She Leads Tomorrow book highlights strengthening young women’s leadership in Bangladesh

Author: Shararat Islam

Dhaka, Bangladesh – Young women were at the forefront of Bangladesh’s 2024 anti-discrimination movement, yet when the moment shifted from mobilizing to deciding, many were pushed out of the room. They were present in the movement but absent from the table.

To better understand what keeps them out of public life and what support they need to lead, UN Women and the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), partnered with national women’s rights organization Naripokkho on a year-long initiative to advance Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 5 and 16 with support from the Joint Sustainable Development Goals Fund.

Reaching more than 1,000 adolescent girls and young women across Dhaka, Chattogram and Rajshahi, the mentorship initiative placed young women at the centre of its design and implementation. At the closure event on 9 August 2026 at the Liberation War Museum, a coffee table book and photo exhibition entitled “She Leads Tomorrow” were launched, showcasing the stories of young women, not written about them, but by them.

What are young women saying?

Progga, a student at Bakolia Government High School in Chattogram, described walking to school, past stares and comments simply because she’s a girl, and about the fear her parents felt every morning. Her chapter closes on a note of quiet defiance: that being born a girl is not something to apologize for.

Ekra Akter, elected Debate and Literature Secretary at Rajshahi University, shared how women elected to Hall Councils were labelled “reserved seat representatives”, despite winning competitive elections, undermining their legitimacy and reinforcing perceptions that women’s leadership is less earned than men’s: “I immediately questioned the description, encouraging other women participants to also step up and voice their concerns. The organizers later acknowledged the mistake and issued a public apology.”

And Zoneikim Pangkhua, the first woman from the Pangkhua Indigenous Community admitted to the University of Chittagong, described realizing that she couldn’t name a single woman leader from her own community: “But instead of seeing that absence as a limitation, it became my greatest source of purpose. I thought to myself: If our community had no women leaders, why couldn’t I become one?”

The book reads less like a collection of success stories and more like a record of resistance by young women and girls in classrooms, homes and community spaces choosing not to stay quiet.

“When young women are empowered to lead, they strengthen not only their communities but the future of our nation,” said Dr. Zubaida Rahman, Vice-President of the Ziaur Rahman Foundation, who attended the event as Chief Guest.

Special Guest Zonayed Abdur Rahim Saki, Member of Parliament and State Minister of Planning, said: “Women’s meaningful participation is essential to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals,” while Carol Flore-Smereczniak, UN Resident Coordinator ad interim, further pointed to the value of partnership in driving progress on the SDGs.

UNOPS Bangladesh and Bhutan Country Manager Sudhir Muralidharan, while delivering the welcome address, asserted that sustainable development depends as much on investing in people as on infrastructure.

What comes next?

The initiative’s most enduring outcome is the Bangladesh Model for SDG Localization: a framework designed to provide a practical template for centring young women’s leadership in local SDG implementation.

“This initiative was born from a simple conviction: young women must not only be present in moments of change, but shape what comes next,” concluded UN Women Bangladesh Representative Gitanjali Singh. “Because true democracy is measured not only by elections, but by whose voices are heard, whose perspectives shape public decisions and whose leadership is valued.”