No woman in race for general councillors in Rajshahi

There is no woman among the 112 candidates vying for the post of general councillors, except in the seats reserved for women, making it a men-only race to be held on Wednesday.

Behind the gender-gap, there are several issues like discriminatory opportunity for male and female public representatives, and lack of women empowerment, observed women candidates in reserved seats.

Muslima Begum Belly, who is contesting for a fourth term for the reserved seat comprising wards-7,8,8, told The Business Standard: "In fact, we don't have much work except distributing some government allowances and participating in arbitration…The way male councillors get the opportunity to participate in developmental work, we don't have that kind of opportunity".

According to the Election Commission (EC), there are 1,80,809 female voters in Rajshahi city areas, up by nearly 10,000 compared to 1,71,167 male voters. Still, participation of women in the general councillors' race is zero.

However, 46 women are competing in the polls this time from ten reserved seats.

Ayesha Khatun, a councillor candidate for the reserved seat comprising wards-3,5,6, shared with TBS that if any woman participates in the contest for the post of general councillor, there will be obstacles from the family first. Husbands never want their wives to surpass them.

"There are hundreds of obstacles. Even if elected after overcoming all obstacles, men will not come to the woman representative for any help. But there is no problem in competing for reserved seats," she said, adding that every ward should have separate posts of male and female councillor.

Shirin Ara, a candidate from the reserved seat comprising wards-9,11,12, alleged that women councillors, despite representing an area three-times larger than that of general councillors, are not given even half of the amount of budget compared to the general councillors.

For the women representatives, it is never possible to fulfill the expectations of people due to insufficient allocation, she added.

Prof Mahbuba Kaniz Keya, chairman of the department of psychology, Rajshahi University (RU), said despite spontaneous participation of women in voting campaigns, women are still unable to reach representative positions due to social perspective, and the failure of political parties in filling 33% of their representative posts by women.