Online harassment – ranging from personal abuse using fake or fabricated information to obscene images generated through artificial intelligence – has become part of daily life for Mahmuda Mitu, an NCP candidate from Jhalokathi-1.
Mitu says she is targeted every day by a sustained wave of such campaigns. The attacks are not random, she argues, but reflect a broader pattern aimed at discrediting women in politics and pushing them out of public life.
Although fact-checking platforms have debunked several of the claims, Mitu says the damage is already done by the time corrections appear. “Fact checks never reach audiences at the scale of the original fake content,” she said.
Mitu is not alone, as election day approaches, abusive online campaigns targeting female candidates – regardless of party affiliation – have become increasingly common.
Several female contenders say they are facing an organised wave of cyberbullying, sexual harassment, and character assassination aimed squarely at silencing them.
Sanjida Tuli, BNP candidate for Dhaka-14, told TIMES of Bangladesh that cyberbullying has grown more systematic. “The use of bot networks has increased sharply over the past year,” she said. “Now, any woman who expresses an opinion is met with a terrifying attack.”
According to a study by NETZ Bangladesh, more than 78% of female online users have experienced technology-based harassment at some point.
The situation worsened after the July Uprising of 2024. A report released in November 2025 by UN Women found that online harassment surged sharply in the aftermath, with 66% of women reporting that they had received explicit or threatening messages on social media.
The trend highlights a troubling reality – despite women’s large-scale participation in the uprising, their representation among candidates for the upcoming parliamentary election has declined compared with the previous polls.
Data from Election Commission shows that the share of female candidates fell from 4.86% in 2024 to 3.7% in 2026, a drop of 1.16 percentage points.
For the February national election, of the 108 women who submitted nomination papers, only 70 were ultimately declared valid.
Fawzia Karim Firoze, a member of the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission, said, “After 5 August 2024, everyone talks about a ‘new Bangladesh’, yet women are disappearing from the picture.”
Dr Tania Haque, professor of Women and Gender Studies at the University of Dhaka, said a political culture grounded in mutual respect would naturally ensure equal treatment for women and men, leaving little room for gender-based hostility.
Barrister Farjana Sharmin Putul, Natore-1 candidate for BNP, demanded bot- accounts perpetrators be exposed and punished, warning this will stop others from repeating such attacks.
At a recent discussion held at the Bangladesh Shishu Academy on 13 January, female candidates spoke candidly about the growing online harassment they face.
Meghna Alam, a candidate of the Gono Odhikar Parishad for Dhaka-8, said at the event that the harassment was a deliberate strategy aimed at silencing women.
Several participants in the programme demanded urgent structural responses to counter digital abuse.
Tasnim Jara, an independent candidate from Dhaka-9, called for a fast-track mechanism to support victims of online harassment, along with closer collaboration with platforms such as Meta and TikTok to curb artificial intelligence-generated and defamatory content.
Tanvir Mahtab Abir, senior fact checker at Rumor Scanner Bangladesh, said, “Organised disinformation campaigns are increasingly targeting candidates, especially women, to weaken their credibility and silence them.”
He suggested that stronger coordination among institutions and prompt legal action are essential to curb online propaganda and protect democratic processes.
