Policy and Legal Study on Political Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh Meghna Guhathakurta APARAJITA, 2018 Helvetas, Dhaka, Bangladesh ACRONYMS ADB Asian Development Bank AL Awami League BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BNP Bangladesh Nationalist Party CEDAW Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women DGFI Directorate General of Forces Intelligence ECB Election Commission of Bangladesh FPTP First past the Post GOB Government of Bangladesh HIES Household Income and Expenditure Survey ICCPR International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights JP Jatiyo Party KII Key Informant Interview MoWCA Ministry of Women and Children Affairs MP Member of Parliament NAP National Action Plan NHRC National Human Rights Commission NSI National Security Intelligence PM Prime Minister RPO Representation of Peoples Order RTI Right to Information STV Single Transferable Vote SYFP Sixth Five Year Plan SYFP Seventh Five Year Plan UDHR Universal Declaration of Human Rights UN United Nations UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNGA United Nations General Assembly UP Union Parishad WDP Women’s Development Policy  TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary 5 Gender Analysis: Context and Dynamics of Legal Political Social and Economic Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh 8 National Discourses of policy instruments related to political empowerment of women 11 Relevant policies related to political empowerment of women with objectives 11 Debates and issues at the national level ensuing from policy provisions 14 Debates and issues arising from policy provisions and their impact at the local governance level 17 Success stories and gaps identified in linking policy provisions with political Empowerment 20 National discourses of legal provisions (constitutional and international) 21 Relevant laws relevant to political empowerment of women with objectives 21 Debates and issues at the national level ensuing from legal provisions 25 Debates and issues arising from legal provisions and their impact at the local governance level 28 Success stories and gaps identified in linking legal provisions with political empowerment of women 31 Concluding analysis and commentary on political empowerment: triangulation of legal and policy analysis with empirical findings from the field 33 Set of recommendations and suggestions for forthcoming interventions in Aparajita project 35 References and Bibliography 37  EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The current phase of the Aparajita project seeks to influence improvement in policies and the legal framework to foster women’s political empowerment, as well as to foster debates at the national and local level with the aim of making headway in changing policies. The objectives of the current study isto analyse the context of women’s political participation and empowerment at the national and local level.It will evaluate existing policies and legal frameworks for political empowerment of women as well as identify the challenges in implementing these policies on the ground. The study will also examine the extent to which existing interventions by the civil society have been effective in changing the patriarchal landscape in which women must contest and struggle to survive and create change. The study is based on a review of existing research, policies and legal frameworks as well as a field investigation to examine the way in which political discourses are being shaped at the national and local level in relation to policies and legal frameworks relating to women’s political empowerment. A review of secondary sources included existing research and relevant laws and policies of the Bangladesh Government and the primary sources included field work in four constituencies at the Union Parishad level. Policy and legal reviews found the Bangladesh Government committed to principles of gender equality through its Constitution, Seventh Five Year Plan, National Women’s Development Policy, various legal acts and provisions as well as through different international obligations like the SDGs, CEDAW and other UN treaty bodies. However in both national and local levels the implementations of these principles met with challenges resulting in less than optimum outcome for women’s political empowerment. The reasons behind these challenges were both institutional and social. Structural conditions such as patriarchal and patrilineal power relationships were seen to be embedded in institutions and communities and flaws in the legal provisions, such as unequal inheritance laws also contributed to denying access to women in economic and political spheres. Furthermore new situational factors and dynamics such as corporatization of the economy, increasing authoritarian state policies and practices, dominance of the party in local elections and the growth of technology have exaggerated women’s challenges towards achieving gender equality. It is in the light of these situations and the lessons learned from women’s own experiences at the national and local level that the following recommendations have been made for consideration of the project partners. The suggested recommendations are categorized according to the following: (a) programmatic (b) advocacy,(c) coordination (d) capacity building. Programmatic Since political parties are key stakeholders at the local level, it will be necessary to engage with them. Dialogues can be held with them on women’s issues. The issue of 33% representation in party committees can be taken up with political parties at the national and local level. This can be done by linking women parliamentarians with LG on issues. Parliamentary standing committee members may also be engaged. (Rokhsana Khondker, KII)Political party influence is increasing hence party should be addressed but diligently.A strategy needs to be worked out together (Wajed, KII) Local level women in politics need to link up with national leaders. A Dhaka-based training will make local leaders come closer with national in terms of gender issues. National leaders since they lack a hard constituency will become engaged at the local level through the leaders at the grassroots and geared up in a campaign strategy. Links with Parliamentary Standing Committee on Local Government should also be established (Rokhsana Khondker, KII) Women leaders must engage on the basis of inclusivity, diversity and anti-discrimination (Ranjan Karmakar and Aroma Dutta, KII) Create more breeding ground for women’s political environment in all working areas Develop strategy how to deal with business and corporate circles as they often help to decidenominations (Rafiq. KII) Minority women who are especially intimidated to contest elections or work for political parties should be focused on for extra support in relevant localities. The program needs to be up-scaled and include long term processes (Wajed Firoz, and Aroma Dutta, KII) Advocacy Child rights and youth empowerment need to be brought in as an advocacy issue ( Rokhsana Khondker, KII) Focus attention on 33% seats by the year 2020. But a milestone approach is needed. This can be advocated to the EC. This would need just a Just a change in Guidelines and can go through executive. Parliamentary process is not needed. The ruling party can make some pilot areas as exemplary ( Alim, KII) Nominations are typically partisan. In -house debates within parties may be encouraged. 30% voluntary nominations for women members with party funding maybe advocated. Example of Scandinavian countries maybe learnt from. Nomination practice has to change. Top down nominations create problems at the grass roots leads to power plays and rifts. (Alim, KII) Previously RPO contained provision of names coming from grassroots into the nomination board of each party. Now the practice is no longer there. It could be advocated for again (Alim, KII) Some changes are longer term like change in mindset. Acceptance of women contesting general seats at the local level will take timeand may come about through programs and advocacy at the root level. ( Alim, KII) Include confidence building for the newly emerging educated women who are increasingly participating in Local Government Institutes, and who often lack confidence to participate in public affairs. Election Commission and the election process from the local to national level is gender blind. The EC only serves for the political party and their candidates. They do not protect women or individual candidates. Therefore, it is important for the programme to work with the EC. Advocate the government to establish a permanent Local Government Commission in which the Commission could play a coordinating role between the central administration and the local bodies in terms of carrying out development activities Coordination Brainstorming in inception phase so that partners develop common understanding. Regular coordination and meeting for review Openness: Space for maneuver and change must be there i.e. the flexibility to change original design of the project on the basis of lessons learned. (Ranjan Karmakar, KII) An apex body can be created that can link and work with EC and also talk in other relevant forum on women’s political empowerment. Capacity building A Total capacity-building framework needs to be designed involving women leaders, Government and NGOs. ( Ranjan Karmakar, KII) Income earning skills for women for women’s economic empowerment Sensitization of male colleagues and also novice women members on the special role and responsibilities of women members in the UP and Upazilla level Knowledge on the more recent laws that have been enacted such RPO, 2013, ICT Act. Use of technology and social media by women members along with informed practices Create fund raising skills for both UP and individually Supporting and strategizing women in contesting general seats Make women capable on using general electronic and print media for their own benefits Research/policy paper: More research is needed to learn how aspiring women candidates can make themselves visible on the radar of the party brokers, or talent scouts, since these scouts appear to overlook women despite indications that there are both political and psychological advantages to their inclusion. This can also be turned into a policy paper for advocacy. A more thorough research focused on the impact of reserved seats for women in Union Parishad level is needed. Policy and Legal Study on Political Empowerment of Women Meghna Guhathakurta Gender Analysis: Context and Dynamics of Legal Political Social and Economic Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh Half of Bangladesh’s population are women. According to the Bangladesh census report 2011, the ratio of men and women in Bangladesh is 103:100 and the total number of women is 7.47 crore whereas the number of men is 7.49 crore (BBS, 2011). Though women represent half of the population, they are not free from various social, political, economic and cultural barriers. Gender inequality disfavoring women is deeply embedded in thecountry’s patrilineal and patriarchal kinship system where traditionally women performs thedependent role of daughter, wife and mother and although as part of the broader process of social and economic development, the status of women have undergone transformative changes,some legal and systemic constraints remain especially towards their political empowerment and mobility. Various indicators suggest that women in Bangladesh almost always have less opportunitieswhen it comes to access to health, education, income, decision-making power and legal rights that also affects their participation in the public sphere Some of the positive changes in women’s lives are that the difference between sexes inschool enrolment has disappeared in the primary and secondary level,women’s participation in labor markets has increased considerably reducing the gender gap ineconomic spheres, women’s life expectancy has become equal to or even exceeded that of themen (BBS 2009), and women’s mobility/visibility in public life has increased substantially bothin rural and urban areas. Such positive changes for women, in most part, were achieved, as a result of conscious efforts made by the government including NGOs to bring improvement in the lives ofwomen and mainstream them into the country’s development process. But the question remains as to how far this has affected political empowerment of women. Political empowerment means only the greater increase of the participation of women in broader political processes, but also engendering policies and practices at all levels to address many of the constraints that limit the life chances of disadvantaged women and prevent the strategic presence of women in political and public spaces. As an example it has been seen that regardless of politicalsystems, the proportion of women innational parliaments around the world isextremely low, averaging 13.8 per cent in2000 (Goetz and Hassim, 2003). This is an extraordinaryunder-representation of women in thehighest structures of governance in their countries. Various forms of bias in theinstitutions of civil society and the politicalsphere operate to exclude women,including women from privileged elites. The structure of the political spheremakes a difference to how many women arefielded as candidates and how many win.This includes the extent to which politicalparties have taken institutional root insociety; have clear rules about candidateselection; and identify relevant policyconcerns. Most important, is the politicalculture in which parties operate and theextent to which it is conducive to thepromotion of women’s involvement in politics: the strength or weakness of patriarchal ideology, the existence ofpluralist forms of organisation, the degree ofreligious opposition to gender reforms. Electoral systems are also important. Theones more likely to bring women intopolitical office are those where more than oneperson can represent a constituency; thosethat have multiple parties competing forvotes; and those that practice proportionalrepresentation (PR) in party lists.Those less likely to do so are majoritariansystems which create the incentive to field asingle candidate per constituency and appealto the majority, rather than accommodatingdiversity. Furthermore the way that quotas are applied makes adifference to whether the presence of womenis ‘token’ or a legitimate form ofrepresentation. Whereas in Bangladesh,women’s seats were filled by the party inpower, they simply became an additional votebank for the ruling regime. Objectives of the paper The Aparajita project phase 1 of the project which has been operating from 2011 to February 2017 has been building the capacities and agency of elected women representatives and potential women representative, in order to enable them to influence decisions and allocation of resources towards more pro-poor and gender sensitive services and also equip them with the necessary skills and confidence to contest in elections. The current phase of the project also seeks to influence improvement in policies and the legal framework to foster women’s political empowerment, as well as foster debates at the national level on the issue with the aim of making headway in changing policies. Towards this goal, the objectives of the current study isto analyse the context of women’s political participation and empowerment at the national and local level. The study, among other things, will attempt to understand the complex reasons that act as constraints to women’s full participation in politics—from discriminations at the institutional level (from the government itself to the parties the women represent) to the community level and the family itself. It will evaluate existing policies and legal frameworks for political empowerment of women as well as identify the challenges in implementing these policies on the ground. The study will also examine the extent to which existing interventions by the civil society have been effective in changing the patriarchal landscape in which women must contest and struggle to survive and create change. Methodology and structure of the paper: The study is based on a review of existing research, policies and legal frameworks as well as a field investigation to examine the way in which political discourses are being shaped at the national and local level in relation to policies and legal frameworks relating to women’s political empowerment A review of secondary sources included existing research and relevant laws and policies of the Bangladesh Government and the primary sources included field work in four constituencies at the Union Parishad level. Areas for FGDs were selected in consultation with Helvetas: These were in Rajshahi and Cox’s Bazaar. Two past Aparajita Unions were selected: they were Deopara Union, in Godagari, Rajshahi (PRIP Trust) and Chakmarpul Union in Ramu, Cox’s Bazar (Khan Foundation). Control groups which were non-Aparajita areas were selected as Sheelmaria in Putia, Rajshahi and Palongchhari, in Ukhiya Union, Cox’s Bazaar. Two FGDs were held in each field one with past candidates potential women candidates and the second with UP women members and total UP members Several Key Informant Interviews(KII) were also taken that included partners of previousAparajita project and also resource persons. Challenges of the field visits - In Rajshahi both fields had long time experiences of Sharique projects hence the reception to the team was warm and cooperative as Helvetas was well known in the area. However due to rain, in Deopara we could not keep two separate FGDs but had to combine them into one. - In Cox’s Bazar we had difficulty with the control group. Initially the Union selected was Chakoria but the condition of Chakoria was flooded and the UP Chair could not give time. As a substitute Ukhiya was chosen, but the Union Parishad (UP) Chair was unavailable due to illness. Also since the contact person was an independent person of the locality and Helvetas was not working there before, hence the communication was not smooth. The UP Chair asked whether the program (meaning APARAJITA) will give them something concrete or material. - In terms of party affiliation, most of the women representatives, past candidates and current ones we met were from the ruling party Awami League. However in Sheelmaria, the three women members were from BNP; the dynamics will be explained later. - We could not hear any male opinion from Ukhiya as they were not present and only one women member turned up. However we could talk in-depth with her of the problems faced by women. The paper has been structured as follows: Gender Analysis: Context and Dynamics of Legal Political Social and Economic Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh National Discourses of policy instrumentsrelated to political empowerment of women Relevant policiesrelated to political empowerment of women with objectives Debates and issues at the national level ensuing from policy provisions e.g. national women’s policy, SDG Debates and issues arising from policy provisions and their impact at the local governance level e.g. women negotiating the political system Success stories and gaps identified in linking policy provisions with political empowerment National discourses of legal provisions (constitutional and international e.g. treaties signed by the GoB) related to political empowerment of women Relevant laws relevant to political empowerment of women with objectives Debates and issues at the national level ensuing from legal provisions e.g. quotas, reservations Debates and issues arising from legal provisions and their impact at the local governance level e.g. RPO Success stories and gaps identified in linking legal provisions with political empowerment of women Concluding analysis and commentary on political empowerment: triangulation of legal and policy analysis with empiricalfindings from the field Set of recommendations and suggestions for forthcoming interventions in Aparajita project National Discourses of policy instruments related to political empowerment of women Relevant policies related to political empowerment of women The Government’s approach towards gender equality has evolved over time since the Fourth Five Year Plan from the welfare approach to a women’s rights and efficiency base approach mainstreaming gender and women’s empowerment in the overall development process. The consecutive five year plans and the poverty reduction strategies have progressively incorporated strategies and measures in reducing women’s disadvantage, increasing women’s voice and agency and promoting gender equality. The actions taken have brought about significant improvements in social development and gender equality indicators. The Country adopted its Sixth Five Year Plan (SFYP), 2011-2015 to accelerate growth and reduce poverty, which was formulated within the framework of the Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021. The Seventh Five Year Plan (SFYP) was developed within the framework of the Government’s Vision 21 where it mentions, “Gender Equality is assured”. The vision of Seventh FYP declared, “The vision for women's advancement and rights is to create a society where men and women will have equal opportunities and will enjoy all fundamental rights on an equal basis. To achieve this vision, the mission is to ensure women’s advancement and rights in activities of all sectors of the economy. The Government formulated it first Women’s Development Policy (WDP) in 1997, updated it in 2011 and formulated two National Action Plans (NAP) in 1997 and in 2013 for its implementation. The national policy for the advancement of women was at first adopted in 1997. It included commitments to eliminate discrimination against women and girls in all spheres promoting women equality in areas of education and training, health and nutrition, housing and shelter, politics and administration. A national Action Plan for implementing the policy as well as meeting commitments of the Beijing Platform for Action was approved in 1998. Women Development policy was amended in 2004 and in 2008 respectively. The present government has declared, approved and amended the National Women’s Development Policy in 2011. National Women’s Development Policy The objectives of the National Women’s Development Policy are as follows (GoB, 2011): To establish equal rights of men and women in areas of state and public life in the light of the constitution of Bangladesh; To ensure socio-economic, political, administrative and legal empowerment of women while establishing gender equality; To ensure full and equal participation of women in the mainstream socio economic development recognizing women's contribution in socio-economic areas; To bring up women as educated and skilled human resources delivering them from the curse of poverty; To remove existing male-female disparities as well as to eliminate all forms of abuse of women and female children; To innovate and import technology favoring the interest of women and prohibit anti-women technologies; To take appropriate steps to ensure sound health and nutrition as well as proper shelter and housing of women; To arrange rehabilitation of affected women in natural calamities and armed conflicts; To ensure rights of the disabled women and women belonging to the smaller ethnic groups; To ensure security and safety of women in all areas of state, social and family life including the widowed, aged, guardian less, divorced, unmarried and childless women; k. To reflect gender equality in the mass media regarding the positive image of the women and female children; and overall l. To assist in flourishing the talented and genius women of their creative potentials. The implementation mechanisms of National Women’s Development Policy at the national level are to be coordinated by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs and at the field level, the District and Upazila offices. Women are also to be mobilized at the grassroots and links between Government and local NGOs are also envisaged in the document. Seventh Five Year Plan Significant policies and strategies have been incorporated in the Seventh Five Year Plan (SFYP) to increase women’s participation in economic, political and social life and to remove the existing barriers to women’s advancement. The SFYP recognized the different priorities of women and needs to address women’s interests while planning development interventions. It followed a two-pronged approach in addressing gender based discrimination, firstly, integration of gender into sectoral interventions and secondly giving specific attention to remove all policy and social biases against women. The period of the Sixth FYP has shown major achievements in areas like economic growth, reduction of poverty, improvements in the trends of human development, life expectancy and others. The Household Income and Expenditure Survey (HIES) 2010 data revealed that the incidence of poverty has declined at an average1.74 percentage points during 2000to 2010. Life expectancy for men rose from 64.4 to 67.9 and for women it rose from 65.8 to 70.3 years during 2005-2010. According to the Social Progress Index 2014 by Social Progress Imperatives, the score of Bangladesh was 52.04 which was higher compared to that of Nepal, India and Pakistan in the region. A number of Seventh FYP Strategies address gender issues and the following refers to increasing the participation of women in politics: “Women’s participation in the National Parliament and local government has increased but the evidence of women raising their voices on behalf of women’s rights is limited. Women’s political orientation should be enhanced through apprenticeship, training, and campaignsand by establishing support and monitoring mechanisms to increase their participation as contestants in regular seats. Some projects have introduced training of women public representatives and citizens and monitoring of women’s role in different committees. Steps should be taken so that these approaches are uniformly practiced. The provisions of Representation of peoples Order (RPO) 2013 relating to women’s participation and representation in political parties should be ensured by enforcing it within the registration criteria. In the current system, women Parliamentarians do not have a specific constituency, and therefore, they have less opportunity to contribute to a community or build support and there is no mechanism for them to be accountable to the public. Change in the constitutional provision for assigning them specific constituency and direct election has been a demand for long time from civil society. This needs to be considered positively.”(GoB, 2015: 729) International obligations The international treaties that the Bangladesh Government is signatory toalso speaks of rights of women to participate in the broader public sphere. The participation of women in political decision-making positions was recognized as a political right after the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948. UDHR Articles 2 and 21 stipulate equal enjoyment of political rights without discrimination on the basis of one’s sex or any other ground. In 1966, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR) reaffirmed the UDHR principle of the right to participate in public and political life without discrimination. Despite the principles enshrined in the UDHR and ICCPR, discrimination against women regarding voting and holding political office has persisted around the world. In order to address overt discrimination, it became necessary for the United Nations to adopt a convention dedicated to protecting the political rights of women. Hence, the Convention on the Political Rights of Women was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in 1952. This Convention, one of the early covenants adopted in the area of women’s rights promotion and protection, affirms the right of women to vote and hold public office without discrimination. The Political Rights Convention was followed by the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), which the UNGA adopted in 1979. CEDAW moved the right of political participation another step towards de facto equality by affirming the obligation of State Parties to take affirmative action to accelerate the participation of women in politics and their representation in other public decision-making positions. The Bangladesh government has also adhered to the UN Declaration of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the title “Transforming Our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals, where Goal Five explicitly states that women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making at political, economic and public life should be ensured. It was also maintained that realizing gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will make a crucial contribution to progress across all the goals and targets. The theme of women’s leadership is therefore highlighted in the process of transformation of the world that this important document envisages and hence foregrounds women’s political participation in the transforming economy of Bangladesh. Debates and issues at the national level ensuing from policy provisions The above-mentioned policies talk of greater participation of women in the political process and in decision-making posts. But the national level discourses indicate that the expected level of participation is still wanting. More women participated as candidates in the 2008 Parliamentary elections than at any previous time in Bangladesh’s history. 59 women candidates were registered in the 9th parliamentary election as compared to 39 in the 8th and 37 in the 7th. www.ecs.gov.bd downloaded 19th April 2014.Applications for nominations from women have increased tenfold since the last Parliament. Interview with General Secretary of the Jatiyo Party by the author. He noted that in the 9th Parliament there were 15 applications out of which they had to choose three. In the current 10th Parliament, there are 96 applications out of which they had to choose six. Yet studies show that although the number of women has increased in both national and local levels, some enabling and constraining factors impact on their participation.Factors that influence women to stand for office in Bangladesh are of socio-cultural, political, institutional and individual nature. They can be understood from (a) institutional/electoral aspects (b) social aspects. Participation from the institutional/electoral aspects For any candidate to the national elections, male or female, there are two stages to the nomination process. The first stage is to gain the nomination of a political party as a party candidate. Once chosen by a political party as a candidate, the next stage is to complete the official election candidate registration procedure. One study Abdela, L. and M. Guhathakurta, (2014) “A report on Women and Elections in Bangladesh” Indevelop and Tana. shows that getting nominated as a candidate by a party for direct elections, or being selected for a reserve seat in Parliament is the single most important first achievement for a woman with aspirations for a political career. Yet this can be also be one of the most disappointing and frustrating points of her career as well. The political party nomination process can be described as a litmus test of the candidate’s popularity, financial and networking strength. Party networks, alliances and support base proved crucial for women’s nomination processes. A Jatiyo Party representative said, “Although they are currently neglected, the women’s wing of parties still endorse the existence of women in the party.” Men cultivate such networks very effectively as most leading personalities in the networks are men and male bonding is embedded in existing political culture. Due to cultural complexity, there are barriers for women to mix freely with men. In fact, in many social events women and men are still seated separately. The women’s wings were perceived as leverage for women to gain posts, e.g. President or Vice President, which would give them visibility and the stature that is often needed as a channel for them to become important party representatives, but, this did not necessarily ensure their nomination. Women’s participation in politics is complicated as many of them are not financially independent but have to rely on their husbands or male relatives. This means that the funding for nomination processes and political campaigns are extremely dependent on family loyalty. This is also true of local level politics. Hardly anyone is familiar with fund-raising activities commonly used in other countries. (Abdela and Guhathakurta, 2015) Most women candidates from mainstream partiesface a problem of funding for their election campaigns. A need was felt to learn from the experience from political parties of other countries where they raise funds in a different way, mainly through voluntary contributions. Although on paper, there is a ceiling for election spending, almost every participant has to spend two or three times more than that amount. There is no legal action against such extra or excess spending. Corruption in political parties is often considered as the main determining factor for women not running for office as it very often works against the selection of women candidates. Even when women have been ready to pay to get selected they do not possess equal amounts of wealth as their male counterparts. Only women from exceptional background in politics manage to be successfully elected despite not having sufficient financial back-up, the reason being that along with political capital they also went to the voters personally on a door to door campaign in order gain credibility. In this way women found easier access to politics than they would have achieved through party structures. So, in general one cannot say that women are less corrupt than men, but they have less access to the resources needed to engage in corruption, while on the other hand, this necessitates alternate strategies on their behalf which can actually strengthen an anti-corruption agenda. Social aspects On the relevance of family for nomination one has to distinguish between family as political capital and family as a duty and obligation. Whereas family as political capital can be an enabling factor for women from political dynasties in their entry to politics (favouring family members of party leaders/chiefs), the lack of family support for women not belonging to dynasties can be considered a constraining factor for women members getting nominations. Family as duty and obligation relates to constraints to nomination to both national and local representation levels. Families are seen as a constraint as they add to the general burden of the women candidates since they are expected to perform roles and responsibilities of looking after families in addition to their constituencies. Male party colleagues also perceive women in their domestic roles and hence constructing them as having secondary interest in politics. This often resulted in withholding of nomination for important posts for women, which in turn prevents them from running for office. Nominations are very often based on loyalty and kinship and hence focus becomes very strong on “power networks”. Student branches of parties do not also provide an equal recruitment opportunity for women to the same extent as they do for men. The main enabling factor for women was conceived to be their previous engagement politics in some front organization in particular student’s fronts. As many women lack access to the above networks or own networks that have sufficient influence, they have a hard time to compete. Women are not less represented in student branches but as they get older and marry, many women forego their political careers. Women are of the opinion that it is difficult to reach the inner circles of power created by men’s networks in politics, in business, as former Freedom fighters, in Madrassas or in other levels of Bangladesh society. These networks have created strong hierarchical bonds of mutual help into power positions which exclude women. It is often perceived that women in Islamic Parties and in Islamist social movements headed by Muslim clerics cannot become leaders (though they are often members) and as women they are barred by party rules from becoming leaders. Hossain, Nasim, undated). Thus ‘religion’ as it is used in contemporary political practice often becomes a hindering factor for political engagement. Women often raise their own campaign funds or use personal funds. Some would try to raise funds through family, friends or other donors. The election campaign costs and fund raising for female participants, especially married women from the middle class, is often seen to be carried out by their husbands. In addition to this, relatives, friends and families sometimes contribute to this end. Sometimes, influential individuals or supporters manage the funding. To some degree there are also voluntary contributions from supporters often for specific activities, printing of posters and leaflets for example. Existing inheritance laws prevent women from inheriting wealth from the family, thereby automatically making them more depending on family income or husbands’ income than is the case for men. Faustina Pereira, (2002), The Fractured Scales: The Search for a Uniform Personal Code, Stree Publishers, Kolkata, India; Salma Sobhan, (1975) Legal Status of Women in Bangladesh, UPL, Dhaka. On an individual level education has been mentioned as an important enabling factorbut for national level elections money, political or financial power and family connections tends to rank higher. Things were perceived differently by women at the local level however; here, ‘education’ and ‘self-confidence’ ranked amongst their top three enabling factors. Women at local level to a higher degree also expressed lack of family support and lack of self-confidence and worried about the corrupt atmosphere in the Upazila. Individual competence was highlighted as being an important factor, but defined less in terms of individual traits than as having the necessary connections and networks. Tapati Saha, a former Senior Consultant of UN Woman’s program for sensitizing women parliamentarians on gender issues‘Building Accountability to Women through the Women through the Women Parliamentarian Project’, explained that many women in the parliament (9th) came from political lineages, and that other women who she thought had worked hard and were both competent and vocal in the party did not get nominated. According to her, there is a huge number of qualified women in AL who are not getting support to come to the forefront and who inevitably lose their seat to someone (mostly male candidates) who knows how to manipulate and manoeuvre in favour of their candidacy. (Interview by author, 2014) The fear of violence in elections in general and towards political activists in particular seems to be a general hindrance for women going in politics. Violence against female voters,especially those in vulnerable communities, is documented in the national press, but so far no studies have been found on the situation for female candidates. Most information comes from news media and internal reports of human rights organizations.Political violence against women was an issue often raised by women candidates. One elected MP explained how her opponent had blocked workers from voting for her and threatened her supporters. This particular MP explained that her political campaign had focused on issues that were uncomfortable or even damaging to the opponent, such as corruption, unemployment, hazardous waste etc. (Interview with author,2014) Political violence discourages women, and the families supporting them, from entering the political arena. It was mentioned that many parties put women in front in political rallies thereby increasingly exposing them to violence. More in-depth research is needed on violence and intimidation related to elections and politics affects women as candidates. Patronage from politically influential individualsis considered as an important contributing factor. Several women mentioned the importance of personal contacts with their Party Leader or other key influential persons, men or women, in their party. This was especially important for women since due to the socially prevalent norms of segregated public space particularly in conservative areas, women unlike men had less chances to meet with such leaders as part of social networking or in social events like marriages.The constraining aspects of political patronage were also marked upon, especially corruption and the practice of favouritism within the political parties, which generally tend to favour men and make it more difficult for female members to further their political careers. Debates and issues arising from policy provisions and their impact at the local governance level Much of what was said for the national level is also true for women at the local level who are trying to negotiate the political system. In terms of issues related to women’s participation it can also fall into two categories (1) institutional aspect and (2) social aspects. Institutional /electoral issues Internal processes within parties seem to provide strong hindrances for female candidates. Previous to 2013 the Union Parishad elections were contested on an individual basis. Now under an amendment the Chair is to be formally nominated by the party. This has had an impact on the local power dynamics which in turn has led the selection process of candidates to be turned over to a large extent by party brokers. Party brokers being mostly male, which is true also for the party leaders, who in turn have the final say in nominations thereby impact on the selection criteria for women candidates. Decision-making for elected woman candidate in the Union Parishad and Party has been the hardest of challenges faced by women members. In our field work.Almost all Unions, Aparajita or not, women members felt that they could not get the full power that was ordained for them as they were prevented by their male colleagues. They said that they could not give adequate service to their voters because the 9 male members influenced UP Chair’s decision in the allocation of projects and services. In the LGSP committee though money was allocated to them equally, more male members became chair of such projects than women did. Consequently the signboards carried the name of the chair only leading to the perception among beneficiaries that the money came from him. One woman in Ukhiya said that if this continued then she would lose all incentives to stand for the next elections. In a Union where the Chair was relatively friendly to women’s participation,he said that the UP was ruled by the majority decisions so he could not only listen to women members demand, the decision has to be from the majority. Women members in one Union also said she faced problems in the Upazila district committee in getting projects approved. She said corruption reigned there and many members would pay money in exchange of getting their projects approved. She further said “either you have to be favored by the Chair or MP or you have to be corrupt”. They would not be able to compete with men in paying money as men invests more in elections and hence has to gain more through their projects being approved. One chair asked us to look at the economics of the UP as it was now required to pay for almost 60% of its costs. There is no way the UP can do it as it has no income. Projects too are tightly monitored so that one can’t save funds from them. Male members pointed out the need to increase their allowance as well as to instruct the police to respect their office for they are known to take money from their clients who are sent there. UP members are on call from their constituencies almost 23 hrs. a day and yet their allowance has not been revised as the Upazila members have been. Women usually conducted salishes (arbitration) in domestic issues, but one or two members also tried other cases land disputes. One women member knew more about trying salishes outside the jurisdiction of the UP i.e. Upazila level. She was a past Aparajita participant. It seemed that women salishkers (arbitrators) in the UP were in high demand especially from their women constituencies and the more skilled they were in it the more valued they became in the eyes of their voters. This seems to be a good ground for developing a power base for future women representatives. Social aspects Unlike the national level where women candidates considered violence in elections to be a concern, women candidates and members at the local level both agreed that they no longer faced religious or extremist hindrances.They did face them a decade ago. However some women in Rajshahi which was an area ruled by the extremist outfit of Bangla Bhai,did say that religious institutions like madrasas tended to discourage young women political activists/party workers by moralizing ( e.g. saying that they will not go to heaven if they join these rallies). However former partners of Aparajita added that there were areas in their programme site where minority women were withdrawing gradually from the field of politics due to intimidation of religious quarters. Such areas they thought should be identified and special focus be given to support minority women contestants (personal communication with partners, 2018). In Ramu onewomen member said that she stays well within the moral boundaries of society, (I am not going to dance and singso why would anyone object). Other women said that they did face threats once but now political empowerment of women has gained social acceptance. Minority women such as Adivasis and Hindu women also did not express any fear about participating in elections. One Adivasi women said she faced some problems in first joining the party (AL) from her area from her own peoples, but she said that was because of their ignorance. Once they saw that communicating with local leadership brought them some advantages, they withdrew their objections. In an Adivasi dominant area in Godagari one Santal women said she felt confident enough to try for contesting a direct seat in the next elections. Men however did not think that women were strong enough to contest direct elections. They were of the opinion that those women who made it as the Chairman contested in the name of their deceased husbands i.e. were proxy candidates. Women generally agreed that without their husband’s permission or even ambition it would not have been possible to achieve their political desires. But other women described how they struggled both within their natal homes as well as their in-laws house to gain social acceptance in the political sphere. In Ukhiya one women member said that her mother-in law had stood against her in the last elections and she had to be dissuaded to stand down as it was not a good strategy for two women of the same family to contest each other. Family support is a key factor for women to get involved in and run for political office. There is overwhelming evidence that family is one of the most enabling factors in influencing women’s entry to politics; the most commonly mentioned enabling factor was membership of a well-to-do political family. Some participants were both born in and had married into a long lineage of politicians, and in some circumstances some of these women had learned the ropes of politics through this exposure. Some women had also been asked to run for office when husbands or fathers had been imprisoned or on trial. In some interviews the convergence between politics and family businesses also becomes apparent as an enabling factor. Women could belong to a family of freedom fighters that now also had many successful businesses where these women have been involved further enabling their entry into politics. In Ukhiya and Ramu we met with women members who had partnership in a local hospital and owned a decorator business. On an individual level, enabling factors to women’s entry into politics were characterized as important events, such as the 1971 and the 1991 mass movements, or through the inspiration of a political icon or personality. Those women stemming from political dynasties also mention the presence of a father or another male relative. Women seeking nomination considered education a key factor necessary at the point of entry into politics, but they did not consider education to be as important criteria as money or family background. ‘Work for the women’ has been a common aim among the participants at local level. For aspirant candidates, if elected in the near future, they have different dreams for the social improvement of women. They urge for open access for women in every sphere of life, although they do not want to give up the social or religious values by doing this. Removal of family obstacles and increased support for political participation is an aim still to be achieved. They all want to work hand in hand with the male members and this will bring change in attitude. In an another study (Abdela and Guhathakurta, 2014), it was found that one participant wanted to establish a high school in her locality as there was only a primary school there. Another participant wanted to construct roads for smooth communication with other areas, construct hospitals, self-employment of women through income generating activities. They all wanted to stop the violence against women through strict enforcement of laws in the society and punish those who are responsible for such activities. They also confessed to the fact that they could not keep their election promises and supporters’ aspiration due to the lack of resources. Current trends and dynamics The political affiliation of the Chair had created a new dynamics in politics at the UP level. Women felt they needed to strategize more in this new context. Women in Aparajita areas were more used to strategizing than in non-aparajita areas e.g. in Ukhia two women candidates thought that if they stood from one Union, then at least one of them would win so that the people of that ward did not have to go far for social justice. But they failed to understand that votes would split between them and the other women from a distant ward would be elected, which is what happened. Regular exposition to electoral practice encouraged by the Aparajita program would perhaps have prevented this from happening. A growing trend of middle class, more educated women were coming into politics instead of poorer women from grassroots which were equally vocal. It could be because of money needed to contest elections, requirement if education as a criteria in elections and the decreasing mobilization of grassroots NGOs in encouraging women from all walks to enter politics. In the PRIP Trust area one of the members was an Aparajita participant. The Chair jokingly called her win as a conspiracy of the PRIP Trust. But these were potential areas of intervention for the new Aparajita programme. Rohingya issues impacting on local community could prove to be important intervention by women members of Aparajita. We found that many complaints from local families were being lodged at the Upazila head office in Ramu against members of families inter marrying with Rohingyas and causing social problems. In Ukhiya we encountered conflict over land and homestead property between the two communities for which the local communities did not know of any means of redress. Success stories and gaps identified in linking policy provisions with political empowerment In the areas of women’s advancement and rights, the government has made strong commitment and undertaken various initiatives to reduce the gap between men and women. However, on the way for achieving the desired goals of gender equality which in turn affected political empowerment, some challenges still remain. These include: a. Women’s economic participation is low. Poor women have less earning capacity and their wages are lower than male wages. The female headed households usually face discriminations. b. Violence against women is pervasive. Physical and sexual assaults including acid throwing are common. In addition, trafficking is also reported. Poverty, dowry, early marriage, superstition, social attitude are the major causes of violence against women. c. Early marriage of women leads to discontinuity of education and results in early childbirths. They get less scope of employment and decision-making opportunities. d. With higher incidence of droughts, floods, cyclone and other natural calamities, women are affected differently than men indicating the need to increase gender sensitivity in coping mechanisms and strategies. e. Further, traditional society and its limited social outlook, religious barriers, purdah system etc. remain as the constant drawbacks ofwomen empowerment in Bangladesh. The past Aparajita programme however came up with many cases of women who were able successfully able to overcome the gaps and make a political career for themselves. The following is such a case study. An Icon of empowerment- Mahmuda Begum. Mahmuda Begum is the elected representative of the reserved wards (7, 8, and 9) of Machihata Union Parishad of Brahmanbaria Sadar Upazila in 2016. Before involvement with APARAJITA project, she could not understand how to perform her duties, roles and responsibilities. Mahmuda Begum stated, she became involved with APARAJITA-Political Empowerment of Women project in 2011 through Khan Foundation’s orientation program in Brahmanbaria. She came to know about her responsibilities and duties, local government institution’s mandate, allocation for the hardcore poor and other funds of local government towards the society, especially for the women. She received training from APARAJITA on the women member’s specific roles and responsibilities. After a series of capacity building training, Mahmuda Begum came to know about budget of Union Parishad, Upazila Parishad and the 13 standing committees in her Union Parishad. This sense of knowledge and information about policies and local resources made her more responsible to work for women friendly development activities and services. She mentioned, before the APARAJITA intervention she faced difficulties from her colleagues to get allocations of VGD card, blankets etc. but nowadays she is not facing obstructions to work in the UP. In the past, she used to get only 3-4 VGD cards from Union Parishad, but recently she gets the equal amount as her male counterparts. This understanding of responsibility encouraged her to work for the people. (Guhathakurta, 2016) National discourses of legal provisions (constitutional and international) related to political empowerment of women Relevant laws relevant to political empowerment of women with objectives Constitutional Provisions: The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh recognizes basic and fundamental rights of the citizensirrespective of gender, creed, cast, religion and race. It also makesprovision for promoting causes of the backward sections of thepopulation. Related articles of the constitution regarding equality and inclusivity that may also relate to supporting women’sparticipation may be seen in the following sentences. Article 9: The State shall encourage local governmentinstitutions composed of representatives ofthe areas concerned and in such institutionsspecial representation shall be given, as faras possible, to peasants, workers and women. Article 10: Steps shall be taken to ensure participationof women in all spheres of national life. Article 19 (1): The State shall endeavor to ensure equalityof opportunity to all citizens. Article 27: All citizens are equal before law and areentitled to equal protection of law. Article 28 (1): The State shall not discriminate against anycitizen on grounds only of religion, race,caste, sex or place of birth. By incorporating the above articles, the constitution gives special attention to women in democracy and local government. The nation puts no legislative barrier in the way of promoting gender equity in the sphere of social, political, and economic activities. The constitution gives guarantee of equal rights to women and also makes special provision for providing all necessary protections to backward sections of the society as stated below. “Women shall have equal rights with men inall spheres of the State and of public life.Nothing in this article shall prevent the Statefrom making special provision in favor ofwomen or children or for the advancementof any backward section of citizens” (GOB,1993:9,13,19). One of the criticism of this article is that though the constitution of Bangladesh although guarantees equal rights to men and women in public life, the same does not extend to private life; this is guided by the discriminatory ‘personal laws’ under which falls inheritance custody of children etc. These abide by the customary religious laws of each community. However many interpret equality as being read into the ‘spirit of the law’. The Parliament and the Ministry ofLaw, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs are responsible for enacting the legal provisions andupholding the human rights. The Judiciary is responsible for interpretation of laws and judgments and the law enforcing agencies such as the police are responsible for enforcing the provisions of the law. The individuals can seek redress from the judiciary within the context of the existing laws if their rights are violated. The Election Commission of Bangladesh The Election Commission of Bangladesh is an independent body formed by the Article 118 of the Constitution of Bangladesh which will oversee the conduct of elections at the national and local levels and ensure that they occur in a free and fair manner. It is therefore a key institution with respect to ensuring women’s political empowerment through creating enabling spaces for women to contest freely and fairly in elections at different levels of the body politic. However, as activists discern that there is yet much to be done on issues of creating a gender balance and equity in the mindsets of people running such institutions. The UN Women and UNDP jointly brought out a manual called Inclusive Electoral Processes: A Guide for Electoral Management Bodies on Promoting Gender Equality and Women’s Participation (2015) to which the Election Commission of Bangladesh was also exposed to the guidelines. However it was felt that more work on gender sensitivity was needed to internalize those lessons among the staffs and associate institutions to create enabling spaces for women’s participation. Reservations for women in the National Parliament Bangladesh first introduced a quota for women in the 1972 constitution for a period of 10 years, with 15 seats reserved for women in addition to the 300 general seats. In 1979, a constitutional amendment increased the number of women’s reserved seats to 30 for a total period of 15 years. This amendment expired in 1987, and as a result, there were no reserved seats in the subsequent election. The 10th amendment to the constitution in 1990 included a new provision of 30 seats for 10 years, which ended in 2000. In the eighth parliament elected in 2001 there was no quota for women, but it passed the 14th amendment to the constitution, which guaranteed 45 seats for women for a period of 10 years. This was increased to 50 seats with the 15th amendment in 2011. This was amended in July 2018 to extend the date to another 25 years In addition to numerical representation mostly guaranteed by reserved seats, there are also some prominent women – both now and in the past – who occupy the highest offices in the country. The current Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Speaker of the House, and the Chairperson of the second largest party are all women. There are the four different ways that women’s reserved seats in Bangladesh are currently filled: one system at the national level, two at the sub-district level, and one at the local level. It is noteworthy that reserved seats are not just applied to each level of government, but that each level actually has a different system for filling seats. These will be described in the following sections. Local Government There are legal provisions for reserved seats in local government. For example, at the Union Council level, they have been in place since 1976, with direct election to reserved seats introduced in 1997.In 1976,the government promulgated the Local Government Ordinance for a three-tier local government system. In this ordinance the structure ofthe local government system underwent changes and theprovision was made to select two women members in the UnionParishad. For the first time women were considered to beincluded in the local government. In 1983, the changes were brought in the structure and composition of Union Parishad by promulgatingthe Local Government (Union Parishad) Ordinance. Thisordinance increased the number of nominated women membersto three and each of them represented one ward. In 1993, LocalGovernment (Union Parishad) (Amendment) Act was passed inthe Parliament to secure the minimum representation of womenin local government. The new order omitted the system ofnomination and provision for indirect election was created bytheParishad. But the number of the women member was fixedthree as was earlier (Ahmed et al., 2003: 18). The LocalGovernment (Union Parishad) Second Amendment Act, 1997 is amilestone in the history of political empowerment of women inBangladesh. The government of Bangladesh enacted this law fordirect elections to reserve seats for women in local level elections.In this act the government reserved three seats for women inthe Union Parishad where women members were directly electedfrom each of the three wards. Apart from the reserved seatswomen can also contest for any of the general seats (ADB, 2001:15). At the same time the government instructedthat women members should be president of at least twenty fivepercent of these standing committees. However, the terms ofreference of these committees and their modus operandi werenot clearly specified. Therefore, a sort of ambiguity persists withregard to the participation of women members in the UnionParishad activities. Moreover, government by another notificationdirected each Union Parishad to form Social DevelopmentCommittees in each of the three female wards to be headed bythe female member concerned. Though the ordinance did not restrict womenfrom contesting for the seats of general members,the ratio of male-female members virtually remains almost 3:1.Relevant laws/rules provide that decision-making in the UnionParishad will stem from what the majority supports. Therefore,in terms of numerical strength womenmembers are three times weaker than the other (male) membersthat clearly shows that the women members can do a little toinfluence the decision taken in the Union Parishad International Obligations and other Laws The Constitution of Bangladesh guarantees equality between men and women and has three basic frameworks to ensure such equality that has full conformity with the philosophy of CEDAW. As such it is considered to be in conformity with the CEDAW provisions. However Bangladesh has ratified CEDAW with reservations on Articles 2, 13.1(a), 16.1(c), and 16.1(f). Article 2 demands that the “States Parties condemn discrimination against women in all its forms, agree to pursue by all appropriate means and without delay a policy of eliminating discrimination against women.” Article 13(a) says that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in areas of economic and social life in order to ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women”; the same rights in particular (a) ‘the right to family benefits.” Article 16.1 says that “States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to eliminate discrimination against women in all matters relating to marriage and family relations and in particular, shall ensure on a basis of equality of men and women; (c) the same rights and responsibilities during marriage and at its dissolution; (f) the same rights and responsibilities with regard to guardianship, ward ship, trusteeship, and adoption of children, or similar institutions where these concepts exist in national legislation; in all cases the interest of the children shall be paramount (http://www.aworc.org/bpfa/pub/sec_i/hum00001.html). Bangladesh withdrew its reservation subsequently from Articles 13(a) (“equal rights to family benefits”) and 16.1(f) (“equal rights to guardianship”) in 1997, at the time of the submission of the combined third and fourth reports to the UN-CEDAW Committee. The reservation on Articles 2 and 16.1(c), however, still remains and the argument behind the reservation is that these Articles contradict the country’s Personal Laws, which the country intends to maintain for guiding the citizen’s personal life.MoWCA has recentlyrequested the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs as well as the Ministry ofReligious Affairs to examine if the reservation can be withdrawn. The National Human Rights Commission of Bangladesh has also done the same in the recent hearing of the CEDAW Committee on 2017 and also at the UPR in 2018. (www.nhrc.org.bd) Bangladesh ratified the optional protocol to CEDAW, which empowers the CEDAWCommittee to receive complaints from the women of Bangladesh in cases of grave andsystematic violations of their rights set forth by the Convention. The government has to submit a report on its actions to implement CEDAW periodically, and the Government of Bangladesh has submitted its first report in 1993, second report in 1996 and the combined third and fourth reports in 1997; the fifth report in 2002 and combined Sixth and Seventh Report in 2010 with the recent one taking place in 2017. Despite reservations, the Government of Bangladesh has enacted several Special Laws, to protect the interest of and reduce the discrimination against women. These are: theDowry Prohibition Act of 1980 which declared both giving and taking of dowry at the time ofmarriage a punishable offence; Repression against Women and Children (special provision) Act1995 and Women and Children Repression Prevention Act, 2000 and 2003 (Amendment) whichconsolidate laws for the prevention of repression of women and children in Bangladesh andprovide deterrent punishment for cruelty to women and children, make provision for punishmentfor kidnapping or abduction of women and children; the Acid Crime Control Prevention Act2002 and Acid Control Act 2002, which restrict import and sale of acid in open market andaward death penalty for acid throwing offence; the Domestic Violence (Prevention andProtection) Act, 2010 which intends to protect the rights of women and children from domesticviolence. Recently, two more important acts i.e. the Rights to Information Act, 2009 and theNational Human Rights Act, 2009, have been adopted by the Government which are alsoexpected to serve women’s cause greatly by ensuring one’s rights to information and humanrights. The Government has taken many legal measures for combating VAW like the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010, the Rules of Procedure to implement the Act, 2013. Several other acts address some forms of violence that were not addressed by the other laws, such as, human trafficking, migration, acid crime and so on. Bangladesh is a signatory to many international conventions and agreements for women’s and girls’ rights and development. The Country endorsed the Beijing Platform for Action (BPFA) in 1995 and Bangladesh committed itself to the goals and targets of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), it is also signatory to the IPU, ICCPR that has special clauses for upholding the right of women’s participation in politics. Debates and issues at the national level ensuing from legal provisions Bangladesh has demonstrated some success in increasing the number of elected female representatives over the years. To encourage women’s political representation, Bangladesh has instituted temporary special measures (TSMs) that reserve a certain number of seats for women at all levels of government. Bangladesh has a First Past the Post (FPTP) system for general seats in Parliament, and a single transferable vote (STV) system for women’s reserved seats based on the number of seats secured by a political party.The reservation for women Members of Parliament (MPs) at the national level is 50 seats out of a total of 350 seats, as per the 15th amendment to the Constitution of Bangladesh. The percentage of women’s reserved seat is thereforeapproximately14percent. Some women are elected through general seats as well,bringing the total percentage ofwomen representatives in the 2014 parliament to 20percent., forwhichthe country is divided into300constituencies, the entirecountryservesas one largemulti-memberdistrictfor reserved seats, withthe general seat MPsacting as the electorate. The ElectionCommission of Bangladesh (ECB)allocatethe number of seats toeach party inproportiontothegeneralseats won andprepares a voter list for each partyconsistingof the general seat MPs for that party. Theparty presents a listof candidates, with eachcandidate requiring a proposer and seconder from the same party. Ifthe number ofcandidatesandseats are the same, there is no election and the reserved seats are filled as per the list prepared bypartyleaders. If there are more candidates than seats forthe party, the generalseatMPsvote by ranking the candidates in their own party using the aforementionedSTVsystem.If the party nominates fewercandidatesthanthey have seats,the remaining seatscan be contested by all parties. The reserved seats inParliament have never beenvotedoninBangladeshbecausepartyleadershavenominatedonlyasmany candidates as there are available seats for each party.Even if an electionfor reserved seatswereheld, it can be argued that the STV used is not a true proportionalsystem, because each voter (MP) votesforcandidateswithin his/her party only,andthusitbecomes more of a “personal vote” system. Women’s organizations and civil society have consistently advocated for women’s reserved seats in parliament to be increased to 100 but to be directly elected. Ms. Ayesha Khanam, president of Bangladesh Mohila Parishad which is one of the largest mass based women’s organizations in Bangladesh has for long lobbied the Government to increase the reserved seats and to have direct elections, stated in an interview , “ Male MPs and ministers constantly tell me how much more do you women want. You should be happy with what you are getting!” Reforming the current reserved seat systems, especially at the parliamentary level where women’s representation has proved the most problematic, is a difficult but necessary task. (Personal communication, 2018) The enforcement of a party quota system of registration has had a major positive effect on the number of women on all party committees, RPO Amendment 2008 stipulating 33% of women on all Party committees including the central committee for the Party to be properly registered. but there is no data available on what impact this has had on the overall number of women in parties. The target is set for the 2018 elections. In response to the question onthepercentage of women in the parties, and if there has been any discussions to increase to 33% as the law of election commission by 2020 states, the responses were very negative. Dr. Alim, of Asia Foundation informed that letters have been sent from the EC asking parties to report on the percentage of women in all committees and parties to have sent in their reports (Interview by author, 2018).Women state that it is more difficult for women candidates to raise funds, to rally enough people, and to get strong positions in their constituencies. For example, a JP member noted that of course if there were 100 or 1000 women, people would consider them as a critical mass, but in reality, there are only 10% women in the party. Key party committees are central to party policy. In the BNP party for example, the Standing Committee comprises 15-16 members out of whom three to four are women. One participant said that she had no direct access to the Standing Committee, but that this was also in the hands of the party leader. Some participants also mention the role of senior leaders in assisting to create successful and strong male as well as female leadership within the parties. Being backed by the top level creates confidence among the general supporters and other members, a participant said. Party criteria and the decision-making processes for candidate nominations vary from party to party, but the ‘winnability’ of the candidate is always a prime concern in the eyes of party leaders. A female Jatiyo Party MP noted that the supreme authority in her party that decides on the nomination of candidates is constituted by approximately 30 members of which three are women. According to insiders in the AL party, decision making is centralised to the Prime Minister (PM). The PM may listen to influential members such as her advisors, the former Minister of Foreign Affairs. Nominations are also made in a similar way where everything is described as depending on loyalty and kinship. In terms of laws, it was mentioned that although all parties have their separate constitutions these provisions are not followed and that a firm stance should be taken by the Election Commission for all parties to follow. Apart from left and extreme right parties which had provisions of holding ‘political classes’ or religious gatherings respectively as part of indoctrination, there was no fixed way to orient new members for other more mainstream parties. When a new member joined a party, he/she had to cope with the problem of tackling party hierarchy on their own. Women explained that senior members did not help or assist new members and that this negative atmosphere affected the aspiration of newcomers. Women candidates, particularly at the local level felt therefore that they needed to have formalized methods of orientation at the time of entry into politics. However, some women who were elected mentioned that hard work in developing networks and intensive networking with the party gained them additional credibility. The building up of their reputation in the party was also favourable in drawing the attention of influential people in the party top. Enabling factors mentioned are past experiences of party politics, e.g. student politics or activism or even exposure to politics in the family, as well as training provided by various programmes. Including UN Women and Asia Foundation.There are constitutional barriers that have a bearing on the influence of women in politics and which may hamper women’s influence in decision-making. A constraining factor identified is the Article 70 in the Constitution which prevents Members of Parliament from voting against their own Party and hence significantly undermines any inter-partisan alliances such as a Caucus promoting women’s rights, interests and concerns. This is likely to have a particular impact on the women filling reserved seats because they are appointed by Parties, without any link to a specific geographic area. This means that they have no direct constituency and are reliant on their reputation and support within their Party for any influence. ‘A key problem is that even when women are represented, their decision-making power is questionable. EU consultation, Gender in Democratic Governance and Human Rights in Bangladesh 18 July 2013. Since many women enter the political arena through family connections, their lack of experience in politics and limited knowledge of Parliamentary affairs acts as barriers. Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB).Women parliamentarians expressed a lot of frustration regarding their authority in the parliament. For example, only ten questions can be asked as per parliamentary schedule, but before asking questions in the parliamentary session these have to be submitted to the secretariat, this process is the same for men and women. There are certain departments for this and there is a lottery system. The system was considered to be unfair where some reserved seats MPs believed that even those female MPs who are very vocal, articulate, and educated feel that other male parliamentarians receive special favours when being listed for questions. Some successes were noted however, for example as when there was budget session and Government took the initiative to introduce the medium term budgetary framework, including gender responsive budgeting, which was introduced to all ministries by 2012. Many women were in favour of this and also believed that because of gender budgeting, in the future it would be easier to raise issues such as unpaid house work if there were more women in important decision making positions, such as has been done with the bill against domestic violence. The quota system at the national level has given rise to much debate and dissatisfaction from the point of view of women candidates and consequently affected nomination or selection processes. It was mentioned that from 1996 to 2001 the quota system at the national level ascribed two districts for women MPs with reserved seats, but after 2001 no constituencies have been assigned. The mode of selection of women candidates in reserved Parliamentary seats goes in favour of the majority party as the candidates are indirectly elected by the MPs and make the reserved seat women Parliamentarians remain under the grip of party leadership. It has been concluded that as electoral areas of MPs from reserved seats have not yet been defined, their role in Parliament is being hindered. FatemaAfroz and Tanvir Mahmud, The Role of Female Members of the Parliament to Ensure Good Governance, TIB, 2010. It can be concluded that the system of reserved seats has not necessarily led to more effective power of women elected representatives in the Parliament, e.g. posts in standing committees, and that only a few women MPs from reserved seats have been actively involved in law-making activities. Transparency International,Bangladesh (TIB) ShushasonProtishthaiNariShongsadShoshoderBhumika (Role of women parliamentarians in establishing governance), Dhaka, 7th March, 2010.However, some exceptions can be cited where women who have first come in as reserved seats members had won general seats in well contested elections in their second round and have often been appointed to important posts. The current speaker of the parliament ShirinSharminChaudhury is an example here. Women parliamentarians reported in a study that they were happy to compete for the ‘reserved’ seats in the election but that they also have aspirations to get involved in elections for the regular seats in the future. But they explained that their aspirations are fading due to the fact that their respective parties do not provide any inspiration or motivation for their participation. A systematic research on the ways in which the quota system is impacting on women candidates would be useful. Debates and issues arising from legal provisions and their impact at the local governance level The elected leadership of sub-districts (Upazilas) in Bangladesh is chosen in two separate ways. In the first instance, a direct FPTP election is held for the Sub-District Council positions of one general seat Chair, one general seat Vice-Chair, and one women’s reserved Vice-Chair seat. All three positions are contested in the same district with the same electorate, but with separate ballots for all three. The percentage of seats reserved for women is one-third, or 33 percent. However, the three positions are not equal, as the Chair has higher status than the two Vice-Chairs. In the 2014 elections, only three women were elected to the general seat Chair position and only one woman to the general seat Vice-Chair position. In addition to the selection of the Chair and two Vice-Chairs for each sub-district, another method is used to fill general seats on the Sub-District Council. The general seats on the Sub-District Council are filled indirectly by people elected at the lowest level of government – Union Council Chairpersons and Municipality Mayors – who represent their union/municipality in the higher-level Sub-District Council asex officio members. One seat for every three general seats, or 25 percent of the total number of seats on each council, is reserved for a woman. However, there are too many reserved seat holders at the union/municipality level, and so a mechanism is needed to choose the representatives for the women’s reserved seats at the sub-district level. Reserved seat members are elected indirectly with women members and Councilors from the local government councils (approximately 13,500 people in the 2015 election) serving as the electorate. A multiple, concurrent plurality voting system is used, with the same electorate (all women’s union/municipality reserved seat holders in the sub-district) but with separate ballots and districts for each reserved seat. The sub-district is divided into districts with approximately three unions and/or municipalities (pourashavas) forming the district for each reserved seat in the Sub-District Council. All reserved seat council members from unions and municipalities in the sub-district can nominate themselves as candidates. The exact number of reserved seats in each Sub-District Council depends on the number of unions and municipalities in the sub-district, with, as noted above, 25 percent of the total number of seats on each council reserved for women. The electoral system for this election is unusual in that the voter is able to vote in multiple districts – even in ones where they are not from. There are certain weaknesses in the process, for example, the ballot design for this election is confusing to the voters because it uses the same set of symbols for each seat (and there are multiple seats), which resulted in a high number of invalid votes17 in the inaugural 2015 Sub-District Council reserved seat election. It is also possible that there was an even higher number of mistaken voting (voting for the wrong candidate by accident), which would not necessarily be visible in the results. Furthermore, due to the small number of voters compared to the number of seats, many elections resulted in a tie between the two highest-polling candidates, and the election had to be re-run in 32 sub-districts. Elections for the Union, Municipality, and City Corporation Reserved Seat Council Members at the local level are organized using a FPTP system with so-called “super-districts.” This means that three general seat wards are usually combined into one larger district (a super-district) for one woman’s reserved seat. Each voter casts a ballot for both a general and a women’s council seat. The percentage of reserved seats is roughly one-fourth or 25 percent of all council seats. There are currently no reservations in place for Union Council Chair or Municipality/City Corporation Mayor positions, and there are very few general seat female Mayors, union and sub-district Chairwomen, and also very few general seat (as opposed to reserved seat) Councilwomen on the various councils. Our field work in the four Union Parishads generated data that impinged on these issues at the local level. Reserved seats issue Reserved seats were generally considered to be good entry points into politics, but not the end all. A stigma has developed in politics among men and women on the issue of shongrokhito ashon (reserve seats). Women think it limits their power and dignity and obstructs their sense of equality. The current manifestation of reserved seats also makes it a liability e.g. women are responsible for three wards but only symbolically as they are not given the power or support of services to be responsibility for the three wards. They would prefer to be responsible for one ward and be treated equally to their male colleagues. A few women those who have successfully scaled up the ladder of political empowerment, either through party affiliations or services and has gained self-confidence in politics, wanted to do away with reserve seats altogether. But those who were first time entries into politics or from less well-off positions preferred retention of reserve seats. The Sheelmaria Chair suggested a formula: the three women seats will be contested by each women from one of three wards through direct elections, and compete only with women. No men will contest in these seats. The wards will be chosen by the Government /or election commission for each election year and will rotate for each term Party affiliation and support issue The recent amendment of the UP Act (2015) maintains that chair must have nomination for political party but other members are not required to have nominations. But the impact on the rest of the Parishad men and women is apparent. In one Union, we found that party informally nominated a women candidate, and asked others also with party affiliation to stand down. But they did not, 6 women contested for reserved seats and consequently their votes got divided and as such the opposition BNP candidates got voted in.One chair said that there were reports that this law was creating problems in the party organizations but he did not foresee the law being changed. Rather the party was thinking of how to cope with this. Another chair who had been working with Helvetas in advocacy before the law was enacted had pointed out the negative aspects of the law such as its impact on Gram Adalat (village court) where the Chair of UP was ex officio chair. As a result of party bias disputing parties may object to his decision and that would create problems in the justice system. One women member pointed out an opposite dynamics where one had used the PM’s portrait in her campaign banner and it was objected to by a government official. She did not think the official was necessarily taking a neutral position. Furthermore women in political parties complained that the party did not support them in political campaigns: neither financially nor in terms of manpower. However in two other constituencies women did say they received support from political parties in terms of morale and manpower during political campaigns Male members were of the opinion that in terms of election of general seats party affiliation would not make them win a seat as more than one candidates came from the same party so they would need support of the general populace to make them into a winner. This support base was conceived by both women and men as being of service to the community. Women further said they would need the support of their husbands (financially and morally), families and neighbours in order to win a seat. Representation in committees Some women had heard of the 33% clause but most had not. They expressed a desire to learn more about it. In some Unions we heard that the few women members in Upazila committees were made up of wives of the MP and other elected members in the Upazila. Their role in decision-making was minimal. Male members including the chair were very detrimental in their views on the 33% representation of women. They said posts for women were reserved in women wings of the parties. Hence they should not make demands on general seats as there would be fewer seats for men. They did not seem to entertain the idea that women wings of party were not created for posts but to reach out to the women as a community and address issues concerning them. However all men concluded that if an instruction came from the centre then they will abide by this law. Standing Committees of the Union Parishad The latest Local Government (UP) Act 2009 has created an opportunity to ensure greater participation of the people in the process of development planning and implementation. According to the UP Act, 2009, there is a provision of 13 Standing Committees (SCs) in the UP to support the Parishad in ensuring transparency, accountability, and people’s participation in planning and implementing for ensuring better governance and service.As per the UP act, each UP is supposed to form at least 13 standing committees on different issues like education, health, family planning, social welfare and disaster management, and agriculture, fisheries and livestock. This is where women members could have had a prominent role in chairing these committees. However little effort has been taken to strengthen these committees till now. (http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/southasia/2017/11/07/understanding-the-effectiveness-of-union-parishad-standing-committee-a-perspective-on-bangladesh/). It is expected that the strengthening of these standing committees would also help strengthen the position of women in the UP. Success stories and gaps identified in linking legal provisions with political empowerment of women The current constitutional requirement at the local level to represent three constituencies is a constraining factor for women candidates because they have to work three times harder and spend more resources to campaign in these constituencies. This also limits their role as commissioners as they have to serve three times the population of male commissioners but with the same amount of resources. Compared to male commissioners, women have three times less resources because they represent three constituencies and hence have to cater to three times the population of general seats. While talking about the necessity of reserved women’s seats in local government elections, one participant expressed her dissatisfaction regarding the existing fractions between elected male and female members of wards and Union Parishad. The female members are simply outnumbered by their male counterparts and they face stiff competition for resource allocation and responsibility sharing. In some cases, they said, they become victims of conspiracy. Sometimes the term ‘reserved’ is used against them and makes the female members marginalized in decision making processes. Hence most of the participants in the discussion believe that the term should be omitted in the future. They want to participate equally with men both in elections and once elected at local government level. Almost all participants said that party nomination processes lack transparency. One example was mentioned by an AL candidate who said she had submitted nomination papers for direct election and the report from NSI, DGFI, Student League and local leaders were very positive. She got a nomination and it was announced and published in the electronic media, but after two hours, suddenly her name was cut from the list. She said she was shocked and that later, her supporters and local people forbade her to participate in that election as this was against her party’s wishes. So, despite being nominated there had been a decision to upturn her nomination in favour of a male candidate. (Abdela and Guhathakurta, 2015). But despite all the hurdles, many women had successfully come out of their folds as past experiences of Aparajita project shows. Dauntless and Determined: Nazma Begum Nazma Begum of ShekhahatiNorail, had the experience of winning the reserved seats of her Union Parishad three times running. She was born in the same area and also married into a family some villages away in her teens. Being from the same area, everyone practically knew her and treated her more as the daughter of the soil than a new bride. Her husband was considerably older to her and was a writer of legal documents. Their house was therefore visited regularly by his clients that became a way in which the whole community and the neighbors became familiar with them. Her own brother and a brother in law were already contesting elections for the general seat so when the reserved seats for women were declared people started hinting to her that she too should stand for elections. She was not at all confident at first and said she had no knowledge of public speaking. But surprisingly it was her husband who had urged her on and gave her confidence to stand. When her husband Abul Bashar was asked why he had done that, he gave a fascinating story. He said when the law for reserve seats was first declared, his cousin had contested and won the elections, but the Chairman of the Union Parishad had not allowed her to even enter the premises of the Parishad. He had felt slighted along with his cousin and this had led him to give all out support to his wife to contest on the very same seat. Nazma gaining this advantage from her family had therefore gone all out to win the elections by winning the hearts of the people. Like many women contestants she depended on the goodwill of the people, which she earned through her own sense of responsibility towards them. According to her constituency she was also congenial in her behavior and possessed an innately helpful nature, always willing to help them in trouble. She personally thought women made better people’s representatives than men because they could go to the core of sensitive issues and would respond to them easily. For example if some neighbors called her at the middle of night because a husband would be abusing his wife, she would feel the seriousness of the situation and would rush to it immediately, whereas a man would perhaps not take it as something that needed immediate response. Nazma would also rush to the Thana if in passing she saw sandals outside the door of the Thana. She would inquire as to who has been held by the police and if so whether he was justly taken in and charged. After winning two consecutive elections, she had wanted to contest in the post of the Chairperson in the last elections. But the Government had declared through the amendment of the RPO that the Chairman’s post was to be contested on the basis of party affiliation. This has dissuaded her somewhat as she would not have been able to get a party nomination as it meant spending a lot of money, nor was she confident enough to contest as an independent candidate. She would not contest for general seat as two male family members were already occupying those seats and contesting for it again. She said her constituency urged her to contest the reserved seat again this year, although she was not at all confident this time (a) because she had won it two years running, and voters may want to see some change, and (b) another party nominee was contesting for the same seat. But after winning the seat again, she feels confident enough now to contest for the Chairman’s post as an independent candidate in the next election. She mentions that if it was not for APARAJITA, she would not have gained this capacity to sustain herself in the race through all the ups and down, Through the various training sessions she attended, she learnt how to inform herself and cope with the inequalities of power that she faced both personally and through the services she tried to give to her constituency. She learnt how to negotiate her position with the Chairman of the Upazila, even though she did not come in through a party ticket. It was very rewarding for her when the Chairman sometimes asked her for advice instead of the other way around. She stated that if it was not for the APARAJITA program, she would not have gained such skills. (Guhathakurta,2016) Concluding analysis and commentary on political empowerment: triangulation of legal and policy analysis with empiricalfindings from the field The political situation in Bangladesh has evolved over the years. The role of the opposition has diminished since the last elections due to the non-participation of the BNP, the major party in opposition. This has given way to the hegemony of the ruling party that can rule without adequatesupport from the constituency. Hegemony has also been constructed through economic ties with business. A large proportion of MPs have business backgrounds, almost 57% according to one study (TIB Report cited in m.bdnews24, com/en/detail/Bangladesh/1039306?) Law makers thus rule in favor of corporations, not people. Parties have become power brokers and the third space occupied by civil society is shrinking. What impact does this situation have on political empowerment of women? Patriarchy is embedded in both macrostructures of the political economy as well as in the microcosm of the family and domesticity. It is through such structures that women face obstacles in empowering themselves. At the macro level they are marginalized through laws that deprive them of equal rights in inheritance and property, values that stem from such laws and crystalize into social practices. Social practices and values in turn affect family and domestic life that impinge on women’s freedom and aspirations. Hence for women’s political empowerment means the negotiation of these structures and relations at the level of the family, community and state. Since we see the rise of the party as an important stakeholder in this process especially at the local level, it must also be a key site for negotiation for women’s political empowerment. As such women‘s entry into the party must be an informed one. It must include an updated knowledge of the laws that impinge on political practice, support in the nomination process, fund raising capability and electioneering strategy. But it cannot simply be limited to acquiring leadership roles at the national and local level. Political empowerment for women needs to address broad principles of women’s rights not only increased women’s participation. These include: Fight against discrimination of all kinds Fight for equality Inclusive approach “Governance should be about diversity; not only about bringing women into decision-making” (Ranjan, Karmaker, KII) An era has past where women competing for reserved seats have gained social acceptance. Though they are still considered important as entry points for the novice, many women have now both the aspiration as well as capacity to run for general seats, especially at the local level. But patriarchy intervenes. Women have to inculcate an inclusivity and diversity in her strategy to prepare her to bring in her own perspectives into the political agenda and thereby gain position in the party and political process in her own terms and visions. She has to proactively engage women as a political agenda. Since the party attained centrality of focus in the local level, one has to engage the male members of the party as well as the local bodies. How this can be best done will be taken up in the next section. Finally we are entering an era of technology and information where we cannot stay aloof from either the positive or negative aspects that it brings to women’s politics and participation. The role of the media has been an important factor in past Aparajita projects but newer forms of technology like the handling of social media, community radio must form an essential part of the programme in the sense of enhancing women’s control over them. Set of recommendations and suggestions for forthcoming interventions in Aparajita project The suggested recommendations may be categorized according to the following: (a) programmatic (b) advocacy,(c) coordination (d) capacity building Programmatic Since political parties are key stakeholders at the local level, it will be necessary to engage with them. Dialogues can be held with them on women’s issues. The issue of 33% representation in party committees can be taken up with political parties at the national and local level. This can be done by linking women parliamentarians with LG on issues. Parliamentary standing committee members may also be engaged. (Rokhsana Khondker, KII)Political party influence is increasing hence party should be addressed but diligently.A strategy needs to be worked out together (Wajed, KII) Local level women in politics need to link up with national leaders. A Dhaka-based training will make local leaders come closer with national in terms of gender issues. National leaders since they lack a hard constituency will become engaged at the local level through the leaders at the grassroots and geared up in a campaign strategy. Links with Parliamentary Standing Committee on Local Government should also be established (Rokhsana Khondker, KII) Women leaders must engage on the basis of inclusivity, diversity and anti-discrimination (Ranjan Karmakar and Aroma Dutta, KII) Create more breeding ground for women’s political environment in all working areas Develop strategy how to deal with business and corporate circles as they often help to decidenominations (Rafiq. KII) Minority women who are especially intimidated to contest elections or work for political parties should be focused on for extra support in relevant localities. The program needs to be up-scaled and include long term processes (Wajed Firoz, and Aroma Dutta, KII) Advocacy Child rights and youth empowerment need to be brought in as an advocacy issue ( Rokhsana Khondker, KII) Focus attention on 33% seats by the year 2020. But a milestone approach is needed. This can be advocated to the EC. This would need just a Just a change in Guidelinesand can go through executive. Parliamentary process is not needed. The ruling party can make some pilot areas as exemplary ( Alim, KII) Nominations are typically partisan. In -house debates within parties may be encouraged. 30% voluntary nominations for women members with party funding maybe advocated. Example of Scandinavian countries maybe learnt from. Nomination practice has to change. Top down nominations create problems at the grass roots leads to power plays and rifts. (Alim, KII) Previously RPO contained provision of names coming from grassroots into the nomination board of each party. Now the practice is no longer there. It could be advocated for again (Alim, KII) Some changes are longer term like change in mindset. Acceptance of women contesting general seats at the local level will take timeand may come about through programs and advocacy at the root level. ( Alim, KII) Include confidence building for the newly emerging educated women who are increasingly participating in Local Government Institutes, and who often lack confidence to participate in public affairs. Election Commission and the election process from the local to national level is gender blind. The EC only serves for the political party and their candidates. They do not protect women or individual candidates. Therefore, it is important for the programme to work with the EC. Advocate the government to establish a permanent Local Government Commission in which the Commission could play a coordinating role between the central administration and the local bodies in terms of carrying out development activities Coordination Brainstorming in inception phase so that partners develop common understanding. Regular coordination and meeting for review Openness: Space for maneuver and change must be there i.e. the flexibility to change original design of the project on the basis of lessons learned. (Ranjan Karmakar, KII) An apex body can be created that can link and work with EC and also talk in other relevant forum on women’s political empowerment. Capacity building A Total capacity-building framework needs to be designed involving women leaders, Government and NGOs. ( Ranjan Karmakar, KII) Income earning skills for women for women’s economic empowerment Sensitization of male colleagues and also novice women members on the special role and responsibilities of women members in the UP and Upazilla level Knowledge on the more recent laws that have been enacted such RPO, 2013, ICT Act. Use of technology and social media by women members along with informed practices Create fund raising skills for both UP and individually Supporting and strategizing women in contesting general seats Make women capable on using general electronic and print media for their own benefits Research/policy paper: More research is needed to learn how aspiring women candidates can make themselves visible on the radar of the party brokers, or talent scouts, since these scouts appear to overlook women despite indications that there are both political and psychological advantages to their inclusion. This can also be turned into a policy paper for advocacy. A more thorough research focused on the impact of reserved seats for women in Union Parishad level is needed. References and Bibliography Abdela, L. and M. Guhathakurta, (2015) “A report on Women and Elections in Bangladesh” Indevelop and Tana. 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Dhaka: Khan Foundation Nazneen, Sohela and Tasneem, Sakiba (undated) A Silver Lining: Women in Reserved Seats in Local Governments in Bangladesh, Dhaka: BRAC Pereira, Faustina (2002), The Fractured Scales: The Search for a Uniform Personal Code, Stree Publishers, Kolkata, India Sobhan,Salma (1975) Legal Status of Women in Bangladesh, UPL, Dhaka. 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