‘Women’s freedoms are at stake’: concern at rise of Islamist party before Bangladesh election | Bangladesh

A.As the clock struck midnight, the women raised their flaming torches aloft and marched into the Dhaka night. Above the noise of the traffic, they shouted, “The people gave their blood, now we want equality.”

For many in Bangladesh, the last few weeks have been a source of joy. Following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina’s regime in August 2024 in a bloody student uprising in which more than 1,000 people died, the first free and fair elections in 17 years were promised to be held on Thursday.

Long persecuted and imprisoned opposition figures are now running as candidates and holding rallies freely for the first time in years. The former prime minister is languishing in exile in India and faces the death penalty in Bangladesh for crimes against humanity, and his Awami League party has been barred from contesting elections.

But for many women in the country, including those at the forefront of the revolution, electoral prospects have been colored by disappointment and fear over the resurgence of reactionary Islamist policies feared to undermine women’s rights in society and the workplace, and the dearth of female candidates in the races.

“This was supposed to be an election that represents change and reform. Instead, we see women being systematically erased and their rights threatened,” said Sabiha Sharmin, 25, who participated in the midnight march. “We are worried that this election will take the country back 100 years.”

Among the most repressed political movements of the Hasina era, when elections were rigged and opponents were persecuted, was Jamaat e-Islami, an Islamist party that believed sharia law should be introduced to Bangladesh. It was banned and its leaders were imprisoned, disappeared or sentenced to death.

Since Hasina’s downfall, Jamaat e-Islami has mobilized with unprecedented enthusiasm and has positioned itself as a rival to the experienced Bangladesh National Party (BNP), which was previously expected to sweep the elections completely, and looks as if it will become a significant force after the election and is likely to garner an unprecedented vote share.

Limited polls still suggest the BNP will win the election, but as Thomas Kean, Crisis Group’s senior adviser on Bangladesh, puts it: “Whether there is a major opposition or a government in power, the future of Bangladeshi politics looks set to be a heavily Islamist party at the centre.”

Critics say a resurgence of conservative Islamist politics is already beginning to infiltrate society. Girls in rural areas were prevented from playing football by religious leaders who called it inappropriate, and women reported increased harassment if they did not cover their hair or dress modestly.

Although Jamaat-e-Islami has put forward a manifesto focusing on reform, protection of women from harassment and clean politics, there is not a single female candidate in the party. Party leader Shafikur Rahman’s rhetoric had a deterrent effect.

In a provocative interview with Al Jazeera, she said a woman could never lead the party because it was un-Islamic. Comments he made last year have resurfaced; He denied the existence of marital rape and described rape as “immoral for men and women to come together outside of marriage.”

“These are the kind of views and policies you hear in Iran and Afghanistan,” said Zayba Tahzeeb, a 21-year-old physics student who participated in the midnight march in Dhaka. “Female sovereignty, our freedoms, our independence – all are at stake in this election.”

The party’s proposed policies include reducing women’s working hours from eight hours to five, with the government subsidizing the lost income so women can spend more time at home. According to the International Labor Organization, women make up 44% of the country’s workforce, the highest proportion in South Asia, and paid work is a right fiercely protected by women across all economic strata.

The sense of disappointment grew after the National Citizen Party (NCP), formed by student leaders who ousted Hasina and positioned itself as the party of progress, announced in December that it would join the Jamaat e-Islami alliance in the elections. The party, which has shaped itself as a political alternative where women are at the forefront, currently has only two female candidates.

Tajnuva Zabeen, a doctor and founding member of the NCP, was one of a group of women who left the party after the Jamaat e-Islami alliance was announced; This decision was made without consulting a few select men at the top of the party.

“This was a clear betrayal,” Zabeen said. “This was a historic opportunity to create a third political force that would represent the change for which so many people died in the July uprising. Instead, they disappointed the people and silenced the women who led this movement. I am sorry to say that this election will not represent the spirit of the revolution.”

He emphasized that the failures against women in this election were not only due to Jamaat-e-Islami and NCP, but less than 5% of BNP’s candidates were women.

Bangladesh, which is 91 percent Muslim, has had a checkered past in terms of secularism since its independence from Pakistan in 1971. Religion-based politics was banned at the country’s founding but dominated during military rule after 1975, before secularism was reinstated in the constitution in 2011.

Analysts emphasize that many people who currently support Jamaat-e-Islami have lost faith in the old political guard. Since 1971, the country has vacillated between two parties, the Awami League and the BNP, both accused of indulging in dynastic politics and rampant corruption.

Jamaat e-Islami appears particularly popular among young, first-time voters who make up 42% of the electorate and are hungry for change. The authoritarian nature of Hasina’s regime brought secularism into disrepute and made voters more receptive to Islamist politics this time.

One of the new faces of Jamaat-e-Islami is Mir Ahmad Bin Quasem Arman, a lawyer who is running in Dhaka. The son of an executed Jamaat e-Islami leader was kidnapped during Hasina’s regime and imprisoned and tortured in one of her notorious underground facilities for eight years. He emerged from his cell the day after Hasina’s ouster, initially believing he was being dragged away to eventually be executed.

“It was a systematic torture that lasted for eight years, it was worse than death,” he said, his voice breaking. “It was as if I had been buried alive. But God gave me a second life. I am here to represent all those who were taken into dark cells and never came out again.”

He gave a message of reform and fight against corruption, emphasizing that women’s fears against his party were unfounded and part of a political smear campaign.

“When you talk to urban elites, the issues they talk about are whether women can be in the highest positions in government, whether women can wear whatever they want,” Arman said. “These are—sorry to use that word—feminist demands. The ground level is very different. The basic need of women in the field, the working class, is security, and that is our primary concern.

“Maybe in the near future you will see women running on our ticket,” she added.

In a bid to show the party’s commitment to women, thousands of female Jamaat e-Islami supporters took to the streets in Arman’s constituency in Dhaka to deny that the party would restrict their freedom.

“The policies they propose will improve women’s lives and safety,” said Sirajim Munira, 27. “I think introducing Islamic law will be good for the country because it will make us honest and free from corruption.”

Ainum Nahar, 58, said Jamaat’s base is driven by women. “The community strengthens us,” he said. Still, he agreed that women should never lead the party. “As an Islamic party, women are prohibited from being leaders,” Nahar said. But we will stand behind them to inspire, encourage and move the country forward,” he said.