Issue no.: 4 | June 2009

Outlook

A survey on representation and Violence Against Women In Politics in Bangladesh

This writing presents the findings of a survey carried out in nine constituencies of Bangladesh. In collaboration with South Asian Partnership, International, the survey was carried out by Democracywatch* from 28 to 30 December 2008; on, before and after the election day of the 9th Parliamentary election.

Objectives of the Study

The overall objective of the survey was to understand adequate participation of women in the electoral process so as to observe equitable representation of women in policy making. However, the specific objectives of the survey were:

• Analyze election result from the point of view of number of women elected through the existing electoral system and the quota provision designed for women candidates.
• Monitor and analyze political violence against women during the election period

Methodology:

Nine constituencies were chosen purposively from seven districts covering eleven women candidates contested from both major and small political parties. The list of constituencies is given below:

Table 1:  List of Constituencies

Two questionnaires were administered; one for general voters who cast their vote in the general election and another for contesting women candidates. A total of 302 general voters and 6 woman candidates took part in the survey.

Constituency wise distribution of respondents is as follows:

Table 2: Constituency wise Distribution of Respondents

 

Limitation of the Survey:

The survey experienced few limitations. Limitations are time constraints and incorporation of more than required variables in the process of measurement. The survey was conducted amidst of 2008 Parliamentary election. Problems were experienced to get the respondents, particularly voters at the polling centers. Another problem that the study encountered was during office/working hours respondents were not always available at their residents. Due to various reason all women candidates such as: winning candidates had difficulties to get time for interview, losers were reluctant to give interview, and some candidates could not be reached as their cell phones were off etc.

Finding from Voter Survey

Out of 302, almost half of the respondents were female (49.7 percent) and predominantly Muslim (86.1 percent).

Voting Decisions

38 percent among male and 47.6 percent among female respondents prefer to vote for female candidates. But whenever the respondents have decided to vote (92.4 percent), the proportions are increased to a large extent; 49.2 percent among male and 63.7 percent among female respondents would vote for female candidate in their respective constituencies (see table 3). Interestingly, among Muslim, 54.3 percent would vote for female candidates. Among other ethnic community the percentages are little higher (Hindu 67.7 percent, Christian 66.7 percent).

Table 3: Voting for Male and Female Candidate by Gender

Factor influencing the voters’ decisions: More than two-fifth (43.6 percent) of male and about one-third of female respondents have chosen female candidates for their party affiliation. Remarkably, more than one-third (35 percent) of the overall interviewees opted for female candidates due to their contribution to social development.

Table 4: Reasons for Voting Female Candidates

Voters’ decision however was influenced by the presence of a prominent woman candidate. 44.5 percent said highest influence and 6.9 percent said moderately high influence. Furthermore, 28.2 percent respondents opined that the presence of a prominent woman candidate influenced them least while voting.

Support for Woman Candidates

Fifty six percent of the respondents supported the female candidates in the campaigning. 30.3 percent did other kinds of activities to support women candidates during election. Another 50 percent stated that they provide moral support to the women candidate.

Threats to General Voters

During the 9th Parliamentary election, an insignificant portion (3.4 percent) of general voters in the surveyed areas had personally experienced threats and only 5.1 percent of them knew of anyone who was threatened. Types of threats, however, the voter had experienced are as follows:

• Some unknown people offered money
• Some mustans forced directly to vote for a particular party/candidate
• Some mustans forced over cell phone to vote for a particular party/candidate

Violence against Women in Politics

48.6 percent of the interviewees were aware of the issue of violence against women in politics. As usually, this awareness is 10 percent higher among male voters (53.7 percent) than their female counterparts (43.6 percent).But only about one-tenth (9.5 percent) of the voters interviewed knew of any women candidate who have faced violence of different sorts. Natures of violence are given below in the Ascending order of magnitudes:

• Divorced by husband for being candidate/in politics
• Threatened by opposition/rival group within the party
• hreatened by local Union Parishad chairman
• Harassment by police
• Opposition filed cases on attempt to murder
• Mental stress from family, society even from own party

The respondent however made recommendations on making fair and inclusive electoral process for women. Some of their recommendations are:

• Enact gender-friendly laws and regulation that would help to create congenial atmosphere in entering women in political leadership and electoral process
• Political consensus among the major political parties on women in politics. The government must play the major role in this regards. It is the political parties who could nominate more women candidates at all level of elections as it is generally perceived especially in Bangladesh that women are relatively honest, hard-working and committed to their agenda/political and election pledges
• Mass awareness needed to be increased in favor of women leadership. Social institutions and civil society should come forward to change social framework of attitude
• Female education must be increased. Though for last couple of decades government policies are in favor of female education especially in primary and secondary level, due to various social grounds and misconceptions, female drop-out rate is higher, in secondary education much higher than their male counterparts. Training of female party members on development issues of the country is required

The respondent also made recommendations to reduce violence against women in politics illustrated below:

• Need gender-friendly bureaucracy especially police administration
• Increase social awareness on women in politics. It is to be understood by the people of all strata that women consist more that half of the population and as well as more than half of the voters. Proportional representation therefore is essential in all socio-political institutions and leadership for a equilibrium and just society
• Quality mass education would change social mindset vis-à-vis violence against women who are in politics or would like to enter in politics.
• Now-a-days terrorism prevails in politics both in developed and developing countries hinders both men and women joining politics. Political terrorism must be controlled to reduce violence against women in politics.

Two-third (66.9 percent) of the respondents opined that family and about one-third (31 percent) thought that society is responsible for addressing the issues of violence against women in politics.

Table 5: Responsible for Addressing Issues of Violence against Women in Politics

Interview with Women Candidates

Out of 11 women contested in the December 2008 general election in the surveyed areas, six were interviewed on different issues like women in politics and women in elections. The research team tried to interview eleven candidates, but due to various reasons such as: winning candidates had difficulties to get time for interview, losers were reluctant to give interview, and some candidates could not be reached as their cell phones were off etc. the research team was unable to interview them. The profiles of six interviewed female candidates are elucidated as follows:

Table 6: Profile of Women Candidates Interviewed

From Table 6 it is revealed that all candidates from Bangladesh Awami Leagues had won in the 9th Parliamentary election held in December 2008 and all from Bangladesh Nationalist Party lost though BNP candidates were relatively more experienced (except one) than Awami League in politics.

Support Environment

Support form family: All interviewed female candidates expressed that they got needful moral support form their family and husband. The family members were very encouraging understanding throughout the electoral process.

Support from political party: The candidates said their party supported them in campaigning period as well as throughout the electoral process.

Support form Media: Almost all candidates stated that the media covered their news well and they were very encouraging. Some candidates asserted that media showed complete support in portraying women candidates in the media positively. Only one candidate said the media covered a little of her news.

Support from Government: Almost all candidates opined that the then government provided them with enough security. Only one interviewee refrained from answering in this respect.

Support from general voters: All aspiring women law-makers expressed that their voters were very supportive and encouraging.

Economic and Financial Support

Support from family: Out of six, two respondents said their families supported financially more than they asked for. Another two said that their families supported as much as they could. One candidate’s family provided only a nominal amount. One candidate refrained from answering.

Support from political party: Three candidates responded that their party provided them with equal amount to that of male candidates. Two of them said their party provided them ’enough’ financial support. Only one candidate said that her party did not provide any financial help.

Support form others: Out of six candidates interviewed, three got support from their near distant relatives. The other three could not specify their financial back-up or perhaps, they did not need any support from others.

Personal Reflection

Four candidates were highly satisfied with election constituency given to them. One candidate was not satisfied with the constituency given to her. The remaining one said that her constituency was a challenge for her and as well as her chairperson.

Recommendation for Fair Electoral Process for Women

All of the female candidates were asked to make some recommendations on making fair and inclusive electoral process for women. Some of their recommendations are as follows:

• Party should give more nomination to female candidates.
• Women should be encouraged in taking part in politics and electoral process and they should have assistance from the government.
• The problem is Election Commission restricted the amount of money to spend which is not more than 15 hundred thousand taka. But in the present context this amount is not sufficient.
• Male and female candidates must be treated equally in electoral process.
• It depends on Election Commission, the Government and also the public how far electoral process of Bangladesh would be fair and supportive to women politicians.

Obstacles and Violence during Election Process

Three of the respondents had faced some kind of obstacles during the election process. The nature of the problem and perpetuators are:

Table 7: Kinds of Obstacles during Election Process Faced by Women Candidates

Rest of the interviewees did not face any kind of obstacles during the election process. But one of them expressed that she knew another woman politician who faced psychological violence during the electoral process.

Two respondents were not aware of formal mechanism to register complaints for the violence women candidates face during election. None of the interviewees registered complaints formally ever against the violence that they had faced during the election. All six respondents never adopted any informal strategies to handle violence themselves rather than going for formal mechanism.

Out of six, three candidates said that their parties code of conducts or manifestos addressed the issues of violence against women candidates in election. The remaining three was not sure about their party’s stand in this regard.

Five, out of six respondents were not aware or not sure of Election Commission’s code of conduct that addresses the violence against women in politics during election.

Recommendations to reduce Violence against women and Legal Framework on it

The respondents were asked to make some recommendations on how to reduce violence against women in politics and the changes to be brought in legal framework to better address the issues of violence against women in politics. Only two respondents replied on these aspects. They said the Government is responsible for addressing the issue of violence against women in politics.

They opined that Election Commission should provide more support to the female candidates and enact and implement new rules against violence. The government should also extend all kinds of moral support to women politicians. They also sought cooperation to their male counterparts to make political and electoral system engendered.

Conclusion

Bangladesh experience has revealed that women organizations have played a significant role in mobilizing the support and public opinion for women’s representation in legislature. However, the major political parties so far have not taken any significant and positive steps towards their respective political agenda for women’s representation in legislature. The concept of Proportional Representation is yet to be floated either by the activist groups or the major political parties. However there is no guarantee that the Proportional Representation systems would help women’s representation in Bangladesh political system. Based on the empirical observations the study also reveals that a change in the electoral system is perhaps imperative for improving women's representation.

Bangladesh as in other countries still shows some features of ‘masculine model’ of politics and the electoral system is not favorable for women. Bangladeshi women have limited access to and control over family resources to run for such very costly election campaigns. The conventional barriers like education, professional skills and family barriers, however, do not seem to be a significant obstacle for the participation of women in Bangladesh politics, specially the highest level of national politics i.e. the Parliament.