In his report to the 12th session of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Bangladeshi representative indicated that although only 40 per cent of eligible women vote in elections, there is "no traditional opposition to their doing so" (United Nations 28 May 1993, 58). However, as detailed below, most sources consulted indicate that purdah norms and various social and cultural conventions have both structured and limited how women participate in elections.

Naseem Ahmed, author of an article on the socioeconomic and political status of women in Bangladesh, states that "voting behaviour largely involves casting ballots on advisement by husbands rather than personal knowledge" (1987, 7). Sadeka Halim, a PhD candidate researching women and development issues in Bangladesh and India at the Department of Sociology, McGill University in Montréal, indicates that a woman's father and brothers also may influence whether and how a woman votes (11 May 1995). Other sources agree that with respect to voting, the economic dependence of most Bangladeshi women leaves them vulnerable to pressure from both family and community (Chowdhury 1985, 4; Begum 1985, 18).

According to Ahmed, women's participation rate in elections has been low (1987, 7). Halim indicates that women voter turnout is especially low in the rural areas, where purdah values and traditional norms governing women's behaviour remain strong (30 May 1995). Begum reports that at two polling stations in the union parishad elections in 1985, all women were barred from voting because "adequate purdah could not be maintained" (1985, 18). Although not specifically addressing the obstacles faced by women voters in rural areas, a 1982 report from Jahan provides the following description of how purdah norms have shaped and restricted women's participation in elections:

Women are mobilized (to the limited extent it is done) for electoral and other purposes separately from men. Women voters cast their ballots for male candidates though they have no direct contact either with the male candidates or with male campaign workers. Women party workers contact women voters before the election, and on the day of the balloting women campaign workers often accompany women voters to the polling stations. Women vote in separate rooms from men, and all the polling agents and other functionaries present in the women's room are usually women. In public meetings women sit in a separate enclosure, where women volunteers keep order. In demonstrations and protest marches women march separately from men (1982, 274).

Specific information on women's election participation rates, voting patterns and issues of concern is scarce, incomplete and/or out of date. The only study currently available to the DIRB utilizes incomplete data sets (ibid., 264, 280) and is based on a survey conducted after the 1973 national election (ibid., 264). Despite these shortcomings, the survey data reveal much about how factors such as gender, education, social class, locality and social norms influenced participation rates and voting behaviour at the time and may still have some relevance. The data indicate that as compared to men, "women are less interested in and less informed about electoral politics," and have a "lower sense of political efficacy and are involved less in different types of participatory activities" (ibid., 264).
For example, while the participation rate of both women and men increases as socioeconomic status rises, women always participate less than men of similar status, and rural men, although generally of lower socioeconomic status and less educated than urban women, "consistently demonstrate a much higher interest and participation in politics" (ibid., 264-65, 266). Urban women surveyed after the 1973 election campaign scored lower sometimes by a factor of 6:1 than both rural and urban men on seven of eight variables used to measure voter interest, including whether they followed the election campaign, attended pre-election public meetings, and could identify the names of at least two candidates in their constituency, the names of two political parties and one programme each of the ruling party and another party (ibid., 265-66). Women are only about half as likely as men to follow an election campaign through the media (ibid., 266).

On questions that measured voter faith in elections and voting, women were much less likely to think that the "individual's vote counts, that voting in local elections is significant, and that voting determines the country's future" (ibid.). Jahan concludes that "apart from voting, ... the overwhelming majority of women did not participate in any other way in electoral politics" (ibid.).

For source documents and a list of additional sources consulted, please refer to Response to Information Request BGD21346.EX of 6 October 1995.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.

Ahmed, Naseem. 1987. "Women in Bangladesh, Part I: Socio-Economic and Political Status," UFSI Reports. No. 36. Indianapolis: Universities Field Staff International.

Begum, Maleka. 1985. "Women's Participation in Politics in Bangladesh: Its Nature and Limitations," Women and Politics in Bangladesh. Dhaka: Centre for Women and Development.

Chowdhury, Najma. 1985. "Women's Participation in Political Process in Bangladesh: Nature and Limitations," Women and Politics in Bangladesh. Dhaka: Centre for Women and Development.

Halim, Sadeka. PhD candidate researching women and development issues in Bangladesh and India, Department of Sociology, McGill University, Montréal. 30 May 1995. Telephone interview.

_____. 11 May 1995. Telephone interview.

Jahan, Rounaq. 1982. "Purdah and Participation: Women in the Politics of Bangladesh," Separate Worlds: Studies of Purdah in South Asia. Edited by Hanna Papanek and Gail Minault. Delhi: Chanakya Publications.

United Nations, General Assembly. 28 May 1993. (A/48/38). Report of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (Twelfth Session). New York: United Nations.