Rajshahi Correspondent:

In the Rajshahi University Central Students’ Union (RUCSU) elections, 247 candidates are contesting for 23 posts. Among them, only 26 are women – a mere 10.53 per cent of the total contestant.

When spoken to teachers, students, and candidates it was revealed that the dishearteningly low participation of female students stems from fears of cyberbullying, personal attacks, and humiliation.

Several female students who played a leading role during the July mass uprising did initially intend to run in the election but ultimately withdrew fearing cyberbullying.

One of those students, Mrittika, a former coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, told Jounalists, “During the July uprising, female students were at the forefront of the marches.”

“But after the movement, no one stood by them or remembered their role. Instead, cyberbullying of female students began in many forms. With no environment favourable of election and the fear of cyberbullying, I decided not to run,” she said.

Another former coordinator of the Anti-Discrimination Student Movement, Fawzia Nowrin, also recounted similar bitter experiences.

No female candidates in 11 posts

According to the final candidate list, there are no female candidates could be found for 11 of the 23 posts. For the vice-president (VP) position, only 1 out of 18 contesting candidates is a woman while, for the general secretary (GS) post there are only 4 women out of 13 contestants.

Then, of the 16 candidates contesting the assistant general secretary (AGS) post 2 are female, of the 8 contesting sports secretary post 1 is female, of the 9 contesting co-cultural secretary post 1 is female, of the 16 contesting assistant environment and social welfare post 2 are female, and of the 55 contesting executive member posts only 1 is a female student.

Two out of 23 posts at the RUCSU are reserved for female students, the women’s affairs secretary and the assistant women’s affairs secretary posts. There are respectively six and eight candidates contesting these two posts. Meanwhile, out of 58 senate representative candidates just 8 are women, which is only 13.79 per cent of the total candidates.

Why female students are reluctant to run

Inquiring into the reasons behind female students’ reluctance to participate in the RUCSU election, Jounalists spoke to two female professors of the university and to several candidates. They said that the university administration had failed to create a suitable environment for female candidates to contest.

Contributing factors behind the low number of female candidates also included cyberbullying, harassment from various Facebook groups, pages and fake Facebook IDs. The administration has set up a cell to curb cyberbullying, but so far no visible activities of that cell have been noticed. As a result, the participation of a larger number of female students in this election could not be ensured, they added.

When asked about the reasons behind women being reluctant to participate in the RUCSU election, Jesan Ara, associate professor at the department of psychology, told Jounalists that fake photos and videos are now being created using technology to spread them on social media. This is discouraging female candidates from participating in the election.