Kitchen Sink Confessions

On first glance looking in, you'd be forgiven for marveling at the 'modern' political set-up of Bangladesh with regards to women in positions of power. Indeed, with the current Prime Minister, the Speaker of the Parliament and the leader of the opposition (previously Khaleda Zia and now Rowshan Ershad) all being women, it paints a rather rosy picture of gender equality on the surface, given Bangladesh's geopolitical position in the subcontinent. It seems, then, that internet jokes of women toiling away in the kitchen for their patriarchal masters do not apply here. But a closer look will peel away this façade of equality and expose the crux of the matter: the kitchen, and all its accompanying components, has just been polished to look like something else. Even with every new female inductee into the Parliament, or any other institution of power, the proverbial sandwich just gets bigger and bigger.
Global surveys have ranked Bangladesh 8th in terms of women's political empowerment, citing more female participation at high political offices and with over 800 applicants for the 50 reserved seats for women in Parliament this election, that standing is given quite a bit of weight. But, as is often the case, the statistics hardly ever tell the full story. The fact remains that women have been used as tokens for quite a long time in our political set-up. It is not unusual to see the wife of a recently deceased politician declare herself as a candidate for the very office her husband vacated. Without any disrespect intended for candidates such as this, it deals a rather heavy blow to the hopes and aspirations of women who have been engaging with their political parties from a grassroots level. Yes, a woman occupies office in this way but is the point of it just to appear an empowering nation without bringing much change to the actual system of patriarchy that has gripped the subcontinent for so long? Without a fair and self-serving system in place that actually nurtures and encourages female participation as something purely political, even if the entire Parliament and all the political parties were filled with women, we won't be able to get out of the patriarchal chokehold.
The answer to this, as it is in most cases, is education. A curricular overhaul in the education system is integral to the societal changes required to finally bring about the equal rights for both genders in the subcontinent. For this, those in power (men and women both) have to carry out the necessary reforms and only then will the political set-up be welcoming of the female gender. Till then, it is up to all of us to shun the feudal system of politics that places female figureheads in positions of power only to superficially appear empowering. If we really want equality, then it is the system that needs changing and not the individual parts of it. And stopping the kitchen jokes would be nice, also.

For rants, criticisms and discussion on the beautiful state of politics in this country of ours, yours truly can be found at ahmad. ibrahim1207@gmail.com. Conditions apply.