In this country of 175 million people, the political vacuum has given rise to a looming shift toward religious conservatism.
The extremists began by establishing control over women's bodies.
In the political vacuum left by the overthrow of Bangladesh's authoritarian leader, religious fundamentalists in one city declared that young women could no longer play football. In another, they forced police to release a man who had harassed a woman for not covering her hair in public, then garlanded him with flowers.
More brazen calls followed. Demonstrators at a rally in Dhaka, the capital, warned that if the government did not impose the death penalty on those who disrespected Islam, they would execute them themselves. A few days later, the banned group held a large march demanding an Islamic caliphate.
As Bangladesh struggles to restore democracy and build a new future for its 175 million people, Islamist extremism, long hidden behind the country's secular façade, is bursting to the surface.
In interviews, representatives of several Islamist parties and organizations, some previously banned, made clear that they seek to push Bangladesh in a more fundamentalist direction, but the shift has been little noticed outside the country.
Islamist leaders are pushing for an “Islamic government” in Bangladesh that will punish those who disrespect Islam and ensure “modesty” – vague concepts that have given way elsewhere to vigilante justice or theocratic rule.
Officials from across the political spectrum who are drafting the new constitution have acknowledged that the document is likely to remove secularism as a defining characteristic of Bangladesh, replacing it with pluralism and reshaping the country along more religious lines.
