For more than three decades, Bangladesh was one of the few countries in the world to be led by women, yet there are almost none on the February 12 ballots.Despite helping to spearhead the uprising that led to this vote, women are poised to be largely excluded from the South Asian country’s political arena.Regardless of which parties win next week, the outcome will see Bangladesh governed almost exclusively by men. “I used to be proud that even though my country is not the most liberal, we still had two women figureheads at the top,” first-time voter Ariana Rahman, 20. told AFP. “Whoever won, the prime minister would be a woman.” Women make up less than four percent of the candidates for this election: just 76 among the 1,981 contestants vying for 300 parliamentary seats. And most of the parties put only men on their tickets. Women’s political representation has always been limited in the conservative South Asian nation. Since independence, the highest number elected was 22 in 2018. But from 1991 until the 2024 revolution, Bangladesh was helmed, represented abroad and politically defined by two women: Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.Zia died in December after leading the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) for four decades and serving three terms as premier.Hasina, the five-time prime minister overthrown in the July 2024 uprising, is hiding in India and sentenced to death in absentia for crimes against humanity. – ‘Censored, vilified, judged’ -Many rights campaigners had hoped the revolution that ended Hasina’s autocratic rule would usher in a period of greater equality, including for women.While the caretaker government of Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus set up a Women’s Affairs Reform Commission, his interim administration has also been criticised for sidelining the body and making unilateral decisions without consulting women officials.And there has been a surge of open support for Islamist groups, which want to limit women’s participation in public life. After years of being suppressed, emboldened hardliners have demanded organisers of religious commemorations and other public events remove women from the line-up, as well as calling for restrictions on activities like women’s football matches. “Historically, women’s participation has always been low in our country, but there was an expectation for change after the uprising, which never happened,” said Mahrukh Mohiuddin, the spokesperson for women’s political rights organisation Narir Rajnoitik Odhikar Forum (Women’s Political Rights Forum).An entrenched patriarchal mindset means women are often relegated to household duties, she added.Those who dare to speak out often face hostility.  “Women are censored, vilified… judged for simply being part of a political party,” said uprising leader Umama Fatema. “That is the reality.”Even the group formed by student leaders of the revolution, the National Citizen Party (NCP), is fielding just two women among its 30 candidates.”I don’t take part in any decision‑making of my party, (and) the biggest and most important decisions are not taken in our presence,” said NCP member Samantha Sharmeen.The NCP has allied with Jamaat-e-Islami, the largest Islamist party and one of 30 parties to have failed to nominate a single woman.- ‘Can’t be any women leaders’ -Jamaat’s assistant secretary general, Ahsanul Mahboob Zubair, said society was not yet “ready and safe” for women in politics.Nurunnesa Siddiqa of its women’s wing added: “In an Islamic organisation, there can’t be any women leaders, we have accepted that.”One of the few women running in this election, Manisha Chakraborty, said women’s participation in Bangladesh’s politics has long been limited to tokenisation.The nation of 170 million people directly elects 300 lawmakers to its parliament, while another 50 are selected on a separate women’s list.”The concept of reserved seats is insulting,” said Chakraborty, whose Bangladesh Socialist Party has nominated 10 women among it 29 candidates — the highest share in this poll. “Lobbying, internal preference, nepotism — all play a role in making women’s participation in parliament just a formality,” she told AFP.  Former minister Abdul Moyeen Khan said the reserved seats “were meant to help women establish a foothold”, but “the opposite happened”.Selima Rahman, the only woman on the BNP’s standing committee, said promising women leaders often “fade away” due to a lack of party support. And while Zia and Hasina served important symbolic roles, she pointed to how both had been elevated to the pinnacle of power through family connections. Student voter Ariana Rahman fears a long struggle lies ahead.”More women in this election would have made me feel better represented,” she said. “The next few years are likely to be more hostile towards women.”

A worshipper at the Shiite mosque in Islamabad where dozens of people were killed in a suicide blast on Friday described an “extremely powerful” explosion ripping through the building just after prayers started.Muhammad Kazim, 52, told AFP he arrived at the Imam Bargah Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra mosque shortly after 1:00 pm (0800 GMT) on Friday and took up a place around seven or eight rows from the Imam.”During the first bow of the Namaz (prayer ritual), we heard gunfire,” he told AFP outside the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) hospital, where many of the wounded were brought for treatment.”And while we were still in the bowing position, an explosion occurred,” he said.Kazim, who is from Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan and lives in Islamabad, escaped unharmed, but accompanied his wounded friend to the PIMS hospital for treatment.”It was unclear whether it was a suicide bombing, but the explosion was extremely powerful and caused numerous casualties,” Kazim said.”Debris fell from the roof, and windows were shattered,” he added. “When I got outside, many bodies were scattered… Many people lost their lives.”The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the attack, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist communications.Another worshipper, Imran Mahmood, described a gunfight between the suicide bomber, a possible accomplice and volunteer security personnel at the mosque.”The suicide attacker was trying to move forward, but one of our injured volunteers fired at him from behind, hitting him in the thigh,” Mahmood, in his fifties, told AFP.”He fell but got up again. Another man accompanying him opened fire on our volunteers,” he said, adding the attacker “then jumped onto the gate and detonated the explosives”.As of Saturday morning, the death toll stood at 31, with at least 169 wounded.The attack was the deadliest in the Pakistani capital since September 2008, when 60 people were killed in a suicide truck bomb blast that destroyed part of the five-star Marriott hotel.- Lax security -Describing the aftermath of the attack, Kazim said unhurt worshippers went to the aid of those wounded.”People tried to help on their own, carrying two or three bodies in the trunks of their vehicles, while ambulances arrived about 20 to 25 minutes later,” he told AFP. “No one was allowed near the mosque afterwards.”Kazim, who has performed Friday prayers at the mosque “for the past three to four weeks”, said security had been lax.”I have never seen proper security in place,” he told AFP.”Volunteers manage security on their own, but they lack the necessary equipment to do it effectively,” he said.”Shiite mosques are always under threat, and the government should take this seriously and provide adequate security,” he added.

A suicide blast claimed by the Islamic State group (IS) at a Shiite mosque in Islamabad killed at least 31 people on Friday, with 169 more wounded in the deadliest attack in Pakistan’s capital since the 2008 Marriott hotel bombing.City officials said 31 people died in the explosion at the Imam Bargah Qasr-e-Khadijatul Kubra mosque in the Tarlai area on the city’s outskirts, with scores more being treated for injuries. The death toll was expected to rise further.The blast occurred at Friday prayers, when mosques around the country are packed with worshippers. “The attacker was stopped at the gate and detonated himself,” a security source told AFP.IS said one of its militants had targeted the congregation, detonating an explosive vest and “inflicting a large number of deaths and injuries”, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist communications.Muhammad Kazim, a 52-year-old worshipper, said an “extremely powerful” explosion ripped through the building as prayers were just starting.”During the first bow of the Namaz (prayer ritual), we heard gunfire,” he told AFP. “And while we were still in the bowing position, an explosion occurred,” he said.Another worshipper, Imran Mahmood, told AFP there was a gunfight between the bomber, a possible accomplice and volunteer security personnel at the mosque.”The suicide attacker was trying to move forward, but one of our injured volunteers fired at him from behind, hitting him in the thigh,” he told AFP.He then “detonated the explosives”, Mahmood, in his fifties, added.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed that those behind the blast would be found and brought to justice.The attack was the deadliest in the Pakistani capital since September 2008, when 60 people were killed in a suicide truck bomb blast that destroyed part of the five-star Marriott hotel.- Bodies, bloodied clothing, debris -AFP journalists at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences hospital saw several people, including children, being carried in on stretchers or by their arms and legs.Medics and bystanders helped unload victims with blood-soaked clothes from the back of ambulances and vehicles. At least one casualty arrived in the boot of a car.Friends and relatives of the wounded wept and screamed as victims — dead or alive — arrived at the hospital’s heavily guarded emergency ward.Another team of AFP journalists saw armed security forces outside the mosque, where pools of blood were visible on the ground.Yellow crime-scene tape surrounded an investigation area, with shoes, clothing and broken glass scattered around the site.Videos shared on social media, which AFP was not able to verify immediately, showed several bodies lying near the mosque’s front gate, with people and debris also strewn across the red-carpeted prayer hall.Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar branded the attack “a heinous crime against humanity and a blatant violation of Islamic principles”.”Pakistan stands united against terrorism in all its forms,” he said in a post on X.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said “attacks against civilians and places of worship are unacceptable”, according to his spokesman.- Growing insurgencies -The attack comes as Pakistan’s security forces battle intensifying insurgencies in southern and northern provinces that border Afghanistan.Pakistan is a Sunni-majority nation, but Shiites make up between 10 and 15 percent of the population and have been targeted in attacks throughout the region in the past.Islamabad has said separatist armed groups in southern Balochistan, and the Pakistani Taliban and other Islamist militants in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province near Islamabad, have used Afghan territory as a safe haven from which to launch attacks.Afghanistan’s Taliban government has repeatedly denied Pakistan’s accusations.Bilateral relations have plummeted, with forces from both sides regularly clashing along the border.The last major attack in Islamabad took place in November when a suicide blast outside a court killed 12 people and wounded dozens, the first such incident to hit the capital in nearly three years.In Balochistan, attacks claimed by separatist insurgents last week killed 36 civilians and 22 security personnel, prompting a wave of counter-operations in which authorities said security forces killed almost 200 militants.