Naripaksha, an organization working on women's rights, has demanded that one-third of each political party's list of candidates in the election should be women and 5% should be nominated from minority communities. Along with that, they have also proposed to organize local elections before the national elections.
The demands were presented at a press conference titled 'Women's Rights and Freedom: Expectations and Actions' at Nasrul Hamid Auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity today Saturday. The organization proposed short, medium and long-term action plans to the government to ensure women's rights and freedom.
Mahin Sultan, a member of the women's party, conducted the press conference under the chairmanship of Geeta Das, president of the women's party. Women's side members Sadaf Saaz Siddiqui, Kamrun Nahar, Roshan Ara and Ferdowsi Akhtar spoke.
The organizers said that the Women's Party reviewed the demands of the women's movement through workshops in eight departments in collaboration with the Durbar Network. The women's movement's demands have been grouped into eight categories—laws and policies, institutional frameworks, and service-related activities—in three short-term (within 6 months), medium-term (within 1 year), and long-term (3 years and above) proposals.
The proposal on women's political rights calls for the inclusion of a 'no' vote in the ballot for expressing no confidence in political parties. Nepotism needs to be discouraged in politics. Local elections should be arranged before national elections, so that local elections are not influenced by national elections. To create an environment conducive to women's participation within political parties, all registered parties must include at least one-third of women members in every level committee. A party code of conduct should be made to prevent disrespectful remarks, discriminatory behavior and sexual harassment against women. The Election Commission must take disciplinary action if necessary to prevent discriminatory behavior and sexual harassment.
There should be a provision of not being able to represent more than twice as a public representative in any state post.
Kamrun Nahar, a member of the women's party, said, 'Freedom has been gained in exchange for the honor of so many mothers and sisters, such derogatory words should be avoided. Apart from this, the state should be kept separate from religion. We think that religion is a personal matter and religion cannot exist with the state.
