The National Citizen Party (NCP) has introduced its new women’s organisation, Jatiya Nari Shakti, on International Women’s Day.
The organisation was launched on Sunday at an event held at the Sagar-Runi auditorium of Dhaka Reporters Unity.
Nahid Islam, NCP convener and opposition chief whip, said the main goal of this initiative is to reorganise women who left politics after the July uprising due to cyber harassment and social pressure.
Nahid Islam, NCP convener and opposition chief whip, said the main goal of this initiative is to reorganise women who left politics after the July uprising because of cyber harassment and social pressure.
He said, “We will try to find the women whose voices were lost in the 2024 July movement across the country.”
Nahid explained that Jatiya Nari Shakti will function independently as an affiliated body of the NCP. The organisation will soon form a full committee and draft its declaration and constitution.
He acknowledged that most women who participated in the uprising disappeared from the political scene afterward. “The most common question I’ve heard since July is: where are the women of July?” he said.
Highlighting cyberbullying as a major reason behind women leaving politics, Nahid noted that many who tried to be politically active faced severe online harassment and were forced to quit. He recalled the suicide of an NCP woman activist from Dhaka’s Dhanmondi area, who was cyberbullied over a particular incident to the point that she took her own life.
Nahid also reminded that women were at the forefront of the quota movement. “The main incident was the attack on our female students on 15 July in the Dhaka University area. Women were targeted because they were leading the quota movement,” he said.
Nusrat Tabassum, a well-known face of the July uprising, has been appointed chief organiser of the new body. Mahmuda Alam will serve as member secretary, while Monira Sharmin, NCP joint convener and former GS of Sufia Kamal Hall during the 2018 road safety movement will act as convener.
Nahid also said that violence against women tends to increase after any change of power and urged the government to take strict legal measures to prevent it. “Such practices grow out of a culture of impunity. Control must be ensured even within one’s own party, and whoever the offender is, they must be brought to justice,” he said.
