A substantial and genuine concern that has not received significant attention
from the media, however, is how rising levels of fundamentalism in Bangladesh
are a threat to women's rights. This article attempts to analyse fundamentalism
through the eyes of women and in the context of one of the poorest countries in
the world.
Bangladesh is a country mired in poverty, rating 138 out of 177 countries on
the Human Development Index - just above Sudan. Economic and social conditions
in Bangladesh are extremely poor, with an estimated 80 million people living in
shantytowns without access to clean water or sanitation, 25 percent of the
population earning less than one dollar per day and an adult literacy level of
just 41 percent.
For women, these statistics translate into a typical feminisation of poverty,
whereby women suffer the most and bear the burdens of a poor economy. Over 70
percent of women in Bangladesh are illiterate, compared with 45 percent of men.
In addition to economic insecurity, women in Bangladesh suffer discrimination
and repression in an unequal society that privileges men. According to a recent
project on women in Bangladesh, the types of repression against women include
abduction, acid attacks, rape, forced prostitution, physical harassment,
killing for dowry, killing after rape, fatwa, trafficking, and torture in
police custody. Like many countries in Asia, gender discrimination can begin at
birth, where there is a preference for male children who are deemed more
productive members of a family.
Three female babies were killed by their fathers between October and December
last year, according to a report of the NGO Manusher Jonno. The Convenor of the
Female Children Advocacy Forum, Badiul Alam Majumder, reports that female
children are regularly deprived of their rights in the family, society, and
country, and fall victim to inequalities in food division, access to healthcare
and education.
Due to high illiteracy rates, women in Bangladesh have little access to credit
and few rights to inheritance under the law. Most women in the rural areas are
forced to sell their goods through a male wholesaler or with the help of their
husbands or sons, because women are not allowed to buy or sell goods in the
haats and bazaars (village markets).
Trafficking of women into the commercial sex industry is a significant problem
in Bangladesh also, with women being trafficked to India, Pakistan and
countries in the Middle East. Their status in society is poor, and as a result
women are often excluded from opportunity. An estimated 1.5 million women are
employed in the garment industry, but are paid half of what male workers earn
for the same work. They are forced to work longer hours and working conditions
are typically very bad. Twenty women were reportedly burned to death in January
this year when a fire erupted in a garment factory.
Violence against women is pervasive at home and in society. One particular
phenomenon that is common in Bangladesh is acid attacks against other people -
usually over property disputes, but a significant percentage against young
women who reject the advances of a man. Enraged at the rejection, men will
throw acid in the woman's face, permanently disfiguring her face and sometimes
killing her so that no other man can 'have' her.
These sorts of attacks have thankfully decreased in the past year, but 180
cases against women were reported in 2004. With Dowry payments playing a key
role in the arrangement of marriages in Bangladesh, additional financial
pressure placed on the bride's parents contributes to the culture of
discrimination against the girl-child.
Eighty-eight per cent of its over 141 million people are Muslims, with Hindus
and Christians comprising religious minorities in the country. Since
independence from Pakistan in 1971, Bangladesh has developed into a fragile
democracy, with elections in 2001 voting in a four-party coalition divided
among the right-leaning Bangladesh National Party (BNP), the mildly leftist
Awami League (AL), the Islamist Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JEB) and the
conservative Jatiya.
Interestingly, the two leading parties (BNP and AL) are led by women, but their
presence in politics has done very little for the majority of Bangladeshi
women.
In recent years, there has been a spate of unchecked political violence and
evidence that the JEB are using their position in parliament to spread the
ideas of Islamic fundamentalism. Religious minorities have been repeatedly
harassed, intimidated and even tortured, and many leftist activists have been
murdered.
There are accusations that the government is powerless to arrest perpetrators
from JEB, and it was only after pressure from the European Union after the
assassination of the former finance minister that arrests were made, and two
Islamist groups were banned.
For women, increasing fundamentalism in Bangladesh is a threat to the little
rights and freedoms that they currently have. Women are already repressed by
gender-biased social norms and extreme poverty.
Fundamentalist ideology could have detrimental effects on women, and succeed in
excluding and marginalizing them even further. Eliza Griswold spoke with Mufti
Fazlul Haque Amini, who has served as a member of Parliament for the past three
years. She reported him saying that "he believes that secular law has failed
Bangladesh and that it's time to implement Sharia, the legal code of Islam".
This may not occur formally, but within the social fabric of Bangladesh, and
coupled with a legal system that consistently fails to address issues of rape,
torture and murder, women are threatened both physically and emotionally, as
well as being crippled economically - due to increasing fundamentalist forces
within the country.
Biased mentalities that do not recognise women as equal citizens could be
compounded by localized Sharia interpretations of Islam, where family laws
"frequently require women to obtain a male relative's permission to undertake
activities that should be theirs by right. This increases the dependency women
have on their male family members in economic, social, and legal matters."
It is critical that any further analysis and intervention regarding the current
situation in Bangladesh takes a gender-sensitive perspective in order for no
further harm to come to women. An over-emphasis on Islamic fundamentalism as a
security threat can distort important socio-economic factors that play the most
important role in improving people's lives - particularly women.
