The Mommy Trap & Pink Toilets: A Political Party’s Unsolicited Gifts to the Women of Bangladesh

When I heard Shafiqur Rahman tell Al Jazeera that a woman could "never" lead his party because of her "God-given biology," it felt like a door slamming shut on every girl in Bangladesh. He stood there and used bringing life into this world.as a reason to tell us we aren't smart or tough enough to lead.

By pointing to breastfeeding and childbirth as "limitations," the head of Jamaat-e-Islami isn't just offering a religious opinion; he is building a cage and calling it "dignity."

This insults the very history of our nation, a country that for thirty years showed the world that a woman’s womb has absolutely nothing to do with her ability to command an army or manage an economy.

It is a staggering contradiction to claim that a woman is fit to be the Prime Minister of 170 million people, yet somehow "biologically unfit" to sit at the head of a single political party. This logic suggests that leadership is a "men-only" club where women are allowed to help out, but never allowed to own the keys.

The reality of this mindset is written all over their 2026 agenda, and it goes far deeper than just the top job. Their policies are a calculated attempt to dismantle our presence in public life through what I can only call "The Mommy Trap." 

The reality of this mindset is written all over their 2026 agenda, and it goes far deeper than just the top job. Their policies are a calculated attempt to dismantle our presence in public life through what I can only call "The Mommy Trap." They are trying to sell us a "five-hour workday" for mothers as if it’s a gift, but any woman who has ever fought for a career knows exactly what that is: it’s a death sentence for our professional lives. If the law says we can only work five hours while men work eight, no boss will ever hire or promote us.

It is a "kind" way of making sure women stay in the kitchen while the men make the laws. And for the women who do venture out? They offer "Pink Toilets", more public washrooms, as if basic sanitation is a substitute for the right to hold the highest offices in the land or if I dare say EQUAL RIGHTS?

​This structural exclusion is backed by a fierce war against our financial independence. Jamaat has been vocal in demanding the repeal of recommendations for equal inheritance, calling the idea of daughters receiving the same share as sons an "insult to Shariah." By ensuring a daughter receives only half of what her brother gets, they are ensuring we remain economically crippled and forever dependent on the men who claim to "protect" us. They have even labeled the UN’s CEDAW charter, the global gold standard for women's rights, as "anti-Islamic" because it dares to view men and women as equal partners in a family.

​But perhaps the most chilling preview of a Jamaat-led future happened just days ago in Barisal. When Manisha Chakraborty, a dedicated social worker and candidate, was set to appear on a DBC channel program, her opponent, Mufti Faizul Karim, gave the channel a humiliating condition: "If Manisha is on the stage, I will not go up." He refused to sit on the same stage with a woman, claiming it was "forbidden" by his religion.

​If their leaders won't even sit on a stage to debate a woman, how can they possibly represent us in Parliament? If they refuse to even look us in the eye during a televised discussion, how will they listen to our needs regarding healthcare, education, or safety? A party that disqualifies 50% of the population from its own leadership, fields zero female candidates for the 2026 election, and refuses to share a platform with female rivals isn't a political party,it's a private club for men.

Even more telling is the fact that while they brag about having millions of female members, they have nominated exactly zero women to run for office in the upcoming February 12 elections. They talk about "preparing" us, but that preparation feels like a perpetual waiting room where the door is locked from the outside. They want to shove us into a massive, segregated "women’s university," separating us from the competition of the real world just so we don't get any "big ideas" about running things. They want to define us solely as "mothers and sisters," a soft-sounding label used to strip us of our status as individual citizens with individual rights.

This election was supposed to be the dream election for our generation, for the first time we do not know for sure, who will win this election. However, if a party believes that half of the population is fundamentally "different" and therefore unequal in law and leadership just because they can give birth, then that party can never truly represent us.

As we head to the polls in 2026, we aren't just voting for roads or electricity; we are voting on whether we are human beings with limitless potential or just biological entities meant to be "protected" and pushed aside. We are more than our reproductive organs, and it is time the men in power realized that leadership is a matter of the mind and the heart, two things that have no gender.