An research article on women's representation of in the parliament of Bangladesh.

1. [This paper is presented in the 2022 Global Conference on
Women and Gender held at Christopher Newport University, USA]
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Representation and Violence: Does Women's Representation in the Parliament
of Bangladesh Reduce the Violence Against Women (VAW) in Bangladesh?
Mst. Sabikun Naher
Master of Arts in Sustainable International Development
Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA
Abstract
Violence Against Women (VAW) is a global phenomenon. To curve VAW, Bangladesh has
taken several initiatives. Among them, as a Constitutional promise to ensure women's
participation in every sphere of life, reserved seats for women in the parliament has introduced.
Data analysis shows that women's participation in politics and VAW is increasing in
Bangladesh. From this ground, based on secondary data, this paper explores the relations
between Representation and VAW. It finds that the representation of women is not working to
stop VAW. Among other causes, the salient causes are a low representation of women in the
parliament; the existing gender-biased socioeconomic structure of society; women's
backwardness in education and employment; lack of support from their political parties; and
the backfire of the existing quota system for women. The paper suggests, therefore, assigning
constituency for parliamentarians of reserved seats, changing socioeconomic structure, and
altering the masculine form of the politics of Bangladesh. The findings may be helpful for
policymakers to rethink the existing quota system for women in the parliament regarding
reducing VAW in Bangladesh.
Keywords: Violence Against Women (VAW), political Representation, reserved seats for
women

2. [This paper is presented in the 2022 Global Conference on
Women and Gender held at Christopher Newport University, USA]
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1. Introduction
Violence Against Women (VAW) is a global but unexpected phenomenon with diverse roots
and multiple societal impacts. Violence suffers women not only physically, psychologically,
and sexually but also lose rights, access to resources, and opportunities. Worldwide, women's
political participation is a sign of equal access to politics and decision-making at the state-level
level. Women's political participation is a valid indicator of democracy (Nelson &
Chowdhury). Women represent in parliament worldwide. According to Inter-Parliamentary
Union (IPU), there are 46068 parliament members; among them, 33866 are male, and only
11927 are female. In terms of percentage, women hold only 25.09% of seats in the parliament.
The rest 74.10% goes to males. In the South Asian region, the situation is dire. Women hold
only 17.80% of the seats in the parliament.
Figure 1: Women in World's Parliament (produced by the author from IPU (2022)
In Bangladesh, VAW is rampant despite various magnificent initiatives to reduce it (Hossain
2016). Bangladesh, as a democratic country, envisions equity between males and females.
Despite this, like other parts of the world, the women of Bangladesh have been suffering some
socioeconomic inequality. Greater participation is required to achieve social equity between
men and women (Moghadam, 2010). Various studies show that effective law implementation
is a requirement for talking VAW. Such as Delaporte and Pino (2021) show that political
participation in Brazil has a positive impact on curve violence against women. Since the
parliament makes the law, it is assumed that women's representation in law-making may bring
positive outcomes to address VAW. From this ground, the study focuses on women's political
representation in the Bangladesh parliament with the trends of VAW. Specifically, the study
will reveal whether women's participation in the parliament brings positive change in reducing
VAW. Based on secondary literature, the paper first assesses why political participation is
necessary. The second part will portray the recent VAW trends and women's political
participation in the national parliament. It is found that both participation of women in the
parliament and VAW is upward trending. Therefore, the next part diagnoses why this failure.
The last part will draw some recommendations to make the representation effective in reducing
VAW.
2. Theoretical background
Political participation is one of the key ways to ensure participation. It is supportive in several
ways of women's participation. Phillips (1998) identifies that women's participation in politics
works as a role model for other women to participate in politics. Since male still dominates the
46,068
33,866
11,927 25.90% 17.80%
Total MPs Men Women Global
Percentage
South Asian
Percentage
Women in World's Parliament (IPU 2022)

3. [This paper is presented in the 2022 Global Conference on
Women and Gender held at Christopher Newport University, USA]
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political arena, women are usually discouraged. Besides, primarily number matters. Numeral
equality is a sign of justice. Whatever power exists to the participants, the number sometimes
determines the decision. Numeral equity, therefore, provides a platform for women to work
further. Women's political participation creates an opportunity to work further for women's
interests. It is not possible for all time to serve women's interests through males. Therefore,
women can best be served in women's interest. In a democracy, participation is a crucial tool
to ensure the voice of different groups. It may be possible to form a government without the
greater participation of different groups. However, it undermines the core concept of
democracy: from the people and by the people. Therefore, the participation of women
revitalizes democracy.
Dovi (2007) also added some points in favor of women's participation. Participation is vital for
confidence building. Political representation starts from participation in political activities from
home to state and beyond. Irrespective of the outcome of participation in decision-making and
politics, one of the salient steps is achieved: confidence building. Participation brings
confidence to march on.
Moreover, from the normative aspect, every institution needs legitimacy of equal
representation and participation of different stakeholders. In terms of demographic division,
women are the largest stakeholder in society. So their participation provides a sense of
legitimacy for the institution. Greater participation provides greater legitimacy.
Among other issues, institutional arrangement determines Representation (Moghandam, 2010).
The institutional arrangement is based on three pillars: socioeconomic factors, cultural factors,
and political factors. Socioeconomic factors include society types, economic status, education,
and gender gaps. For example, types of society determine the level of participation of women
in society or how much participation the existing social structure will allow. A patriarchal
society has fewer options for women's participation in public and private spheres of life. On
the other, a matriarchal society can yield greater participation of women. Another important
socioeconomic factor is education. The level of education determines the level of access to
decision-making. A woman with less or no education usually cannot access the highest
decision-making body of society, like a parliament. The second pillar of institutional
arrangement is political factors such as political rights (voting, state structure, party ideology,
electoral system, etc.). These factors determine whether women have space to participate in
politics. For example, if women are devoid of voting rights, they cannot select their candidate
in decision-making. Ultimately they will have no representation in the decision-making system
of society.
The third pillar is cultural factors. It includes values, beliefs, and attitudes for being, talking,
and doing. Society's values toward women determine how much power in decision-making or
resources will be given to women. It also depends on a belief system. For example, religion as
a belief system determines what types of laws of inheritance resources and participation vis-à-
vis male counterparts will be produced. In Bangladesh, women's resource is distributed through
laws based on Islamic Shariah.

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Figure 2: Institutional arrangement for women's participation (produced by the author from
Moghandam (2010).
3. Women's Representation and Violence: Bangladesh Context
Women in the politics of Bangladesh have a long historical root. Bangladesh was then a part
of the Indian subcontinent, ruled by different colonial rulers, including the British. From that
period, in different anti-colonial movements, women contributed significantly. For example,
Rani Begum Hajrat Mahal waged war through the war in 1817; Rani Lakshmibai contributed
to the First War of Independence (1857-58) against the colonial power. Sarala Devi was a very
heroic figure in Non-cooperation Movement in 1920 against the British. Usha Mehta
participated actively in the Quit India Movement in 1942 (Madhav University 2022). Bir Kanya
(heroin daughter) Pritylata Waddeder was one of the leaders in the anti-British movement in
the 1930s.
The most heroic contribution of women in politics is shown in the Pakistan period (1947-1971)
in Bangladesh. In the Language Movement in 1952, women of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan)
actively protected the mother language of Bangladesh. For example, the girls of Eden College
of East Pakistan built the first Shaheed Minar (Monument for Martyrs) (Ara 2020). They also
marked their heroic contribution to the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. Women waged
war as guerillas in parallel with regular freedom fighters, as cultural activists in different
corners of Bangladesh to boot up the freedom fighters. Many contributed as medical caregivers,
food and shelter givers to freedom fighters. The most remembered contribution is their self-
sacrifice. They were the victim of abuse and rape all over the liberation war. The number of
war victims varies in different studies, ranging from 200000-400,000 women (Hossain, 2012).
However, during that period, women did not participate in parliament.
After the Independence of Bangladesh, women became part of the parliament through
constitutional provision. Several legal steps have been taken to include women in the
parliament. Such as article 28(2) of the Constitution of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Institutional
Arrangement
Socio-
economic
factors (types
of society,
economic
status,
education,
gender gap
etc.)
Cultural
factors (values,
beliefs,
attitudes for
being, talking
and doing)
Political factors
(political rights
like voting,
state structure,
party ideology,
electoral
system etc.

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affirms that: "women shall have equal rights to those of men in every domain of the national
and community life" (MoLPA 2016). From this ground, 10 parliamentary seats were reserved
for women in the first Parliamentary Election of Bangladesh in 1973 to ensure women's
participation. Later, the number of reserved seats was increased to 50 seats in the 11th
Parliament (Ferdous 2019). The data from Election Commission Bangladesh shows that the
reserved seats positively impact women's participation in Bangladesh. For example, the
average women's representation in parliament increased from 4.8% in 1973 to 19.71 in 2014
(Ferdous 2019). In the Fourth Parliament in 1988, there were no reserved seats for women, and
women's participation dramatically fell from 10.6% to 1.3%. Besides reserved seats, the
number of directly elected women increased from the first to the tenth parliament. The number
of directly elected women was nil in the first parliament; later, in the 10th
parliament, it became
19 in 2014 (Ferdous 2019). It gives a clear picture that women have been increasing their
political participation.
Table 1: Women's participation in the parliament from 1973 to 2014 (Ferdous 2019).
Figure 3: Women's Participation and winning in different parliamentary elections (Kabir and
Haque (2014)).
Not only the constitutional provision made the improvement of women's participation possible,
but also other legal aspects contributed too. Bangladesh has enacted several laws relating to the
improvement of women's lives as well as signed and ratified international conventions. For
example, Bangladesh enacted 'The Prevention of Cruelty Against Women and Children Act

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(2000) and signed and ratified the 'Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of
Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1984 and International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (ICCPR) in 2000.
Despite these actions and deeds, VAW remains in concern. VAW is rampant in Bangladesh
from private to public life. Among others, Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Harassment,
Rape, Dowry Violence, Acid Throwing/ Acid Violence, Forced Prostitution, and Women
Trafficking are alarming.
The following figure shows that from 2016 to 2020, the number of violence has been
increasing. However, it is tough to find the actual data on violence because, in various cases,
violence is not reported.
Figure 4: Total cases of violence (2016-20) (produced by authors from different sources).
Several studies have been done so far regarding violence in Bangladesh. But a comprehensive
nationwide list remains elusive because, first, the number of people or families is vast, and
second, the studies are done based on specific types of violence for the researcher's purpose.
Therefore, statistics of violence on the standard timeline are possible to retrieve. Here are some
analyses of common types of violence, which may portray the seriousness of the events.
a. Dowry
Dowry is very common in Bangladesh. It may be defined as the economic and social benefits
claimed by the male counterpart to the female counterpart during and after marriage. A study
shows that from 2001 to 2018, 5756 married females became victims of the dowry, 3273
became victims of murder, 2250 became physically abused, and 233 committed suicide (Akhter
2019). Among all types of violence, dowry shares a considerable portion. It was 28.32% in
2001-2005, which remained almost the same in 2006-2010. However, in the next five years, it
roses to 42.97% (Akhter 2019).
5242 5675 5429
7532 7163
Total no of Violence
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

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Figure 5: Percentage of dowry violence from 2001-2015 (Akhter 2019).
b. Stalkers
Stalking is irritating based on gender in public and private places. It is also known as sexual
harassment. Usually, in Bangladesh, females become the victim of stalking by males during
public movements, such as irritation, bullying in public places, teasing, etc. Akhter (2019)
shows that from 2011 to 2018, the total number of girls victimized by stalkers was 2617.
However, the trend of stalking is downward trending. In 2012, the percentage of stalking in
VAW was 24.6, which became 8 in 2018 (Akhter).
Figure 6: Stalking from 2012-2018 (Akhter 2019).
c. Rape
Rape is one of the essential aspects of VAW in Bangladesh. Because of its multidimensionality,
it is very complex. Since it has multiple impacts on women and their families in society;
therefore, it can be assumed that cases of rape sometimes remain unreported. In Bangladesh, a
rapped woman is considered as 'loosened chastity,' whereas chastity is precious during
marriage and after. Therefore, the family usually discourages disclosing the rape case in
society, especially for unmarried women. Between 2015 and 2017, the number of victims of
rape decreased by precisely 9.3% and then increased in 2018 (11.6%) (Akhter 2019)
Another issue is the rape of children. This trend was increasing. A study by Abusaleh and Mitra
(2016) shows that 34.78% of rape victims in 2001-2005 were children, which decreased in the
next five years, then increased to 41.56% from 2011 to 2015.

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Attempted rape is being reported now. The year average of attempted rapes from 2011 to 2018
is 90 (Akhter 2019).
Figure 7: cases of rape (Abusaleh and Mitra 2016)
d. Acid violence
Acid violence is thawing acid and attempting to throw it on girls to damage them physically. It
was prevalent in the early 2000s in Bangladesh. Abusaleh and Mitra (2016) found that the total
incident of acid violence was 2898. However, this type of violence is being decreased now due
to firm actions by the government. For example, in the early 2000s, the total victim was
62.46%, dramatically decreasing by 12.07% in 2011-15 (Abusaleh and Mitra, 2016). However,
the number is still considerable.
Figure 8: Percentage of Acid Violence against women (Abusaleh and Mitra (2016)
e. Fatwa and Illegal Arbitration
Fatwa means giving stricture or punishment for women by the local religious leaders on
women. Most of cases, the religious leaders do not follow the existing legal code of conduct.
Since it was given locally, the local victim faces severe socioeconomic problems in life.
Sometimes, punishments given by Fatwa are humiliating to the victims. Such as, the victim
may be given teaming the hair of the head in front of people, or the victims are socially avoided
from communicating with other members. Therefore, the victim cannot communicate with
others; they cannot perform socioeconomic activities like shopping, working, and school.

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Illegal arbitration may or not come from Fatwa. The powerful local elites or heads of society,
which is not permitted by law, gave a verdict. Because of their social empowerment and
acceptance, they perform illegal arbitration. Such as, victims are given token money to mediate
violence with the culprits, threatening the victim not to go for legal procedure. In violence,
Fatwa and illegal arbitration are a considerable part. In 2004-2007, it contributed to 38% of
total violence, whereas it decreased in 2012-2015 to 28%, which is still almost one-third
(Abusaleh and Mitra 2016). Odikar, an organization for human rights, shows that 252 women
were victimized through Fatwa from 2009 to 2007.
Figure 9: Percentage of Fatwa and Illegal Arbitration (Abusaleh and Mitra, 2016)
f. Domestic violence
Domestic violence against women holds the percentage of the height in violence. Finding out
the actual figure is pretty complex because most cases are unreported. The reported cases are
exposed one. Women face day-to-day violence in their everyday life. It happens among the
family, so the victim rarely reports any case against her family member. Family is considered
as the last resort for women. She always tries to reconcile with other members by 'sacrificing'
herself and not reporting the case to others.
In some cases, since violators are family members, women do not get any support to move with
the case. Abusalh and Mitra (2016) find that from 2003 to 2016, the total number of domestic
violence is 6266. From 2007 to 2010, 34.34% of violence was domestic violence, which has
increased to 42.36% (Abusaleh and Mitra 2016).

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Figure 10: Percentage of domestic violence against women (Abusaleh and Mitra 2016).
4. Political Representation and Violence: Bangladesh Context
The paper aims to analyze whether the political representation of women in parliament, as the
heights law-making body of the country, has any impact on VAW in Bangladesh. It is assumed,
generally, that the representation may have an inverse relation with VAW. Ideally, more
representation of women would yield lesser violence against women. By juxtaposing the two
graphs, it is difficult to find the inverse relationship between political representation and
violence against women in Bangladesh. The data shows that with increased participation, the
frequency of violence also increases, although the type of violence may fluctuate over the years.
From the Bangladesh context, it is shown that representation of women in the parliament or
law-making is proving to provide better conditions for women. The causes might be various.
First, although women's representation increased in the last fifty years from 4.8% in 1973 to
19.71%, the representation in comparison with men is still deficient. Women represent almost
half of the population but share only one-fifth of the total seats. Therefore, their voice is still
low in the parliament. Approval from the majority is required to pass a law. The
underrepresentation of women is reflected in the violence against women.
Second, as we discussed earlier, institutional arrangement (a combination of political,
economic, and cultural factors) is necessary for adequate representation. Therefore, only
representation without changing societal socio-cultural factors cannot change women's
condition. Specifically, the enforcement of the law is deficient in Bangladesh. Despite having
laws regarding stopping VAW, these are not enforced properly. Another socio-cultural problem
arises from less accountability of perpetrators. Due to using ill power, violators get indemnity
or bail after committing a crime. Overall, the rule of law is not established. It results in the
ineffectiveness of formal (e.g., court) and informal (e.g., family) institutions. The patriarchal
structure in the society of Bangladesh undermines women's power and position. Women are
always secondary choices in the distribution of resources and opportunities. For example, if a
single opportunity exists to educate a child, girls will always be traded off. One cause is that a
girl will leave her parent's house after marriage. So her education is not considered an
'investment' for the future. This vicious cycle creates less confident, less educated, and less
5242 5675 5429
7532 7163
Total no of Violence
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
4.8
9.7 10.6
1.3
10.3 10 11.5
15.1
20 19.71
1973197919861988199119961996200120082014
Women Representation (%)

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prioritized women who depend more on others with less financial capacity and decision-
making power.
Third, education and economic empowerment are critical factors for changing women's
condition and empowerment. Without education, women cannot feel confident to move in the
case of violence. Even they cannot know how, when, and where to deal with violent cases.
Women's literacy rate is 24.2% (Kabir and Haque (2014), which is very low than men's.
Education gives women consciousness. For example, in the case of child marriage (under 18
years marriage), the girl herself sometimes called the law enforcement agency to stop her
marriage against her will. Another issue is the employment of women. Employment and
economic empowerment help women decide to move with violence cases. Mainly it will be
effective during decision-making in family and society. In the case of domestic violence, a
woman will feel confident in her financial capacity if her family does not support her filing a
case against a family member. She can move against her family's decision.
Fourth, the ineffectiveness of representation comes from the regime itself. Since 1991,
Bangladesh has been ruled by two political parties: Bangladesh Awami League and Bangladesh
Nationalist Party. Two females head both parties. Since then, these two ladies played a role as
Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition in the parliament. Even in the 10th
parliament
(2014-2018), the most important positions were held by women: Prime Minister, Leader of
Opposition, Speaker, Home Minister, and Foreign Minister, including the other two ministries.
However, these parties are reluctant to give nominations to women (Kabir and Haque 2014).
Lastly, quotas for women in the parliament itself are a problem. It is a temporary measure, but
it becomes almost permanent. Quotas have been increased from 10 to 50 reserved seats in the
parliament. This reserved seat becomes a boomerang that the average direct representation of
women is 2% only (Kabir and Haque 2014). All women have opted for reserved seats, and it
is easier to be elected as members of the parliament (IFES 2011). In addition, women need
reserved seats not to contest in the field. The parties allocate a number of reserved states based
on the percentage of general seats held in the parliament. The party nominates against the given
seat, and the women candidates are elected by choice of the Party (IFES 2011). They do not
have any specific constituency. Therefore, the quotas for women in the national parliament do
not reflect the accurate representation of the public.
5. Concluding Remarks
5.1. Recommendations
The previous sections discussed that despite having political representation in the parliament
of Bangladesh, VAW is still rampant. The section above diagnosed the causes of the failure of
representation to stop violence against women. No standalone measures can give a complete
remedy; a comprehensive endeavor is required.
First, there is no assigned constituency for women elected through reserved parliament seats.
The parliament selects them after giving nominations by the parties. Therefore, they do not
have a direct legislative role in the parliament. The nomination process and their role in the
parliament make reserved seats for parliamentarians ineffective. So the foremost task is to
assign constituency for women-reserved seats.

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Second, altering the masculine model of politics is another solution. The domain of politics is
still gender biased. Women are not welcomed at all-time. Although two major political parties
have been headed by a female for the last four decades, the field of politics for women remains
unfavorable. Considering local ground, the female party chief rarely nominates females to
contest in general seats. Women should be taken to the decision-making process, not for the
ceremonial post. The situation needs changing from parties first; then, the voters will come
forward to elect a female candidate. Ultimately it will impact overall political culture and
change the environment for women in parliament and field-level politics. The political
environment should be gender sensitive. A study finds that female politicians face the problem
of being divorced by their husbands for being candidates or in politics, being threatened by the
opposition, being harassed by police, and having mental stress (Democracywatch 2009). Then
the laws related to VAW would be possible to implement effectively. And if political culture
becomes gender-sensitive, then the perpetrators would have fewer spaces to use political power
to manipulate the legal process to gain favor after doing violence.
Third, stopping violence against women needs to change the existing socioeconomic structure
into a gender-sensitive one. The existing structure is gender insensitive. No standalone policy
is sufficient to alter the existing one. For this, a comprehensive policy is necessary. The
government has to firmly determine whether it desires to change the existing socioeconomic
structure. It is found that Bangladesh signed CEDAW with reservation. Bangladesh formulated
the Women's Development Policy (WDP), where equal rights in inherited resources between
males and females are missing. These are a few examples of how the existing governments
compromise with the socio-cultural structure of society. Therefore, a firm political commitment
is necessary to make a gender-sensitive socioeconomic structure.
5.2. Conclusion
The paper starts with a correlation between representation and violence against women. In
Bangladesh, it shows that the representation of women in the parliament and VAW are upward
trending. By analyzing data, three conclusions could be developed. First, the representation of
women does not stop VAW in Bangladesh. Second, temporary measures such as quotas for
women in parliament may backfire. It may hamper the ultimate goal. Third, an ideology of
political parties and overall socio-political culture can play a positive role in effectively
reducing VAW and women's participation. The paper recommends that reducing VAW in
connection with women's participation in the parliament should focus on three aspects:
assigning constituency for women of reserved seats, altering the masculine model of politics,
and changing the country's socioeconomic context.
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