Language Policy, Nationalism, and Women’s Participation in Bangladesh’s Foreign Diplomacy

Abstract

Language is not merely a tool of communication; it is a site of power, identity, and geopolitical negotiation. In Bangladesh, the legacy of the 1952 Language Movement has rendered Bengali a powerful symbol of nationalism, yet in diplomacy, English continues to dominate. This paper, grounded in the Feminist Linguistic Coloniality (FLC) framework, investigates how this linguistic dualism affects Bangladeshi women's participation in foreign diplomatic services. Using a qualitative approach—in-depth interviews with 10 current and former female diplomats and discourse analysis of official diplomatic documents and UN speeches—the study reveals that English proficiency functions as a gatekeeping mechanism. Women diplomats from non-English-medium backgrounds face systematic disadvantage in promotion and international assignments. Employing FLC's concepts of 'Gendered Linguistic Gatekeeping' and 'Linguistic Hegemony,' the paper argues that Bangladesh's language-in-diplomacy policy inadvertently perpetuates gender inequality by privileging a colonial language. The paper critiques the foreign ministry's training programs for being gender-blind and linguistically assimilationist. It recommends a bilingual diplomatic training model that recognizes Bengali as an equal language of international communication, targeted language skill development for women diplomats, and gender-responsive language policies. The findings have implications for South Asian regional diplomacy, South-South cooperation, and the broader global discourse on language rights and gender justice in IR. This study is grounded in the author’s positionality as a Bangladeshi researcher and a PhD candidate at Yangzhou University, China, which offers a critical insider perspective on the linguistic and gendered dynamics of Bangladesh’s diplomacy.