Politics of exclusion The national conference of the Forum for Women’s Political Rights (FWPR), held on October 9, functioned less as an event and more as a political intervention. It brought together activists, scholars, labour organisers, civil society actors, and political party leaders who have long challenged the gendered boundaries of Bangladesh’s democracy. The discussion unfolded within a feminist framework that views women’s political representation not as benevolent inclusion, but as a struggle over who counts as a political subject and whose voice shapes the national agenda. The presence of two women advisers of the interim government—both veteran campaigners for women’s rights—was symbolically significant yet analytically revealing. It underscored a paradox at the heart of Bangladesh’s democratic transition: that women may occupy certain spaces of power, counsel, and activism, but remain marginal to actual decision-making. The question is: how can a democracy claim renewal while half of the citizens remain structurally excluded from political power? Since the release of our reform commissions’