The Status of Poor Women in Rural Bangladesh: Survival Through Socio-Political Conflict
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The Status of Poor Women in Rural Bangladesh: Survival Through Socio-political Conflict By Fahria Enam Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Dalhousie University Halifax Nova Scotia August 2011 © Copyright by Fahria Eman, 2011 DALHOUSIE UNIVERISTY DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT STUDIES The undersigned hereby certify that they have examined, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance, the thesis entitled ―The Status of Poor Women in Rural Bangladesh: Survival Through Socio-political Conflict‖ by Fahria Enam in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. Dated: August 12, 2011 Supervisor: Examiners: ii DALHOUSIE UNIVERSITY DATE: August 12, 2011 AUTHOR: Fahria Enam TITLE: The Status of Poor Women in Rural Bangladesh: Survival Through Socio- political Conflict DEPARTMENT OR SCHOOL: Department of International Development Studies DEGREE: MA CONVOCATION: October YEAR: 2011 Permission is herewith granted to Dalhousie University to circulate and to have copied for non-commercial purposes, at its discretion, the above title upon the request of individuals or institutions. I understand that my thesis will be electronically available to the public. The author reserves other publication rights, and neither the thesis nor extensive extracts from it may be printed or otherwise reproduced without the author‘s written permission. The author attests that permission has been obtained for the use of any copyrighted material appearing in the thesis (other than the brief excerpts requiring only proper acknowledgement in scholarly writing), and that all such use is clearly acknowledged. _______________________________ Fahria Enam iii Table of Contents List of Tables ................................................................................................................ vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................. viii Abstract ......................................................................................................................... ix List of Abbreviation Used ................................................................................................x Acknowledgement ......................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................1 Chapter 2 Historical Background ................................................................................7 2.1 British Era .........................................................................................................8 2.1.1 Muslim Personal Law .................................................................................9 2.1.2 Educational Reforms ................................................................................ 10 2.1.3 Seclusion or Purdah System ...................................................................... 11 2.2 Pakistan Era ..................................................................................................... 12 2.3 Bangladesh Era ................................................................................................ 15 Chapter 3 Theoretical Foundations ........................................................................... 20 3.1 The Approach of Instrumentalism, Origin of Socio-political Conflict and Rural Bangladesh ..................................................................... 20 3.2 The Socialist Feminist Theory ...................................................................... 25 3.3 Bangladesh Through Capitalist Lens...............................................................27 3.4 What is Patriarchy? ...................................................................................... 32 iv 3.5 Influence of Patriarchy in Rural Bangladesh, Theoretical Lens and Research Hypotheses ............................................................................. 35 3.6 What is socio-political conflict?.................................................................... 39 Chapter 4 Literature Review and Research Method .................................................. 43 4.1 Literature Review ............................................................................................ 43 4.2 Research Method ............................................................................................. 49 4.3 Research Limitation and Anticipated Ethical Consideration ............................. 50 Chapter 5 The Socio-economic Status of Women in Bangladesh .............................. 52 5.1 Education ....................................................................................................... 55 5.2 Health and Nutrition ....................................................................................... 57 5.5 Women and Decision-Making ........................................................................ 57 5.6 Legal Status ..................................................................................................... 58 5.7 Women and Poverty in Rural Bangladesh: A Rapport with ‗The Others‘ ......... 59 Chapter 6 Conflicts Among the Development Partners ............................................. 66 6.1 What is an NGO? ............................................................................................ 67 6.2 The Secularist NGO......................................................................................... 68 6.3 Criticism of NGOs ........................................................................................... 70 6.4 Islamic NGOs .................................................................................................. 74 6.5 Criticism of Islamic NGOs .............................................................................. 77 6.6 Government Initiatives .................................................................................... 78 6.7 Failure in Government Endeavours .................................................................. 80 v 6.8 Women‘s Issues and Development Partners ..................................................... 81 6.9 Does The Practice of Islam in Bangladesh Differ or Contradict to Development Approaches Offered by The Government and NGOs? ................ 83 Chapter 7 Women Crossing the Boundaries .............................................................. 88 7.1 Education ........................................................................................................ 90 7.2 Views of Islamist Groups on Female Education ............................................... 92 7.3 Employment .................................................................................................... 93 7.4 Empowerment of Rural Poor Women through Village Pay Phone Service ....... 96 7.5 Islamists‘ Perception on Rural Women‘s Empowerment .................................. 98 7.6 Positive Evaluation of Micro-loans ................................................................ 100 7.8 Negative Impacts of Micro-credit .................................................................. 104 7.9 Islamists‘ Perception of Micro-Loans ............................................................ 106 Chapter 8 Strategies to Deal With The Conflict ...................................................... 108 8.1 Recommendation and Suggestions ................................................................. 115 Chapter 9 Conclusion ............................................................................................. 120 Bibliography ................................................................................................................ 126 vi List of Tables Table 1 Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh ....................................................................... 76 Table 2 Programs taken for women advancement ..................................................... 90 Table 3 Women‘s involvement small business. ....................................................... 104 vii List of Figures Figure 1 Diagram of the relationship of rural Bangladeshi women and the feminist theory ................................................................................. 38 Figure 2 Women‘s empowerment through developing micro entrepreneurship. Source: Sultana, Bilkish, Zaaba and Umemoto (2010), Women‘s Empowerment Through the Development of Micro Entrepreneurship in Rural Bangladesh, The Social Sciences, Vol 5, Page 7. .............................. 103 viii Abstract This study is based on how rural poor Muslim women in Bangladesh have become the target of both international donor agencies and of Islamic preachers. In Bangladesh, religion and politics are not viewed separately, nor are they subsumed under the other. This thesis focuses on how Islam is currently being practiced by Islamic groups and attempts to analyse the socio-political conflicts between Islamic views and empowerment opportunities provided by NGOs in rural Bangladesh. Widely speaking, the secondary focus here is the hegemonic model of development espoused by multinational and local NGOs that offer poor rural women employment, and the opposing approaches offered by the main Islamist political party. In addition this study discusses the targeted women‘s capability of identifying the best option among the contested approaches offered by those dominant groups. ix List of Abbreviation Used AL Awami League