An Islamist party becomes Bangladesh’s main opposition for the first time : NPR
Jamaat-e-Islami party leader Shafiqur Rahman speaks during a rally of the Jamaat-led alliance in Dhaka, Bangladesh, February 8.
Sajjad Hussain/AFP via Getty Images
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DHAKA, Bangladesh — For the first time in the country’s history, an Islamist party has emerged as Bangladesh’s main opposition, challenging the old dynastic political system despite lingering concerns from critics over the party’s policies toward women.
The 11-party Jamaat-e-Islami alliance won 77 of 300 seats in last week’s polls, according to final results announced Sunday by the country’s election commission. Among them, Jamaat won 68, a record. It had never won more than 18 seats before. The student-led National Citizens Party (NCP) won six and the rest went to minor parties.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) won an overwhelming majority of 212 seats, giving it a two-thirds majority and putting Tarique Rahman, from a powerful political family, on track to become prime minister. Developments in Bangladesh are closely watched beyond its borders. It is the world’s eighth most populous country and the second largest clothing exporter after China, supplying major brands to Europe and the United States – a position the BNP will want to protect.
The country’s other major party, the Awami League, was banned from participating in the elections. Its leader, autocratic former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, fled the country after the deadly student-led uprising in 2024 that toppled her government and paved the way for this vote.
People pray on a road in front of a mosque on Friday, a day after national parliamentary elections in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Friday, February 13, 2026.
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Jamaat-e-Islami leader Shafiqur Rahman, who is not related to the BNP’s Tarique Rahman, initially claimed there had been irregularities in the vote. He later conceded defeat and said in a statement: “We recognize the overall result and we respect the rule of law. We will serve as a vigilant, peaceful and principled opposition, holding the government to account.”
A surprising result after decades on the outskirts
Jamaat’s result came as a shock to many, in part because the party opposed Bangladesh’s independence in 1971 and sided with Pakistan during the war.
At the time, its leaders were accused of committing widespread atrocities, including rape, torture and murder – accusations the party has always rejected.
Some of its senior officials were tried and found guilty of these crimes by a specially constituted commission court from 2010 to 2013when the Awami League was in power. Some were sentenced to death, while others were sentenced to life in prison. Jamaat maintains that the trials were politically motivated.
The party has also been banned several times, most recently by the Awami League in 2023. The ban was lifted after the 2024 uprising, allowing Jamaat to re-emerge as a major contender in elections.
“Many voters are young and they don’t like to live in the past. They want to build their future. Jamaat said things that seem more practical and achievable,” Maimul Ahsan Khan, a retired law professor at the University of Dhaka, told NPR.
However, he added, “I think the Jamaat would have got even more seats if it did not have the past baggage of affinity with Pakistan and 1971.”
Women queue to vote at a polling station during Bangladesh’s national parliamentary elections, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Thursday, Feb. 12, 2026.
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Observers say the result could be just the first step for Jamaat in rebuilding its political influence.
“With 77 seats, we have almost quadrupled our parliamentary presence and become one of the strongest opposition blocs in modern Bangladeshi politics. This is not a setback. It is a foundation,” Shafiqur Rahman said.
Civil rights concerns
While more than 90 percent of Bangladesh’s population is Muslim, its political system guarantees equal rights for minority religions.
Although Jamaat enshrined Sharia law – or Islamic law – in its constitution, it has recently softened its public image, adopting a more moderate tone on religion and saying it would respect Bangladesh’s political system.
It fielded a Hindu candidate in the election, but no women, and Shafiqur Rahman publicly declared that no woman could lead the party.
However, Jon Danilowicz, an independent political analyst and retired former diplomat who served in Bangladesh, told NPR that violence against minority groups in Bangladesh has a long history and is often motivated by factors other than ideology alone.
“Often this is motivated by economic and other reasons,” he says, and minority groups have “also been victims of the BNP and the Awami League.”
Danilowicz says that when it comes to the party’s treatment of women, “they define it as protection and security, in terms of family and preserving the role of women within a family structure.”
Jamaat’s first tests are to demonstrate that it can hold the new government to account and to implement July’s National Charter – a set of reforms aimed at preventing a return to autocracy – which could help reassure the millions of Bangladeshis who still distrust the party.
