The radical Islamist party Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami has drawn severe criticism after an X post of the partyโs chief, Dr. Shafiqur Rahman, likened women in politics outside the home to prostitutes while claiming that women should not come into the leadership.
The post, shared by the @Drsr_Official handle on Saturday, said: โOn the question of women, Jamaat’s position is neither confused nor apologetic-it is principled. We do not think, women should come in the leadership. In Jamaat, it is impossible. Allah did not permit this.
โWe believe that when women are pushed out of the home in the name of modernity, they are exposed to exploitation, moral decay, and insecurity. It’s nothing but another form of prostitution.
โSocial media vulgarity, workplace harassment, and commodification of women are not signs of progress-they are symptoms of moral collapse. We refuse to compromise with immorality, no matter how fashionable it becomes.โ
The post had three hashtags: #Jamaat2026, #BDElection2026, and #BuildingBangladeshTogether.
When the post created a stir on social media, the handle published a notice, claiming that the account was hacked and a post was published attributing the Jamaat chief. โOur opponents may try every tactic, but we will remain focused on a positive, principled campaign for the people and the future of Bangladesh,โ it added.
Netizens, mainly the Awami League supporters, secularists, and women’s rights activists, vehemently protested the Jamaat chiefโs statement on women. They termed it a hypocrisy since the party went to power as an alliance partner of the BNP, headed by Khaleda Zia, in 2001. The alliance remained intact until 2019-20.
Ahead of the next elections, the Jamaat formed an 11-party electoral alliance with hardline Islamist parties and some so-called centrist parties, including the National Citizen Party (NCP), a brainchild of Prof. Muhammad Yunus.
This is not the first time that the Jamaat top brass termed the women prostitutes or tried to degrade them as second-class citizens.
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Since the August 2024 changeover, the Jamaat chief has made several comments on women during election campaigns that drew criticism. He said that if voted to power, the Jamaat will fix a five-hour workday for women in offices. He also said that women would be given rewards if they stayed home.
Amid this controversy, a video shows a woman running towards Dr. Shafiqur and hugging him in front of several other women and a dozen men during an election campaign. The woman held him tight, and the Jamaat chief did not seem nervous or angry. Instead, he was seen rubbing her back.
Dr. Shafiqur is also widely criticised for kissing the lips and cheeks of children, as seen in multiple viral videos.
Recently, a senior Jamaat leader from Barguna, Md. Shamim Ahsan, said that Dhaka University had been a brothel and drug den before Islami Chhatra Shibir, the student wing of Jamaat, secured victory in the DUCSU elections.
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The remarks, dripping with patriarchal contempt and moral policing, sparked nationwide outrage, forcing the party to distance itself in a desperate bid to salvage its tattered image. He was relieved from all posts.
The vile statement, equating female students and campus life with immorality, quickly went viral on social media, triggering widespread condemnation from students, alumni, womenโs rights groups, and civil society. It laid bare the Islamist allianceโs longstanding obsession with controlling womenโs bodies, freedoms, and spacesโhallmarks of their extremist ideology that views educated women and co-educational environments as threats to their puritanical vision.
The Jamaat chief also protested the recommendations by the Womenโs Affairs Reform Commission, accusing it of misleading society in the name of representing women.
From a conference of radical Islamist parties in April, he demanded the scrapping of the commission, saying that the commission and its report stand against the “nation’s values, beliefs, and the laws of Allah,” as the recommendations included a fair share of property and recognition of marital rape.
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In an interview with Qatar-based propaganda channel Al Jazeera, Dr. Shafiqur recently said that women cannot be the chief of the party due to God-given differences between men and women.
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Asked about the number of women candidates for the February 12 elections, he said that the party did not nominate a single one but went on to say that it may happen in the future. โWe have already participated in local government elections where our sisters contested and succeeded. But in future we are preparing for that in Parliament also.โ
Dr. Shafiqur claimed that it is a culture in Bangladesh and in many other countries. He also claimed that only a few countries had women leaders.
He also evaded a direct answer when asked about Jamaatโs past political alliance with the BNP, with Khaleda Zia serving as prime minister. He said: “It’s not our decision. It’s their party’s decision.”
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