Right to Political Participation
Women in the National Parliament

Women's participation in formal politics has been limited in Bangladesh. Though in recent elections their participation as voters and to some extent as campaigners has increased notably, comparatively few women have made serious endeavours to cultivate their own electoral constituencies. Major political parties have given only a few nominations to women. In each of the parliamentary elections of 1991 and 1996, 36 women contested for 300 seats but only four were elected in the former year and seven in the latter; while in 2001 elections, 38 women contested and six were elected.
The minuscule number of women in parliament and the controlled nature of the political process have prevented them from playing a significant role in successfully raising women’s concerns or pressing for legislative changes to affect the status of women. When concerns are raised by women they are generally ignored, if not opposed, by the male members and women often find themselves marginalised by their own party².
In addition to the 300 general seats, the Constitution had provided for reserved seats for women to be 'indirectly elected' by the three hundred elected MPs. Initially, in 1972, the provision of reserved seats was introduced to ensure a minimum representation of women in parliament and to encourage their gradual entry into mainstream electoral politics. It was hoped that the socio-economic and cultural constraints that prevented women’s equal participation would be sufficiently eroded away in time and conditions would be created for a more equal and enhanced participation of women along with men. However, this expectation did not materialise as was evident from the small number of women who received party nomination or contested for general seats. As a result, over the years, the provision has been renewed twice and the number of reserved seats was increased in 1978.
Article 65(3) of the Constitution of 1972 provided for fifteen reserved seats for a period of ten years³.
An amendment to the Constitution in 1978 increased the reserved seats to 30 for a period of fifteen years that lapsed in 1987⁴.
The Tenth Amendment in 1990 provided for 30 reserved seats for a period of ten years.
This provision expired in April 2001. Women's groups started demanding more affirmative action from both the treasury and opposition benches through a constitutional amendment. They agreed to the renewal of the provision and an increase in the number of reserved seats for women and started a critical debate on the details of the provision. Experience has shown that the majority party in parliament has nominated and selected their own party members or sympathizers for all thirty reserved seats. These members were basically accountable to the party that had brought them in. Though they were assigned a geographical constituency, they could maintain few links with it. They neither represented nor were accountable to women in general, as the latter had no role in their election. Further, as these women members had not gone through a competitive electoral process, they were taken less seriously by their directly elected colleagues and were considered merely as a vote bank of the ruling party⁵.
Given the above experience, women's organisations put forward a number of proposals for renewal and effective use of the provision of reserved seats. Notwithstanding differences among various women’s groups on the number of reserved seats, a general agreement had emerged by the end of the year on the following issues.
Need for reserved seats for women.
Direct election to reserved seats.
Increase in the number of reserved seats.
Nomination of a certain proportion of female candidates by political parties for the general seats.
Several networks and organisations launched campaigns on the issue of reserved seats. Sammilito Nari Shamaj, Bangladesh Mohila Porishad, National Women Lawyers Association (BNWLA), Fair Election Monitoring Alliance (FEMA), International Women's Day Observation Committee, Nari Progoti Sangha, PRIP Trust, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), Kormojibi Nari, Women for Women and Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK) dialogued and campaigned for a consensus women's demands. Discussions, workshops, human-chain and rallies, token hunger strike, sit-ins, presentation of memorandum, distribution of leaflets and media conferences were frequently organised throughout the country.
The provision expired in April as no constitutional amendment had been submitted in parliament. The majority party, the Awami League, did not submit an amendment in parliament because it claimed it did not command a two-thirds majority. It was reported, however, that the Awami League would propose an increase of reserved seats, but not necessarily through direct elections. The party appealed to the BNP, the leading opposition party to join the parliament with the specific purpose of forming a two-thirds majority to amend the Constitution. The latter continued to boycott the parliament but in their public statements, they sympathised with the women’s demand and said they would introduce a bill in the next parliament. Thus the provision of reserved seats was not renewed and the Eighth Parliament formed in 2001 had no reservations for women’s seats.
The Constitution provides for a limited entry of non-elected, technical appointments into the cabinet. Although this does not exclude women, women with technical, professional or administrative expertise have never been appointed to the Cabinet. Yet this provision could have been utilized to induct qualified women into the policy-making arena, particularly as many women with experience are excluded from the electoral process, which is determined by factors such as money and muscle power⁶.

Women in Union Porishods
Legislation to allow for direct election of women to reserved seats in the Union Porishods, in 1997, led to an unprecedented inclusion of women in local governance. Women were elected both in the general and in the reserved seats: twenty women were elected as Chairmen, 100 women as general members and 12,723 in the reserved seats⁷. It was soon evident that women members were not being allowed to participate fully into the activities of the Union Porishods as the procedures for allocating responsibilities had not been established. Women UP members began to demand specific guidelines for duties, power and jurisdiction. To increase their participation, an amendment was passed in parliament; the Sthaniyo Sarkar Oddhyadesh (Songsodhoni), in April 2001, increased the number of UP Standing Committees from seven to twelve. Women members were to chair at least one committee. A further proposal created a social welfare committee to be chaired by a woman member in each ward. The other measures were expanding the number of UP Project Implementation Committees in order to appoint women members as Chairpersons in at least one-fourth; and provision for nomination of three women members to Upazila Development Coordination committee. Despite these measures, women members are relegated to welfare sectors like education, health care and family planning. They are not allowed in the committees that deal with planning, development and physical infrastructure projects. Thus women members are yet to gain their position vis-a-vis their male counterparts who continue to dominate UP activities.

Women in Government Service
An inventory of the status of women’s employment carried out by the Policy Leadership and Advocacy for Gender Equality (PLAGE) Project of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs revealed that, on an average, only 15 per cent of all employees in 16 selected ministries were women. Apart from the Women’s Ministry, in which 62.27 per cent of total employees were women, only three other ministries had employed women above this average, education (16.73 per cent), health and family welfare (27.41 per cent) and social welfare (22.03 per cent). These ministries, however, are considered as traditional sectors for women. Women occupied only an insignificant proportion, 1.77 per cent in Department of Local Government of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Government and Co-operatives, 2.07 per cent in the Home Ministry and 2.59 per cent in Agriculture Ministry⁸.
The PLAGE Project also reported that women constituted 10 per cent of all employees in the public sector⁹. They were concentrated at the entry level and thus women’s participation in policy-making remained marginal. It was also revealed that less than 8 per cent of the 15 per cent quota established for women in the public sector was actually realised.
For the first time in Bangladesh, four women were appointed as Deputy Commissioners (Deputy Secretary rank) in March 2001. In April, another four women were appointed as Additional Deputy Commissioners. The administration also announced, in March 2001, that in each police station of the country, one Assistant Sub-Inspector and two Constables would be selected from amongst women. This would require creation of 2,220 positions for women police officials. It was reported that the number of total police officials in the country was only 100,836. Thus there was one police for each 1,121 citizens - the ratio being the lowest in the world. There were only 492 women police officials; 51 Sub-inspectors, 90 assistant Sub-inspectors and 351 constables¹⁰.

Women's Share in the National Budget
In 2001, discussions and research were initiated both by the women’s organisations and the government on women’s share in the national budget. Bangladesh Nari Progoti Sangha (BNPS) led a campaign to raise concern for the low allocations in the national budget to programmes that specifically targeted women. A study on budgetary analysis undertaken by BNPS¹¹ revealed that state commitments to affirmative action for women’s empowerment as embodied in the Constitution and the National Policy for the Advancement of Women adopted by the Government in 1997 have remained largely unimplemented as they were not backed by adequate budgetary commitments. The study noted that only 3.1 per cent of the national budget for 2000-2001 was allocated for development activities and projects that directly benefited women, and 29.27 per cent was allocated to projects that partially benefited them. The study analysed 18 sectors including those that have been identified in the NAP as contributing to women’s empowerment. BNPS organised a number of consultation meetings and workshops across the country to demand increased allocation for women in the national budget. The reasons for this shockingly low allocation and disbursement for women were attributed to, among others, inadequacy of strategies for mainstreaming women; non-recognition of women’s agency in development; weakness of the WID focal points in incorporating WID issues into development planning; lack of leadership of the Women’s Ministry and paucity of committed women officials in other ministries; and ineffectiveness of women parliamentarians in raising WID issues in parliament. The high-powered National Council for Women’s Development also did not play an effective role as it had met only twice since its inception in 1995. The study further pointed out that the profound

insensitivity amongst planners towards WID issues had contributed to the low share of budget for women.
The Women’s Ministry also took initiatives in 'Engendering the National Budget' in an effort to mainstream gender equality in government policy and programmes. The PLAGE project of MOWCA undertook a review¹² of the past four national budgets (for the fiscal years, 1996-1997 to 1999-2000) to increase awareness and knowledge of the policy-makers and broader civil society activist groups on gender sensitivity of the national budget, particularly to employment generation, social development and resource allocation. The study found that existing practice of preparing budgets segregates sectoral expenditure but it is not gender disaggregated. Women’s exclusive share in total development budget has not increased though allocations likely to have partial impact on women have shown little increment over the study period. The study recommended that a gender sensitive budgetary process should be initiated that would focus on¹³:
promoting, monitoring and evaluating government expenditure and revenue with a gender yardstick;
promoting more effective use of resources to achieve both gender equality and human development objectives;
re-prioritization within and across inistries/departments / agencies rather than an increase in overall government expenditure;
and promoting active involvement and participation of women, men and other marginalised groups such as youth and rural people.

Women in Parliamentary Election 2001
As the schedule for the national election to the Eighth Parliament was announced, the women's movement renewed its campaign for the political participation of women. They demanded that political parties nominate more women, from 10 per cent to one-third of the total nominated by each political party; that political parties should endorse an increase of reserved seats through direct elections for these seats in their election manifesto, that an appropriate draft bill be introduced and adopted in the first session of parliament.
Women’s organisations, NGOs and civil society groups were engaged in a variety of activities to ensure a free and fair election. Meetings, seminars, human chain rallies and media conferences were organised to promote a conducive and safe political environment for voters, particularly for women voters. At several meetings¹⁴, deep concern was expressed over the use of violence, muscle power and black money in the election campaign. Violence against women became a prominent issue in the election campaign. Women appealed to all political parties and the electorate to resist the perpetrators of violence, religious fundamentalists and anti-liberation forces with a record of war crimes or other forms of violence through the ballot. The media also played an important role in promoting women’s participation in the election and it highlighted women’s lack of security during elections.
To alert the Election Commission and the public, media reports identified a number of constituencies, in which women had previously been prevented by the local community from exercising their right to vote. TableXIII.1 identifies the location and reasons for non-participation.

Women's organisations demanded positive action from the administration and the Election Commission to redress the situation. Bangladesh National Women Lawyer's Association (BNWLA) filed two public interest litigations (Writ Petition No. 964 of 2001 for Jhenaidaha and No. 965 of 2001 for Gopalganj) on behalf of 3,288 voters of Surat union (Jhenaidaha) and 3,020 voters of Chandra Dighalia union (Gopalganj) who had been restrained from going to the polling booths in 1958 and 1973 respectively following fatwas given by village elders. Following a Rule Nisi issued by the High Court, the Election Commission contacted the local administration and involved civil society members to ensure that women could vote in these areas. Women's organisations urged the Election Commission to take measures to ensure their access to the polling booths. The Caretaker administration declared that it would take strict measures against any obstacles to women voting.
VOTE¹⁶, an organisation set up for voter education and election monitoring, noted that women faced a number of problems in the polling centres, particularly that of insufficient number of polling booths resulting overcrowded long queues. Sometimes, women had to wait for several hours to cast their votes, while others could not afford to wait that long due to their home responsibilities and had to leave. The other problem was the confusion in recording the names of the father/husband of the female voter. In some cases, the column stating a woman voter's father's or husband's name was filed without distinguishing between the two. At the time of voting, when the woman was asked the name of her husband or father, her answer may not have matched the name recorded in the voter list. Accordingly, she was not allowed to vote. Mistakes in the voter list were a major reason that the smooth casting of votes by women was hampered.
Though generally there was a high turnover of women voters, in some places women from Hindu or other ethnic minority communities were threatened by members of a particular political party to prevent them from going to the polling centres. They were warned that,
if they go to the polling centre they would be killed or their houses looted and everybody would be sent to India. At the same time another political party told them that they had to show proper reasons if they do not cast their vote. Ignoring all these threats and fears, those who did dare to go to the polling centres, they were replied by shocking brutalities on them.¹⁷

Post-Election Political Violence
The threats soon materialised in a reign of terror in several constituencies, immediately after the election. Though political gangsterism has been identified as one of the most serious threats to democracy in recent years, levels of electoral violence against the minority Hindu community and supporters and workers of the AL were unprecedented in 2001. The newly elected government tended to down play the incidents and the administration, including the police, remained largely ineffective thus indirectly encouraging the political gangs. The Home Minister acknowledged in parliament on 18 November, 2001 that some 266 murders and 213 rapes were recorded in the first 25 days of October across the country¹⁸. Higher figures were reported in the newspapers. These exceeded all records of atrocities in previous elections. Though figures for violence are not disaggregated by gender, recorded incidents show that women have been subjected to violence as political workers, as relatives of politicians and as members of religious or ethnic minorities.
Women and human rights’ activists began to protest against the atrocities. Spontaneous groups such as ‘Shochetan Nagorik Somaj’ and ‘Nirjatito Janagan’ were formed particularly to organise protests against the attacks and demand government measures to combat them. Other organisations such as Bangladesh Mohila Porishad, Sommilito Samajik Andolon, Bangladesh Nari Progoti Sangha, Nijera Kori and ASK demanded protection for minorities, proper investigation into the incidents and compensation for the victims of post-election violence.
In the face of continued government indifference and even denial of what was happening in the country, ASK filed Writ Petition (No 6556 of 2001) on 24 November, on grounds of reported incidents of assault, intimidation, torture, rape, sexual assaults and arson on the person and property of citizens belonging to the religious minority communities, especially the Hindu community¹⁹. The High Court Division of the Supreme Court issued a rule nisi on 27 November asking the government to explain why it should not be asked to take proper steps to protect the country's religious minorities from attack and harassment. The Court further asked the government to investigate the incidents and submit its report by 15 January, 2002.

Police Violence
Women activists have not escaped harsh and brutal measures used by the law-enforcement agencies. A well-known example is that of Ila Mitra who was subjected to police torture and other forms of indignities because of her participation in the Tebhaga peasant movement. More recently, the police appear to have targeted women politicians in particular, perhaps to prevent them participating in rallies or meetings. Violence against women political activists may be an emerging trend as such incidents have occurred during the past two elected governments. A police attack on Motia Chowdhury, former MP and Minister for Agriculture in the Awami League cabinet, when she was taking part in a procession is an example this year. Newspapers reported that during a hartal on 2 December called by the AL, when leaders gathered outside the party office to bring out a procession, the 'police beat them indiscriminately, forcing the senior AL leaders to get inside the party office... Male and female police encircled Motia Chowdhury along with the group as they sat on the street in protest...' The media caught the action of a policeman baton-charging her, as she fell on the road. Talking to newsmen later, the former minister accused the Government of 'infringing the citizens' right to assembly'²⁰.
A similar incident was caught by photo journalists during a hartal on 11 May, 1999, when the 'baton-wielding police beat up several BNP MPs and almost stripped a female activist of the party in Dhaka city’s Bijoynagar area'²¹ The photograph showed a policewoman pulling Munni Begum’s (a BNP activist) saree as she tried to escape from police violence. BNP leaders alleged that police had earlier roughed her up along with other women activists of the party²².

Right to Freedom from Violence
Women's lack of political power in public forums is reflected in their marginalisation in the community and is in turn shaped by the consequences of this marginalisation. The consequences are noted in the discriminatory attitudes and practices towards girl children and women that limit their potential to develop and acquire skills to participate equally in family, social, economic and political life. The other notable consequence is the subjugation of women to patriarchal norms often resulting in violence against women by the community members. Below, we discuss major crimes against women and girl children instigated by fatwa, through rape or acid attacks.

Fatwa Instigated Violence
During the last decade, an important aspect of violence, revealed by the media, has been the illegal use of fatwa as a form of physical and psychological punishment²³. In the absence of historical evidence, it is difficult to define a trend in fatwa instigated violence, but media reports show that fatwas were issued for a variety of perceived deviations from patriarchal norms. These included women's participation in public life, exercising choice in marriage or non-conformity with conventional norms of sexual behaviour, mobility in accessing health, education and employment or merely seeking legal redress. In many cases, while the perpetrators of fatwa violence were not prosecuted and remained unpunished, the women thus victimized faced social ostracism or exclusion from their families and communities.
Community leaders tend to enforce fatwas against women arbitrarily as a means of control. Over the years, fatwas have been found²⁴ to violate both constitutional and international rights to:
freedom from cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment (lashing and stoning, forcible shaving of the head, beating by shoes, throwing shoes at women after half-burial in the ground, etc.);
life (burning to death, compelled to commit suicide);
family or private life (social ostracism, forcing unlawful divorce, forcing women to contract a hilla marriage, denial of religious rituals after death);
education (compelled to abandon education);
economic activity and work (preventing women from taking bank loans or their repayment, destruction of mulberry trees planted by women and obstructing participation in other income-generating or development activities);
political participation (prohibiting women from casting votes);
exercising choice in reproductive health (preventing women from using contraceptives).
In 2001, 34 cases of violence instigated by fatwas were reported in the newspapers²⁵. 53 per cent related to insistence on hilla marriage following oral talaq²⁶. Other instances were when women demanded punishment for rape (18 per cent) or for pre-marital or extra-marital affairs/ pregnancy (15 per cent). In 14 per cent of incidents, the causes were not known. The punishments included forced hilla marriage, flogging in public, social ostracism and physical violence.
On the first day of the year, the High Court issued a suo motu rule declaring all fatwas illegal, following a newspaper report on 2 December, 2000 in the Banglabazar Patrika. In the reported incident, Saiful, during a quarrel uttered the word talaq to his wife Shahida and their neighbour Haji Azizul overheard this. The couple, however, continued their conjugal life. A year and a half later, while Saiful was absent from the village, Haji Azizul issued a fatwa against Shahida declaring her marriage with Saiful void since the latter had pronounced an oral talaq. He forced Shahida to undergo a hilla marriage on the pretext that this would enable her to remarry her husband. Haji Azizul arranged a divorce for her after a few days according to the hilla norm. When Saiful came back and found what had happened, he refused to remarry Shahida and sent her back to her parental home. ASK submitted a writ petition (Writ Petition No. 5897 of 2000) as an intervener in the case.
The High Court, in its judgment, referred to Bangladesh laws relating to the dissolution of marriage. The Muslim Family Laws Ordinance states,
Any man who wishes to divorce his wife shall, as soon as may be after the pronouncement of talaq in any form whatsoever, give the Chairman notice in writing of his having done so, and shall supply a copy thereof to the wife... Nothing shall debar a wife whose marriage has been terminated by talaq effective under this section from remarrying the same husband, without an intervening marriage with a third person, unless such termination is for the third time so effective.²⁷
The Judges observed that dissolution of marriage by uttering the word talaq once or three times simultaneously, is against the injunction of the Quran and the Hadith, as well as invalid in law. The Court held that the marriage between Saiful and Shahida was not dissolved and that, for the sake of argument, if it was taken that the marriage was dissolved, even so there was no legal bar for Shahida to remarry Saiful without an intervening marriage with a third person. Thus the fatwa in question was wrong. The Court also held that fatwa means legal opinion of a lawful person or authority. The legal system of Bangladesh empowers only the courts to decide all questions relating to legal opinion on Muslim and other laws in force. The Judges, therefore, termed any fatwa including the instant one, as 'unauthorised and illegal'²⁸.

The Court further recorded that the tragedy of Shahida was not an isolated event and that, since 1993, the country had witnessed an alarming number, range and varieties of fatwas which were 'open challenges to the fundamental rights guaranteed under Articles 27, 28, 31 and 35 of the Constitution, yet the State failed to enforce those fundamental rights'. The Court also stressed the role of the local administration in dealing with such cases and held the view that the District Magistrate should have immediately taken cognizance of the said offence under Section 190 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. Further, the Court observed a 'defect' in the education and attitude of a particular group of men who 'upon either getting education from Madrassah or forming a religious group' were becoming 'fanatics with wrong views'. Thus it was recommended, as a short term measure, that study of Muslim Family Laws Ordinance be introduced in all schools and Madrassahs and that the Khatibs of all the mosques be directed to explain the Ordinance in their Friday sermons. As a long-term measure, the Court recommended a unified education system and an enactment to control the freedom of religion subject to law, public order and morality within the scope of Article 41(I) of the Constitution. The Amicus Curiae noted that the instant fatwa is a punishable offence under section 508 of the Penal Code and recommended that giving a fatwa by unauthorised persons be made a punishable offence by the parliament.
Challenging the above judgment, five petitions were filed in the Supreme Court, of which three were rejected and of the other two petitions (No. 269 of 2001 and 621 of 2001), some points were accepted for hearing as per decision of the Appellate Division on 13 November, 2001. The hearing has yet to be held.

Violence against Girls
In subscribing to the theme of the International Women's Day (8 March) of 'Today's Girl is Tomorrow's Woman', the women's movement this year has focused on the issue of the girl child. A critical review of the situation of girl children in terms of their empowerment and development, however, reveals a dismal picture. As evident from the statistics, gender discrimination in Bangladesh starts from an early age. Girls comprise 48 per cent of the total population below 19 years. About half of them get married and 58 per cent become pregnant or mothers below this age. Among the age group of 15-19 years, although 59 per cent are literate, they comprise only 41 per cent of students in Classes VI to X, while their number drops to a mere 15 per cent in Classes XI-XII²⁹.

Rape
The most disturbing aspect of the situation of girl children has been their vulnerability to violence, particularly to rape. Media reports show that in 2001, a large number of girls were victims of rape and acid attack. Of the 308 incidents of rape and attempted rape reported in the national newspapers (where age of the victims was mentioned)³⁰, 74 per cent were below the age of 18 years, while 46 per cent among them were less than 12 years. A high proportion of girls died as a result of rape, either being murdered following rape or succumbing to rape injury. About 58 per cent of all victims of rape murders were below 18 years, while 21 per cent among them were less than 12 years.
Accessing justice for rape is difficult due to the apathy of police and medical officials in providing required evidence. Social stigma against the rape survivors is another reason why only an insignificant proportion of rape incidents is followed by court cases. Of the total 778 cases of rape (of all age groups) reported in 2001, 297 cases were filed, eleven cases were mediated and six rape survivors were placed in safe custody.

Acid Violence
A similar picture is revealed from incidents of acid attacks, one of the most vicious forms of violence against women. Of the 151 acid attacks reported in the newspapers (where age of the victim is mentioned)³¹, about 44 per cent were targeted against girls below 18 years, while 14 per cent of them were younger than 12 years. These statistics based on media reports corroborated well with records kept by Acid Survivors Foundation³². Among the 340 cases received at the Foundation in 2001, 38 per cent were under 18 and, within this group, 77 per cent were girls.
The Human Rights Monitoring Cell of the Bangladesh Bar Council, based on a survey on 100 incidents of acid attacks, highlighted that difficulties and delays in getting proper medical certificates presented major problems in accessing justice³³. The study noted that 97 per cent of the women surveyed could not obtain medical certificates to pursue their cases.
The alarming incidence of acid violence in the country became a major subject of national concern and was reported upon frequently by the media throughout the year. On 1 January, 2001 the Ministry of Law was reported to have proposed a bill entitled Acid Niontron Ain 2001 (Control of Acid Act, 2001) to control the import, production, sale and use of acid and for the treatment and rehabilitation of the victims of acid attacks³⁴. The bill proposed death penalty or life sentence for the crime of causing death or permanent injury of vital organs. The offence was proposed as non-bailable. The bill also proposed formation of a high powered Jatiyo Acid Niontron Board (National Acid Control Board) to be chaired by the Minister of Industries, with secretaries of Home, Commerce, Health and Law as members. While the bill was under consideration, the Ministry of Commerce issued an Order on 7 January, 2002 for restriction of acid import. So far, acid has been freely available in the country and could be produced and imported for industrial and other related use. Under this order, for eleven categories of acid, import licenses were to be sought from the Division Commissioner after proper recommendations obtained from three government agencies, the Board of Investment (BOI), Bangladesh Cottage and Small Industries Corporation (BCSIC) and Bangladesh Export Processing Zone Administration (BEPZA). These organisations were concerned with the use of acid for industrial purposes. The Order, however, did not include the retail sale of acid and thus it remained freely available within the country. Further, in the face of opposition from the business community, the government decided to withdraw restrictions on five types of acid. The business community continued their pressure against the government decision on import and sale restrictions on the rest³⁵. Until the end of the year the proposed law had not been passed in parliament.

Later in the year, on 2 December, 2001, the Prime Minister announced setting up of a Special Tribunal³⁶ to dispose of acid attack cases. Following this, an inter-ministerial meeting was held to discuss the sources of procurement of acid and related chemicals, the rate and type of misuse and problems regarding the laws for punishment. The Ministry of Home announced arrangements for disposal of acid attack cases within three months. The Ministry of Health formed a committee for public awareness campaign and primary treatment of the victims³⁷.
National newspapers sustained a front-page campaign to mobilise public opinion against acid violence. Prothom Alo led this campaign and started a fund collection drive in support of the victims.

Conclusion
The underlying marginalisation of women in political decision-making and infringement of their right to freedom from violence are consequences of the general acceptance of inequality and social tolerance of violence against women. Bangladesh is committed to various international conventions such as the Declaration on Violence (Vienna 1993) and CEDAW (Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women)³⁸. These commitments are reflected in the National Policy for the Advancement of Women (1997). However, in dealing with the progressively alarming situation of violence against women, each successive government seems to be concerned with passing of laws and tightening the legal provisions while little attention is paid to the fact that laws are not enforced, procedures remain inappropriate and the perpetrators of violence often enjoy political impunity. Women's movement has persistently highlighted these issues and has continued to demand holistic measures for administrative reform and action for elimination of unequal access to political power, discrimination and violence against women.

References
Hossain, H. `Women in Politics' in Ahmad, M (ed.), 1999, Bangladesh Towards 21st Century, Dhaka, Community Development Library.
Majumdar P. P, Jatiyo Budget e Narir Aungsha (Women’s share in the national budget), Bangladesh Nari Pragati Sangha, 2001, Dhaka.
Muslim Family Laws Ordinance,
Rahman, A., Majumdar P. P, Z. Ali and Rahman, A. Increasing Awareness and Knowledge about Gender Analysis of National Budget: An Analysis from the Perspective of Gender Equality. PLAGE, Ministry of Women and Children Affairs, Government of Bangladesh. 2001,