Bangladesh

Members of Bangladesh Mahila Parishad (BMP), a women's rights organisation, yesterday demanded that the government ensure one-third of the parliamentary seats for women through direct elections.

They also demanded for the reallocation of electoral constituencies, wherein women can be elected member of the parliament from the constituency they belong.

The BMP members made the demands at a gathering on Manik Mia Avenue in the capital.

Lacking basic services and living under the constant threat of eviction, the people of Bhola wanted to change their situation but needed support to formulate a plan of action. Enter the Local-to-Local Dialogue, a strategic process developed by the Huairou Commission through decades of grassroots women’s organizing efforts. Through the L2L process, women document their realities, build consensus, form alliances, and build a power base to access resources and create solutions to community issues. They engage in decision-making in partnership with local authorities.

The two main political parties of Bangladesh have disapproved of the Election Commission's proposal to reserve 33 percent of nominations for women in elections, despite both being headed by women who have ruled the country.
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Bangladesh on Monday moved against the leaders of its two main political parties, both former prime ministers, as it intensified efforts to clean up the nation’s corrupt politics.
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Sheikh Hasina, the winner of Bangladesh's parliamentary election last month, was sworn in as the country's prime minister on Tuesday, ending two years of rule by an army-backed interim government. It will be her second time in the office.

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Bangladesh to hold polls to 45 parliament seats reserved for women on March 29, Election Commissioner Sakhawat Hussain told reporters here on Monday. Members of the country's ninth parliament (MPs), who were elected by direct public votes in the parliamentary elections held on Dec. 29 last year, will exercise their rights to elect women lawmakers for the 45 reserved seats.
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Forty-five new women MPs, elected to reserved seats, will be sworn in on Mar 29. Speaker Abdul Hamid will administer oaths to 36 new Awami League MPs, five of BNP and one of Jatiya Party, said Shawkat. The candidates were elected unopposed on Mar 19, as parties nominated exactly 45 candidates to the reserved women's seats, allotted on strength.
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The newly elected 45 women members of parliament from the reserved seats were sworn in on Sunday at the oath room of national parliament building in Dhaka. Speaker M Abdul Hamid administered the oath to the lawmakers this morning. Of the 45 women lawmakers, 36 are of the ruling Awami League, four of the Jatiya Party of HM Ershad and five of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)
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At a public meeting in Noakhali district in the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh, Agriculture Minister Motia Chowdhury had a strange encounter. Throughout the proceedings, a group of men stood with their backs toward her. The men, as it turned out, were conservative Muslim clerics, who found it difficult to accept a woman as a leader, but at the same time could not pass up the opportunity of listening to her speech.
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