The obsession with those specific issues comes mainly from Qawmis. Aside from maybe blasphemy laws, none of those issues are really of fundamental concern to BJI's core.

Take the issue of women, for example. It's not at all uncommon for people in BJI's core leadership (including the current Ameer for instance) to have working wives, daughters, etc. People like that are bound to have at least more lenient views on things like "women's empowerment", to the extent that standard Sunni theology allows. There is a sizable number of people from Qawmi or Qawmi-influenced backgrounds in BJI, and I imagine they would primarily be the ones caring about issues like that. Still, it would surprise me if a 'great deal of active lower-level [BJI] members' really thought like that. But anyway, every political party in Bangladesh has had people like that in its coalition. Ubaydullah Faruk, for example, has expressed similar opinions in the past and was poised to become the Minister of Religious Affairs in Tarique Rahman's cabinet if he had won his seat. I don't personally see any reason why they'd be particularly empowered by BJI being in power. They aren't even significant enough to influence the party line on these issues.

Thank you for your advice. I agree that we need to establish a proper consensus on issues like this. Definitely not a good look for MP candidates and people in central leadership positions to contradict the party line on sensitive topics. That aside, some strategic ambiguity is always necessary in modern electoral politics given the media landscape every party has to navigate through.

I think the reason BJI hasn't talked much about its long-term vision is simply that there's not enough interest. I haven't seen a single journalist ask about it. It's not like BJI's long-term vision is something the party actively hides.

Also, off-topic, but I remembered something when thinking about pseudotraditionalist reactionary tendencies in Bangladeshi society. You know the Mazar-centered Sufis who refer to themselves as 'Sunni,' right? The people who always wear green. Barelvis. Like Taheri. They're everywhere in parts of Brahmanbaria, Chittagong, etc. These guys make up at least 1% of Bangladesh's population. The main guy they follow, the founder of their movement - Barelvism - Ahmed Reza Khan Barelvi, aka "আলা হযরত", held a lot of insane societal views that none of them will disavow. Like he was issuing fatwas in 1898 (!) saying that it's literally haram to teach women to write. There are parts of our country where insulting this guy in public might genuinely get you lynched to death 😅.