation often compounds this problem. Women politicians are still judged less by their ideas than by their appearance, marital status, or personal lives. This trivialisation not only undermines individual leaders but also reinforces broader societal biases that discourage women from entering public life.
Given these realities, we must rethink how women are represented in politics, especially in parliament. Political parties must open up their nomination processes. At a minimum, they should be required to publish transparent, merit-based criteria for selecting women to reserved seats, prioritising prior demonstration of leadership, community engagement, and public service over loyalty to or relationships with party elites. At the same time, reserved-seat MPs must be meaningfully connected to citizens through mandatory constituency linkages or structured public consultation mechanisms so that their accountability extends beyond party hierarchies to the people. And most importantly, we must move to direct elections for these seats.
Having cross-party women’s caucuses is also important. These platforms can enable women MPs to collaborate across political divides, advancing a shared agenda on issues such as gender-based violence, equitable budgeting, and social inclusion. But caucuses cannot function on symbolism alone; they require institutional backing and recognition to influence legislation, oversight, and national priorities.
There are models to draw from. In some advanced democracies, women’s parliamentary forums have shown that when women organise collectively, they can shift national priorities and hold systems accountable. Bangladesh does not lack capable, committed women leaders. What it lacks is a political structure that fully enables them to exercise power independently and effectively.
As the time for finalising reserved seats approaches, the public has a right to demand answers to the concerns surrounding these seats. The question is no longer whether enough women will be in parliament. The question is whether they will be allowed to matter, and sufficiently empowered to make a difference.
Farah Kabir is country director of ActionAid Bangladesh.
Views expressed in this article are the author's own.
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