Bangladesh

Women lawmakers of the ninth parliament at an orientation programme today pledged to work together for empowering the womenfolk politically and towards removing disparity between men and women. It is time for women to stood under a single umbrella and worked on a common agenda to serve society and the nation, they said.
To read the full article, please visit The Daily Star.

"The number of reserved seats for women in parliament will be increased to 100 and there will be direct election in these seats," Finance Minister Muhith told the House while presenting the budget for 2009-10 yesterday. The women MPs have so far been nominated by political parties on the basis of the proportion of their representation in parliament. At present, only 45 seats are reserved for women in the Bangladesh parliament.
To read the full article, please visit Zee News Website.

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.
To read more, please see Reuters website.

Politics is essentially led by women in Bangladesh, said Kamal. Bangladesh's current head of government is Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, while the heads of opposition were women as well for the past two decades. Women also make up 18.6 percent, 65 of 345 seats of the Bangladeshi parliament, currently.
To read the complete news story please visit asiaone NEWS website.

In Bangladesh, traditional gender roles keep most women from gaining political power. A recent forum, "Celebrating Women's Leadership in Bangladesh," brought together female MPs and other Bangladeshi women with political aspirations to inspire and encourage them to run for office and to work together across party lines to increase women's political participation in the country.The Bangladesh Alliance for Women Leadership (BDAWL), an organization of prominent women leaders, hosted the November meeting, which was prompted by a visit to Bangladesh from Melanne Verveer, U.S.

Constitution amendment body faces difficulties in introducing direct election system. The parliamentary special committee on constitutional amendments agreed in principle to propose increasing reserved seats for women in the House but it is facing difficulties to introduce direct election to the seats preserved. Members of the committee yesterday in a meeting at the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban discussed two propositions for increasing the number of reserved seats for women.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged all to help the government implement National Women Development Policy for the welfare of women.  She said that a certain quarter “trading on religion” has been trying to mislead people by misinterpreting the women development policy, although Islam as a religion never approves inequality between man and woman.

For more information, please visit: thedailystar

Bangladeshi women are pushing government to implement the recently approved National Women Development Policy (NWDP) 2011, which has met with strong resistance from Islamic clergy. Leaders and activists of the Jatiya Mahila Sangstha (National Women’s Organisation) recently held rallies and formed human chains across major cities demanding the policy’s immediate enforcement.