Bangladesh

Citation:

Shamim, Ishrat. 2001. Mapping Of Missing, Kidnapped And Trafficked Children And Women: Bangladesh Perspective. Dhaka, Bangladesh: International Organization for Migration.

Author: Ishrat Shamim

Topics: Gender, Women, Girls, Boys, Sexual Violence, Rape, Sexual Exploitation and Abuse, Sexual Slavery, Trafficking, Human Trafficking Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2001

Citation:

Chowdhury, Elora Halim. 2011. Transnationalism Reversed: Women Organizing Against Gendered Violence in Bangladesh. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.

Author: Elora Halim Chowdhury

Abstract:

Examines transnational movement building through a focus on acid attacks and organizing against acid violence in Bangladesh.

Acid attacks against women and girls have captured the attention of the global media, with several high-profile reports ranging from the BBC to The Oprah Winfrey Show. In Bangladesh, reasons for the attacks include women’s rejection of sexual advances from men, refusal of marriage proposals, family or land disputes, and unmet dowry demands. The consequences are multiple: permanent marks on the body, disfiguration, and potential blindness. In Transnationalism Reversed, Elora Halim Chowdhury explores the complicated terrain of women’s transnational antiviolence organizing by focusing on the work done in Bangladesh around acid attacks—and the ways in which the state, international agencies, local expatriates, US media, Bangladeshi immigrants in the United States, survivor-activists, and local women’s organizations engage the pragmatics and the transnational rhetoric of empowerment, rescue, and rehabilitation. Grounded in careful ethnographic work, oral history, and theoretical and filmic analysis, Transnationalism Reversed makes a significant contribution to conversations around gendered violence, transnational feminist praxis, and the politics of organizing—particularly around NGOs—in the global South.

“This book is an outstanding exploration of the complexities and contradictions of women, gender justice, and feminist organizing in the global South—and of the ways in which these initiatives and campaigns enter the discourse of ‘transnational feminism.’” — Piya Chatterjee, author of A Time for Tea: Women, Labor, and Post/Colonial Politics on an Indian Plantation

“This groundbreaking book will become an indispensable reference point for anyone thinking about transnational feminist practice, NGOs, and gender violence. Chowdhury’s careful analysis of local and transnational campaigns against acid violence in Bangladesh is sharp and eye-opening. Scrupulously sensitive to the agency and experiences of actual women ‘victims,’ Chowdhury offers a compelling critique of the ways violence against women gets appropriated in international politics.” — Lila Abu-Lughod, author of Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society (Amazon)

Topics: Feminisms, Gender, Women, Gender-Based Violence, Nationalism, NGOs, Political Economies, Violence Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2011

Citation:

Dannecker, Petra. 2005. “Transnational Migration and the Transformation of Gender Relations: the Case of Bangladeshi Labour Migrants.” Current Sociology 53 (4): 655-74.

Author: Petra Dannecker

Abstract:

The article discusses the transformations of gender relations due to transnational migration between Bangladesh and Malaysia. It is shown that the uneven economic development in Asia during the last decades has not only initiated new migration movements and patterns but has also led to a feminization of migration, which has resulted in transformations of gender relations. It is argued that the increased migration of Bangladeshi women as temporary labour migrants to Malaysia and the transnational discourses and practices these movements have initiated are leading to renegotiations and transformations of the existing gender order. Networks and transnational activities of Bangladeshi male migrants are analysed in order to show, first, that transnational spaces are gendered and, second, how transnational influences are changing power and gender relations. The successful exploitation of global markets by female migrants has not only resulted in new migration patterns and new gendered labour markets but has become an important agent for transformations of gender relations.

Keywords: gender relations, labor migration, networking, social transformations, transnational activities, transnationalism

Topics: Development, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Economies, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh, Malaysia

Year: 2005

Citation:

Dannecker, Petra. 2009. “Migrant Visions of Development: A Gendered Approach.” Population, Space and Place 15 (2): 119-32.

Author: Petra Dannecker

Abstract:

In this article the current debate on migration and development is critically discussed. It will be shown that development as a multidimensional process is hardly ever conceptualised. The diversity of migration flows and patterns and the gendered structure of these processes are leading to different development visions which are hardly ever addressed or related to development. The analysis of the development visions of temporary male and female labour migrants from Bangladesh will reveal that migration experiences and the new connections and networks give rise to new identifications and development visions. The negotiations of these visions locally may initiate cultural, social and political transformations in the countries of origin, which do not necessarily correspond with the development visions articulated by other national and international actors involved.

Keywords: development, migration, Islam, South Asia, Bangladesh, gender

Topics: Development, Displacement & Migration, Migration, Gender, Gender Analysis Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2009

Citation:

Akter, Tahera. 2009. Climate Change and Flow of Environmental Displacement in Bangladesh. Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Unnayan Onneshan-The Innovators.

Author: Tahera Akter

Abstract:

This study depicts environmental displacement with the premise of increased frequency of natural disasters and the adverse impacts of climate change. Bangladesh is already experiencing recurrent floods, severe cyclones, water logging, salinity intrusions, droughts and river bank erosion which induce mass population displacement. There is no generally agreed definition and scientifically developed methodology to estimate environmental displacement. Proper development guidelines are yet to be adopted to protect the lives and livelihoods of the displaced people who have the right to expect safe lives, livelihoods, and a sustainable and prosperous future. The research findings reveal that on an average 25%, 3% and 2% populations are displaced from different natural calamities like floods, droughts and cyclones. The estimation of future displacement reveals that approximately 49 million, 63 million and 78 million people might be displaced in 2010, 2015 and 2020 respectively. The growth of environmental displacement is likely to be closer to about half of total populations in 2020. This is very alarming for Bangladesh. To avert future crisis, the study proposes to adopt and update policy guidelines including action plans with a timeframe to keep track with the changing climate. Increased coordination among relevant organizations is also given emphasis to combat the dire consequences of environmental displacement.

Topics: Displacement & Migration, Environment, Climate Change, Environmental Disasters Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2009

Citation:

Mookherjee, Nayanika. 2012. “The Absent Piece of Skin: Gendered, Racialized, and Territorial Inscriptions of Sexual Violence during the Bangladesh War.” Modern Asian Studies 46 (6): 1572–1601.

Author: Nayanika Mookherjee

Abstract:

This paper addresses how the wombs of women and the absent skin on the circumcised penises of men become the predominant sites on which racialized and gendered discourses operating during the Bangladesh War are inscribed. This is explored by examining instances of sexual violence by Pakistani soldiers and their local Bengali collaborators. The prevalence of these discourses in colonial documents about the Bengali Muslims underscores the role of history, the politics of identity and in the process, establishes its link with the rapes of Bangladeshi women and men. Through this, the relationship between sexual violence and historical contexts is highlighted. I locate the accounts of male violations by the West Pakistani army within the historical and colonial discourses relating to the construction of the Bengali Muslim and its intertextual, contemporary citational references in photographs and interviews. I draw on Judith Butler's and Marilyn Strathern's work on gendering and performativity to address the citational role of various practices of discourses of gender and race within colonial documents and its application in a newer context of colonization and sexual violence of women and men during wars. The role of photographs and image-making is intrinsic to these practices. The open semiotic of the photographs allows an exploration of the territorial identities within these images and leads to traces of the silence relating to male violations. Through an examination of the silence surrounding male sexual violence vis-à-vis the emphasis on the rape of women in independent Bangladesh, it is argued that these racialized and gendered discourses are intricately associated to the link between sexuality and the state in relation to masculinity.

Topics: Armed Conflict, Combatants, Gender, Masculinity/ies, Gendered Discourses, Military Forces & Armed Groups, Sexual Violence, Male Perpetrators, SV against Women, Sexuality Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2012

Citation:

Sultana, Farhana. 2009. “Community and Participation in Water Resources Management: Gendering and Naturing Development Debates from Bangladesh.” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 34 (3): 346–63.

Author: Farhana Sultana

Abstract:

Community and participation have become popular in development discourse and practice, particularly in the global South and in relation to water resources management. Greater involvement of people in decision making, implementation and evaluation of water management practices is expected to increase efficiency and equity in water projects. However, scholars have pointed out that such discourses are often problematically used and idealised, leading to the exacerbation of gender, class and other social differentiations. Drawing from a case study of drinking water contamination by arsenic in Bangladesh, this article examines the mobilisation and outcomes of participation and community in water provision and arsenic mitigation. Water hardship, conflicts and marginalisations are found to be products of social processes (that are gendered, classed and spatialised) as well as natural processes (local geohydrology, depth of arsenic sediments), in addition to the very ways that community and participation are conceptualised and practised. Nature ⁄ water comes to play a critical role in the ways that development interventions play out, thereby complicating the general debates around community and participation. This article seeks to problematise the ways that considerations of both the roles of nature and gender power relations can be more critically and productively engaged in development geography. As such, the article brings together debates in nature–society geography and development geography to argue that scholars studying community and participation need to pay greater attention not only to gender and spatial power relations, but also to the importance of geographical locations and the agency of heterogeneous nature in the ways water management and development interventions fail and succeed, and are thereby critiqued. More adaptive, reflexive and inclusive development realities that are simultaneously embedded in society and nature may then be envisioned, and more nuanced understandings of nature-in-development enabled.

Annotation:

In this article, Sultana challenges the trend amongst development policymakers to assume that community participatory water management institutions, by default, equally benefit all members of the community. Chief among her critiques is the fact that most discourses on this subject operate on an imaginary construct of community homogeneity, thus failing to take into account the complex interlocking gender and class-based hierarchical systems that structure communal water resource management. Further, Sultana calls for a synthesis of the separate strands of literature on nature-society relations and community / participatory projects, on the grounds that by directing attention towards nature’s inherent heterogeneity and unpredictability, scholars can better understand the evolution and thus specific societal role of water management institutions in a community. Sultana bases her arguments on a study of Bangladesh villages where differentiated arsenic distribution was instrumental in determining whether the development of water management institutions reinforced or subverted existing societal hierarchies.

Quotes:

“Traditional notions of participation in village life are often worked out through patronage systems and kinship structures. It is within such unequal set-ups that participatory water management projects often embed themselves and thereby perpetuate cycles of inequality. As a result, participation is a process that involves conflict and consensus, within broader historical factors and constraints, and not just a mechanism to facilitate project success or a set of techniques, although this is primarily how it has been treated in most development projects.” (349)

“Blindly assuming that having rich or elite women participate in the [water management] project leads to ‘gender mainstreaming’ can be problematic, as exclusions and privilege may become institutionalized...There may be a range of different lines of connection and differences that situate women differently from each other, and the myth of female solidarity thus does not hold up to the ways that women may choose to pursue different desires, connections, and needs (for example, not all women in a neighborhood may be similarly exposed to contaminated water or have similar water needs).” (349)

“Given that participation activities are largely conducted in public spaces, or what are perceived to be public activities of decision making and sharing opinions, notions of femininity and masculinity can be challenged when women and marginalized men are involved.” (350)

“While most women felt that they should have more decision making powers, and expressed interest in voicing their opinions and having more decision making capacities, the majority were not willing to challenge the norms and authorities of their husbands, fathers, brothers or elders in order to do so.” (358)

Topics: Civil Society, Class, Development, Economies, Economic Inequality, Environment, Gender, Women, Men, Masculinity/ies, Femininity/ies, Gender Mainstreaming, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equity, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2009

Citation:

Crow, Ben. 2001. “Water: Gender and Material Inequalities in the Global South.” Working Paper, Center for Global, International and Regional Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz.

Author: Ben Crow

Abstract:

Because water is pivotal for health and livelihoods, inadequate access to water may be a significant cause of poverty and conflict. Poor access to clean water for drinking causes ill health. Poor access to water for agriculture and other livelihoods may be a cause of material deprivation. How people get access to water is surprisingly complex and varied. That access involves natural conditions, human tools and social practices. This paper is about modes of access to water, the main social and technical conditions through which people gain command over water. Modes of access have particular characteristics. Some are free, others cost money. Some, like well-water, require work on the part of the water consumer, while other modes of access, like piped water, may entail little work. The potential for change and for sustainable use of water may also vary according to the mode of access. Water deprivation is widespread, and at the beginning of the twenty-first century it has to be tackled under unpromising conditions. Scarcity is increasing and government action is becoming more constrained. These circumstances demand innovation if water deprivation is to be tackled effectively. That innovation will require us to understand the technical, social and natural dynamics of the main modes of water access.

Annotation:

This working paper explores various modes of access to water in rural areas of the global South and the role that water plays as an impetus for and a reflection of societal inequality. Crow focuses specifically on material and gender inequalities as the main causes of diminished water access which subsequently impinge on individuals’ ability to achieve their full potential in terms of livelihood and / or economic prosperity. Crow disaggregates rural water access into five different modes--private ownership, common property access, open access, state-backed provision, and market access-- and details ways in which each access point has the capacity to create and to perpetuate material and gender inequalities.

Quotes:

“In Bangladesh, and in other parts of South Asia, the unregulated use of private pumps has thus created inequality between the use of deep tubewells for irrigation and the use of handpumps for drinking. This is a largely unreported, conflict over water in which the dominant, and male-dominated, priority of government, economic growth, clashes with lesser priorities of government, health and domestic water supply, reflecting women’s practical interests.” (12)

Topics: Economies, Economic Inequality, Poverty, Gender, Gendered Power Relations, Gender Equality/Inequality, Health, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation, Livelihoods Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2001

Citation:

Crow, Ben, and Farhana Sultana. 2002. “Gender, Class, and Access to Water: Three Cases in a Poor and Crowded Delta.” Society & Natural Resources 15 (8): 709–24. doi:10.1080/08941920290069308.

Authors: Ben Crow, Farhana Sultana

Abstract:

Water plays a pivotal role in economic activity and in human well-being. Because of the prominence of water in production (primarily for irrigation) and in domestic use (drinking, washing, cooking), conflict over water and the effects of gender-influenced decisions about water may have far-reaching consequences on human well-being, economic growth, and social change. At the same time, social conflicts and social change are shaped and mediated, often in unexpected ways, by the natural conditions in which water occurs. The social relations of water are poorly understood. This article introduces a framework for disaggregating conditions of access to water and uses it to examine three pressing questions in Bangladesh. First, extraction of groundwater for irrigation has made many drinking-water hand pumps run dry. Second, increasing use of groundwater for drinking has been associated with the poisoning of at least 20 million people through naturally occurring arsenic in groundwater. Third, the article examines some of the ways access to water has been changed by the rise of shrimp aquaculture for export. This article highlights new directions for the analysis of interactions among water, class, and gender. The existing literature has tended to focus on the implications of gender analysis for government policy, especially development projects and water resources management, and for women’s organization. In this article we begin to sketch some questions that arise from a concern to understand the broader context of social change.

Annotation:

In this article, Crow and Sultana use case studies from rural Bangladesh to investigate the influence of gender and material inequalities on modes of access to water and further to analyze how the intersection of gender and water can be conceptualized as a vehicle for social change. The authors identify gender-based divisions of labor, male-dominated private ownership, and policy discourses skewed towards emphasizing economic over domestic water usage, as the primary mechanisms by which gender relations impact water security and access. The expansion of irrigation projects, especially ground-pumping tube wells, illustrates how water can be used as a tool for perpetuating societal inequalities. For, the material benefits of new irrigation projects are almost entirely dependent on whether or not one controls land and the rights to its resources-- control that is consistently situated in the hands of men. Crow and Sultana perform gendered analyses of other Bangladesh-specific cases to illustrate the importance of taking gender into account at all levels of development processes.

Quotes:

“The quality, reliability, and costs of water for a particular household will be influenced by a range of characteristics including conditions of the water source, geographic location of the household or enterprise in relation to the water source, past social investments in water infrastructure, and the social, economic, and even political position of a household.” (711)

“Material deprivations of poverty may intersect the subordination of women to amplify health hazards for poor households. Poor women’s access to water may be doubly disadvantaged, first by the household’s weak grasp on resources and second by the low priority given to women’s work, knowledge, and responsibilities.” (713)

“Increased extraction of groundwater from agriculture has undermined recent improvements in access to drinking water. The lesson from this case is that groundwater conditions may hide conflict between two sectors, health and the economy, and between the work and interests of men and women. There may be simple ways of reducing these social conflicts. For example, drinking-water provision can sometimes be included in irrigation expansion. Lack of recognition of this type of social conflict, the relative social influence of the two sectors, health and the economy, and of the roles of men and women, could lead to declining health conditions and increasing work for women.” (722)

Topics: Class, Economies, Economic Inequality, Gender, Gender Roles, Gender Analysis, Infrastructure, Water & Sanitation Regions: Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh

Year: 2002

Citation:

Dankelman, Irene, Khurshid Alam, Wahida Bashar Ahmed, Yacine Diagne Gueye, Naureen Fatema, and Rose Mensah-Kutin. 2008. Gender, Climate Change and Human Security: Lessons from Bangladesh, Ghana and Senegal. New York: Women’s Environment and Development Organization.

Authors: Irene Dankelman, Khurshid Alam, Wahida Bashar Ahmed, Yacine Diagne Gueye, Naureen Fatema, Rose Mensah-Kutin

Abstract:

Commissioned by the Greek chairmanship (2007-2008) of the Human Security Network, this study “Gender, Climate Change & Human Security: Lessons from Bangladesh, Ghana and Senegal” explores the interlinkages between gender, climate change and human security. Authors: Irene Dankelman, Khurshid Alam, Wahida Bashar Ahmed, Yacine Diagne Gueye, Naureen Fatema and Rose Mensah-Kutin. (WEDO)

Topics: Environment, Climate Change, Gender, Women, Security, Human Security Regions: Africa, West Africa, Asia, South Asia Countries: Bangladesh, Ghana, Senegal

Year: 2008