Sanjida Islam Tulee, during election campaigning in Mirpur, Dhaka, Sharif Khiam Ahmed took the photograph while she was speaking to an international media outlet.

Newsman, Dhaka

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has nominated human rights campaigner Sanjida Islam Tulee for a reserved women’s seat in parliament, bringing one of the country’s most visible voices on enforced disappearances into formal politics, as major parties use the quota-based seats to reward activists, project political messages, and consolidate political alliances.

Tulee, widely known as a leading organizer of Mayer Daak, a platform representing families of victims of alleged enforced disappearances, rose to prominence by campaigning for accountability over secret detentions and forced disappearances during the previous Awami League government.

Her nomination is among the most closely watched on BNP’s list of 36 women candidates for reserved parliamentary seats announced on Monday (April 20), reflecting the party’s attempt to incorporate rights-based activism into parliamentary representation.

BNP Senior Joint Secretary General Ruhul Kabir Rizvi announced the party’s list, stating that the nomination board conducted interviews with applicants before finalizing the candidates. The party sold a total of 1,025 nomination forms, and around 900 applications were submitted, underscoring the strong competition for the reserved seats.

Tulee’s move into parliament comes only months after she contested the Dhaka-14 constituency in the general election, where she lost to Barrister Mir Ahmad Bin Kasem Arman, a Jamaat-backed candidate who has been kept in secret detention by the ousted Awami Regime.

The race attracted unusual political attention because it brought face-to-face two figures connected to Bangladesh’s enforced disappearance debate, one as an activist demanding accountability and the other as someone who claims to have been a victim of the same system.

Political observers and netizens say BNP’s decision to nominate Tulee signals an effort to give parliamentary space to a figure who emerged through rights activism rather than traditional party politics.

At a time when allegations of enforced disappearances remain central to public debate, her nomination may also allow the party to strengthen its position on rights and accountability issues within the legislative arena.

The broader nominations for reserved women’s seats also reveal how political parties are using the process to advance symbolic and strategic goals beyond internal party representation, such as appealing to a wider electorate and addressing gender representation in politics.

Alongside Tulee’s nomination, the BNP’s selection of Suborna Thakur has sparked debate after reports emerged that her name had previously appeared on a local Awami League committee in Gopalganj before she became active in BNP politics.

Some grassroots BNP leaders have raised concerns about the decision, contending that the party overlooked long-serving activists in favor of a relatively new entrant.

Meanwhile, the Jamaat-e-Islami-led 11-party alliance has nominated Rokeya Begum, the mother of six-year-old Jabir Ibrahim, killed in police firing during the July 2024 uprising. Her nomination is an attempt to symbolically bring the emotional legacy of the anti-government movement into parliament by giving representation to a family directly affected by the violence.

Taken together, the nominations demonstrate how Bangladesh’s reserved-seat mechanism has become a vehicle for broader political messaging, allowing parties to reward loyalty, manage internal expectations, and elevate figures with symbolic public significance.

In Sanjida Islam Tulee’s case, the system has opened the way for a campaigner shaped by the politics of human rights advocacy to enter parliament, which may give institutional voice to one of the country’s most contested political issues.

Bangladesh’s parliamentary rules political parties will receive 50 reserved seats for women in proportion to the number of general seats they win in the election. The Election Commission will receive nomination papers on Tuesday (April 21), while voting for the reserved women’s seats is scheduled for May 12.