WOMEN IN BANGLADESH
village woman in Bangladesh
Percentage of the population that is female: 49.4 percent (compared to 50.5 percent in the United States, 53 percent in Estonia and 37.1 percent in Bahrain) [Source: World Bank data.worldbank.org ]
Sex ratio in Bangladesh: at birth: 1.04 male(s)/female
0-14 years: 1.04 male(s)/female
15-24 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
25-54 years: 0.92 male(s)/female
55-64 years: 0.97 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.89 male(s)/female
total population: 0.97 male(s)/female (2020 estimated)
[Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Mother's mean age at first birth: 18.5 years (2014 estimated). Median age at first birth among women 25-29 Maternal mortality rate (MMR): 173 deaths/100,000 live births (2017 estimated); compared with other countries in the world: 53. [Source: CIA World Factbook, 2020]
Gender Statistics:
Labor Force Participation by persons aged 15 to 24 by sex: 54.9 percent for men and 26.4 percent for women in 2017.
Labor Force Participation by persons over 15 by sex: 80.7 percent for men and 36.4 percent for women in 2017.
Enrollment in secondary school: 47.3 percent for men and for 54.5 percent women in 2017.
Under Five mortality rates (deaths per 100,000 live births): 43.6 for men and 38.3 for women in 2017
Proportion of seats held by women in parliament: 20.7 percent
Adolescent birth rate: 78 per 1,000 births in 2016
[Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Statistics Division, genderstats.un.org ]
Women’s Roles in Bangladesh
According to the “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”: “Traditionally in Bangladesh, when a woman marries, she moves in with her husband's family and joins the other women of the household in caring for the men and children. Increasingly, however, women are forced to work outside the home, and there are now a large number of female-headed households in Bangladesh. For impoverished Bangladeshi women, the conservative social values of Islamists pose great obstacles to their social mobility and means of livelihood. [Source: “Worldmark Encyclopedia of Religious Practices”, Thomson Gale, 2006]
Traditionally a a woman began to gain respect and security in her husband's or father-in-law's household only after giving birth to a son. Mothers therefore cherished and indulged their sons, while daughters were frequently more strictly disciplined and were assigned heavy household chores from an early age. In many families the closest, most intimate, and most enduring emotional relationship was that between mother and son. The father was a more distant figure, worthy of formal respect, and the son's wife might remain a virtual stranger for a long time after marriage. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
According to “Countries and Their Cultures”: “Women traditionally are in charge of household affairs and are not encouraged to move outside the immediate neighborhood unaccompanied. Thus, most women's economic and social lives revolve around the home, children, and family. Islamic practice reserves prayer inside the mosque for males only; women practice religion within the home. [Source: “Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
“The society is patriarchal in nearly every area of life, although some women have achieved significant positions of political power at the national level. For ordinary women, movement is confined, education is stressed less than it is for men, and authority is reserved for a woman's father, older brother, and husband. Men are expected to be the heads of their households and to work outside the home. Men often do the majority of the shopping, since that requires interaction in crowded markets.
Traditional chores performed by women have included pounding grain and making textiles. Women working in the field keep their heads covered by clenching their shawls with their teeth so their hands are free to tend the crops. In the old days, sometimes women waded through knee-deep mud to get to the nearest well. Practices like this are less common today as sanitation and water supplies have improved.
Women Roles in the Bangladeshi Family
Washing at a Bangladeshi village
Brides often move in with the parents of the groom. Marriage functioned to ensure the continuity of families rather than to provide companionship to individuals, and the new bride's relationship with her mother-in-law was probably more important to her well-being than her frequently impersonal relationship with her husband. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989]
Miti Sanjana wrote in the Dhaka Tribune: “Unfortunately, our society does not recognise a wife’s contributions to the marital home or the sacrifices she makes. A woman works from dawn to dusk to build her home. Sometimes she does not even have the time to take a break. She works just as hard as her husband, and yet the husband occasionally abuses her. Unable to endure the abuse, she sometimes seeks shelter at her parental home, but they force her to return. Thus, she is forced to consent to her husband’s second marriage as she has no other option.” [Source: Miti Sanjana, Dhaka Tribune. August 28, 2017]
According to Human Rights Watch: “Marufa B. married at age 15, but was immediately unhappy in her in-laws’ home. “My mother-in-law used to treat me very badly and my husband was also with her. I would always have to work all day and I wasn’t allowed to take any rest. My husband hit me once or twice,” she said. [Source: “Marry Before Your House is Swept Away: Child Marriage in Bangladesh”,Human Rights Watch, June 9, 2015]
In an article on Bangladeshi village life, Kamran Nahar wrote: “Men dominated women in every sphere of life. Women didn’t know what freedom really meant. Though they worked hard at home all day long, husbands beat them for trifle matters. Since most girls were illiterate or little literate, they thought it right to obey husbands blindly as the society taught them for men’s benefit. Now, since people have been educated enough and nuclear families are rising irresistibly, the situation has somewhat changed, but not so much changed as expected to be. Still man, the head of the family, dominates all, even his sons too. Though men have given importance to women to some extent, their attitudes to dominate them are still present like before. [Source: “Bangladesh Culture: A Study of the South Para of Village ‘Silimpur’” by Kamrun Nahar, September 2, 2006]
Bengali Women
Among Bengali women, the degree to which women work outside the home is often determined by wealth and caste. Many poorer, lower-caste women work for wealthy families. Some wealthy, upper caste women work in professions, especially education and medicine. Nearly all Bengali gynecologists are women.
Village life is guided by male-dominated village hierarchies. Bengali men have traditionally been involved in tasks that take place outside the home while women engaged in tasks centered around the home. With farming, men tend to do the plowing, planting, wedding and harvesting while women take care of threshing, drying and husking crops near the home. Women also take care of household chores and child rearing. There are sometimes taboos about women working outside of the home. The taboos are often less strict with lower caste women because of economic necessity.
In the article on village life, Kamran Nahar wrote: “ Wives are still the toys of men’s wish. Their major duties are bound by men in cooking and rearing children. In the society, the wealthy and the aristocrat families influence upon the lower class. The older ones think that their orders are inviolable, that the juniors have to carry out without any question, and the juniors use to obey them. However, in these days, the older are beginning to give importance to the opinions of the junior too. [Source: “Bangladesh Culture: A Study of the South Para of Village ‘Silimpur’” by Kamrun Nahar, September 2, 2006]
Women in Bangladesh in the 1980s
Holud wedding party henna
hand decorations in DhakaAvailable data on health, nutrition, education, and economic performance indicated that in the 1980s the status of women in Bangladesh remained considerably inferior to that of men. Women, in custom and practice, remained subordinate to men in almost all aspects of their lives; greater autonomy was the privilege of the rich or the necessity of the very poor. Most women's lives remained centered on their traditional roles, and they had limited access to markets, productive services, education, health care, and local government. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
This lack of opportunities contributed to high fertility patterns, which diminished family well-being, contributed to the malnourishment and generally poor health of children, and frustrated educational and other national development goals. In fact, acute poverty at the margin appeared to be hitting hardest at women. As long as women's access to health care, education, and training remained limited, prospects for improved productivity among the female population remained poor.
About 82 percent of women lived in rural areas in the late 1980s. The majority of rural women, perhaps 70 percent, were in small cultivator, tenant, and landless households; many worked as laborers part time or seasonally, usually in post-harvest activities, and received payment in kind or in meager cash wages. Another 20 percent, mostly in poor landless households, depended on casual labor, gleaning, begging, and other irregular sources of income; typically, their income was essential to household survival. The remaining 10 percent of women were in households mainly in the professional, trading, or large-scale landowning categories, and they usually did not work outside the home.
The economic contribution of women was substantial but largely unacknowledged. Women in rural areas were responsible for most of the post-harvest work, which was done in the chula, and for keeping livestock, poultry, and small gardens. Women in cities relied on domestic and traditional jobs, but in the 1980s they increasingly worked in manufacturing jobs, especially in the readymade garment industry. Those with more education worked in government, health care, and teaching, but their numbers remained very small. Continuing high rates of population growth and the declining availability of work based in the chula meant that more women sought employment outside the home. Accordingly, the female labor force participation rate doubled between 1974 and 1984, when it reached nearly 8 percent. Female wage rates in the 1980s were low, typically ranging between 20 and 30 percent of male wage rates.
Grameen Bank and Women
The Grameen Bank in Bangladesh pioneered the idea of giving out micro-loans between $27 and $500 to poor people so they can start or expand small businesses such a street vending operations, cell telephone rentals or small cottage industries to pull themselves out of poverty. If loans are paid back borrowers qualify for larger loans.
Most of the Grameen loans are given to women (94 percent at one point). There are several reasons for this. Women are better at repaying the loans then men, who often squander their money on risky deals, drink or gambling. Because they are usually responsible for raising the family and keeping track of the family finances women generally put their money into things that benefit the entire family and don't waste it. Before the women receive the loans they are often given lectures on the importance of repayments. Many of the women who receive loans pull their families out of poverty in five years or less.
Grameen bank founder Muhammad Yunus told Newsweek, "Initially we tried to find equal numbers of men and women borrowers...Then we realized than many positive things could be achieved by lending to women because when a woman's income increases, the immediate beneficiaries are the children. A woman looks to the future with a planned strategy to improve the family situation. Men don't pay attention to such things. Since women performed better in bringing changes to the family, we decided to give priority to women."
As for the husband of women borrowers Yunas said "At first...men ere angry with their wives for handling money. We tried to show them that it is good if the wife contributes to the family income: that way the family could move out of poverty faster...So that the husband does not feel humiliated that his wife gets the money, we have [counseling] sessions with him and encourage the wife to discuss things with him so he doesn't feel left out."
Grameen Bank also pursued a social agenda with its women borrowers, After many women receive their money they recite the following pledge: "We shall plan to keep our families small. We shall keep free from the curse of dowry. We shall not practice child marriage." In Bangladesh twice as many Grameen bank women use contraceptives as the national average.
Struggles of Women in Bangladesh
Women in Bangladesh are still excluded from many mosques and events. Schools are still largey segregated by sex. The Bangladeshi feminist writer Taslima Nasrin wrote in Time: “The path for women was never smooth. They have had to fight even for a chance to walk. There was always a conspiracy to keep them mute. It is said that the quieter a woman, the better she is.”
Even though women occupy the highest office, there are still few women in middle and lower level government positions and the education levels, literacy rates, economic status and health of women are still low. In general women have few rights. Many remain confined to their homes through the custom of purdah. But things are better than they used to be. In the 1990s, fewer than one in four women were functionally literate and less than one in ten were allowed to go shopping by themselves.
In conservative household women are not allowed to have surnames or leave the house. Their husbands can abandon them without alimony by simply declaring a divorce. For a while female students at Dhaka University have to return to their dormitories by sunset unless they have a note from their parents giving them permission to stay out late.
Muslim extremist threatened to disrupt Bangladesh’s first ever women’s wrestling competition. A spokesman for one group said, “Games such as wrestling are vulgar and indecent for Muslim women.” In October 2004, Islamists threatened to disrupt a Bangladesh’s first woman’s soccer tournament, saying it was “indecent and against Islamic norms.” In December nearly 2,000 Islamists took to the streets over the participation of women in a swim meet. Four women wanted to take part in a 10 kilometer competitive swim. What the groups objected to most was women in bathing suits. Three demonstrators showed up at the National Sports Council office in Dhaka calling for a total ban of women’s sports.
Selling of Women and Girls
In the early 2000s, it was estimated that around 10,000 Bangladeshi women and girls were sold each year by women traffickers, with many being forced into prostitution in India, Pakistan and the Gulf stares. In some cases the women and girls were sold by their husbands or fathers. Altogether there were believed to be around 500,000 Bangladeshi females in foreign brothels and jails or working in homes as bonded servants.
In many cases, the women and girls were led to believe they were leaving Bangladesh for jobs in factories or as servants. When they arrive in their new homes they were raped and confined by their new "owners." They then became prostitutes.
Many of the victims were divorced women, women deserted by polygamous husbands, or girls abandoned by their parents. They were sold for hundreds or thousands of dollars, depending on their age, beauty, fitness and family background. Once out of Bangladesh they had few rights. If they went to authorities they were often jailed for being in the country illegally. In India “jinnah”, or sex outside marriage, and illegal entry into the country are punishable by death.
Islamists, NGOs and Women in Bangladesh
Mullahs have encouraged men to divorce their wives if they work outside the home, ordered women not to accept medicine from foreign aid workers, canceled weddings because the bride's brother worked for a foreign aid group and encouraged mobs to burn down schools that educate girls. [Source: John Ward Anderson, Washington Post August 4, 1994]
"When NGOs come to the village, they have to understand the social pattern — women live under the guidelines of the father, husband, brother and son," one mullah told the Washington Post in 1994. "Now NGOs are taking women out of their houses and giving them training and drilling in their head: 'Why do you have to remain under your father, husband and brothers? You can be independent.' In this way they are destroying the family system in our country."
Fundamentalist cleric also argue that the charitable works performed by NGOs is a ploy by the West to convert them to Christianity. More than 1,400 schools that offer education to women were vandalized in 1994 and 55 were burnt down.
On woman who was divorced by her husband for refusing to quit he job told TIME, "He told me, 'You are no longer a Muslim — you are a Christian. You have broken purdah,' And he beat me until I collapsed." Fortunately Extremist Muslim clerics do not have a big following Bangladesh, compared to, say, Pakistan.
Purdah in Bangladesh
The practice of purdah (the traditional seclusion of women) varied widely according to social milieu, but even in relatively sophisticated urban circles the core of the institution, the segregation of the sexes, persisted. In traditional circles, full purdah required the complete seclusion of women from the onset of puberty. Within the home, women inhabited private quarters that only male relatives or servants could enter, and a woman properly avoided or treated with formal respect even her father-in-law or her husband's older brother. Outside the home, a woman in purdah wore a veil or an enveloping, concealing outer garment. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
The trappings of full purdah required both a devotion to traditional practice and the means to dispense with the labor of women in the fields. For most rural families the importance of women's labor made full seclusion impossible, although the idea remained. In some areas, for example, women went unveiled within the confines of the para or village but donned the veil or the outer garment for trips farther from the community. In any case, contact with men outside the immediate family was avoided.
The segregation of the sexes extended into social groups that had rejected full purdah as a result of modern education. Although urban women could enjoy more physical freedom than was traditional and the opportunity to pursue a professional career, they moved in a different social world from their husbands and often worked at their professions in a specifically feminine milieu.
Women in Bangladesh Feel Unsafe in Public Transport and Police Stations
Cities have few public place where women can feel safe, whether it be a hospital, public transport or police station, according to a research by ActionAid Bangladesh, an international non-governmental organization. The Daily Star reported: “The organization has come up with the observation based on a survey of 400 people (50 percent male and 50 percent female) conducted in Khulna, Rajshahi, Chittagong and Narayanganj city corporations in the first quarter of 2016. [Source: Daily Star, July 17, 2017]
“Their experience while seeking services from police, city corporations, transport authorities, market authorities and hospitals was compiled in preparing a report on “violence against women in public places”. “Important public service sectors in Bangladesh are not people oriented due to lack of investment, implementation of policies, transparency and accountability. For these reasons, people, especially women, face numerous problems and harassment while seeking urgent services like health, education and transport,” the international non-government organization said in a press release.
“At least 42.5 percent women service seekers face rude behaviour at hospitals by service providers while 50 percent women face inappropriate touch at market places, according to the research titled “Public services on the context of violence against women in public places.” Seventy percent of the female participants during the survey said buses and bus stands were not safe for them.
“Women face harassment even at police stations as, 30 percent women said they had experienced eve-teasing at police stations while 35 percent said they had suffered physical torture in incidents involving law enforcers. At bus stations, women are harassed by service providers and general public, according to the survey's findings. Common forms of harassment include eve-teasing, rude behaviour and inappropriate touch.
“Most of these public service providers do not have any mechanism to prevent violence against women. In most of the cases proper steps are not taken even after such complaints, the NGO said. City corporations lack basic facilities such as separate toilets for women, breastfeeding corners and even separate sitting arrangements for women, making it difficult for them to travel with young children for vaccination. Similarly, markets and hospitals have no means to address violence against women and the worst sufferers of this situation belong to the poorest sections of the community, the NGO said.
94 Percent of Bangladesh Women Say They’ve Been Sexually Harassed in Public Transport
Ninety-four percent of women commuting in public transport in Bangladesh say they have experienced sexual harassment in verbal, physical and other forms, a study has said. Rehan Kabir wrote in the Dhaka Tribune: The study, enttitled "Roads free from sexual harassment and crash for women" conducted by development organization Brac, identified males belonging to relatively older age group of 41 to 60 years as the major perpetrators who are responsible for 66 percent of such incidents. [Source: Rehan Kabir, Dhaka Tribune, March 7, 2018]
“The research was conducted during a three-month period between April and June, 2017 where a total of 415 women participated in Gazipur, Dhaka and Birulia of Savar upazila in Dhaka district. According to the research, 35 percent respondents using public transport said they faced sexual harassment from males belonging to the age group of 19 to 35 years while 59 percent faced such harassment from the males who are 26 to 40 years old.
“The forms of sexual harassment experienced by the respondents include deliberate touching of victim's body parts like chest, pinching, standing too close to the victim and pushing, touching victim's hair, putting hand on their shoulder, and touching private parts of the victim. When asked about their response to such harassments, 81 percent women said they kept silent while 79 percent said they moved away from the place of harassment.
“The study also mentioned factors, including lax implementation of law, excessive crowd in buses and weak or no monitoring (such as absence of closed-circuit cameras) as the major causes behind the sexual harassment on roads and public transport, especially in buses. Prof Syed Saad Andaleeb, Prof Simeen Mahmud, Fahmida Saadia Rahman and Kabita Chowdhury conducted the research.
“According to the study, the present education system in which male and female children attend institutions separately restricts the scope for learning gender equality lessons as well as building the attitude and habit of treating both the sexes equally and with respect. To help children develop such an attitude, adequate training and counselling of teachers and counsellors are essential, the study noted.
Achievements by Women in Bangladesh
Some people suggest that Islam is at fault for the discrimination of women. But this is not born out in Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia where women play a major role in their county's economies. In many ways, Bangladesh’s development success story has veen closely tied with its effort to improve women’s rights. The United Nations has cited Bangladesh’s “impressive” poverty reduction from 56.7 percent in 1991-1992 to 31.5 percent in 2010. Bangladesh has achieved gender parity in primary and secondary school enrollment. Maternal mortality declined by 40 percent between 2001 and 2010.
Most newspapers run stories about how the status of women should be raised to improve the living standards of the nation as a whole. Western aid agencies have focused their attention on women: providing education for girls, making contraception available, and attacking conservatives laws, and the traditions regarding purdah and dowries.
Bangladesh has a National Women Development Policy. In the late 1990s, a law was enacted that called for the death penalty for the rape, trafficking or murder of women. Bangladesh is the only country in South Asia to have such stiff penalties for crimes against women. The laws are poorly enforced though. There are few arrests or prosecutions. Police are often bribed by suspects and set free. The Bangladesh National Women's Lawyers Association is the main women's rights group in Bangladesh.
Women Leaders in Bangladesh and South Asia
It is ironic that women have ruled the countries of Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, where the status of women is among the lowest in the world. The women that have taken power in these countries have been the widows or daughters of prominent politicians.
Some scholars also attribute the success of women in South Asian politics to a belief in the subcontinent in “skakti” (feminine power). Many soldiers, for example, in India, Nepal and parts of Sri Lanka, still consecrate their swords and rifles with blood-colored powders before images of the demon-slaying goddess Durga. Stanley Wolpert, a professor of Indian history, told TIME, women leaders may be an "accident of gender" but "over and above everything else, there's a strong worship of the Mother Goddess in South Asia. Subliminally, it's still there in Pakistan, to."
Delhi psychiatrist Ashis Nandy told TIME, "There is a strong sense of the matriarchy at play in politics. Some politicians also see women as a bet for containing factions — a good neutral choice." One diplomat told the Washington Post: "In the next round of assassinations, when the mothers are killed, probably the sons" will inherit the political legacies.
In Bangladesh Women participated extensively in anti-British agitations during the 1930s and 1940s and were an active force during the independence struggle. Since 1972 the Constitution and the legal system have guaranteed equal rights for women to participate in all aspects of public life. The prominence of the well-known opposition party leaders Hasina and Khaleda Zia at first sight indicated a national openness to women's political power. Both, however, were exceptional in Bangladeshi politics. They originally owed their positions to family connections and only later skillfully built their own followings and platforms. Women candidates for political office were a rarity in the 1970s and 1980s, and female participation was labeled anti-Islamic by conservative men throughout the country. Secular provisions in Bangladeshi laws safeguarded the equality of women while "protecting" them and assuming their dependence. [Source: James Heitzman and Robert Worden, Library of Congress, 1989 *]
Women running for office in the 1970s and 80s had little success. In the 1979 parliamentary elections, for example, only 17 women were among 2,125 candidates for 300 seats; none of the women won, and only 3 polled over 15 percent of the vote. At the union council level, the 1973 elections returned only one woman chairman, and the 1977 and 1984 elections each returned only four female chairmen. The leaders running the country, recognizing that women suffer disabilities when competing for office against men, reserved thirty seats for women in Parliament. The profiles of the women occupying these seats exemplied the subordinate positions of women in Bangladesh, even those occupying public offices. In the 1979 Parliament, fifteen women members were formerly housewives, and twenty-seven had no prior legislative experience. A study of women nominated to union councils revealed that 60 percent were less than 30 years of age, only 8 percent were over 40 years of age, and only 4 percent had college degrees.
Prior to the 1988 parliamentary elections, the provision for reserved seats for women had been allowed to lapse. The result was that women were left practically without representation at the national level, although there were other forums for political involvement at the local level. In mid-1988 three women sat on union and subdistrict councils. Municipal councils also included women, but the law precluded women from exceeding 10 percent of council membership. Some women's groups, such as the Jatiyo Mohila Sangstha (National Organization for Women), have held major conferences to discuss women's problems and mobilization strategies. Although these women's organizations were the province of middle-class women, they served as training grounds, as did local councils, for a new generation of politically active women.
Taslima Nasarin, Female Salmon Rushdie of Bangladesh
In 1994, Bangladeshi writer, Taslima Nasarin, fled to Sweden after receiving Salmon-Rushdie-like death threats and having $10,000 price placed on her head. Nasrin is a former physician and has been quite outspoken and public about her feminist and anti-religious views. Married three times and an avowed atheist, she suggested that women should be able to chose their sexual partners, have children outside of marriage, and take four husbands if they like. The European Parliament awarded her the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought in 1994.
Nasrin's troubles began after she won the important Bengali Literary prize in 1991 in Calcutta and her works were attacked in conservative Dhaka. Nasrin writes novels, poems and newspaper columns brutally condemning men advocating more sexual freedom for women. Her poems were often very sexually explicit even by Western standards. She once said, "Other women write love stories, I wrote about sexual oppression...I have no shyness describing anything about a woman's body or a man's body because I am a doctor."
In addition to espousing sexual freedom, Nasrin has criticized Muslim clerics for using the pretension of piety to achieve political goals. Nasrin's Bengali-language novel “Laija” (“Shame”) — about the troubles of a Hindu family in Bangladesh and riots between Muslims and Hindus — was banned by the Bangladeshi government in 1993. The book was condemned by Islamic extremist as being too sympathetic to India. Nasreen fled Bangladesh in 1994 when a court said she had “deliberately and maliciously” hurt Muslims’ religious feelings with her book“Lajja”. At the time, thousands of radical Muslims demonstrated against her, demanding that she be put death for blasphemy, threat that have continued to dog her her whole life.
Taslima Nasarin and Attacks by Islamists
Nasrin (also spelled Nasreen) was quoted in an Indian newspaper as demanding that the Quran be revised, a blasphemous statement punishable by death under some strict Islamic law interpretations. Nasrin claims that she was misquoted. She said she said that Islamic law not the Quran should be revised. In any case, an imam at one of Dhaka's leading Muslim seminaries said, "She should be executed." Crowds gathered in the streets of the capital shouting, "Death, death and only death for apostate Nasrin." In 1993, a mullah offered a reward of $1,500 for her assassination. Similar offers followed.
The accusations against Nasrin, whipped up Muslim extremist passions. Radical Muslim mobs burned down schools run by foreigners, mullahs called for the expulsion of foreign aid groups, politicians called for the implantation of Islamic law and two newspaper editors were imprisoned for blasphemy. Nasrin said, "I am not afraid of the fundamentalists, no. They try to kill me but I will never stop writing. They will kill my family but they will never stop my writing."
Nasrin was not well liked in the Bangladeshi intellectual community. Few writers, scholars or even feminists came to her defense. They said that she had brought her problems on herself by emulating Salman Rushdie. Feminists said she put more emphasis on sex than on women's social issues. The Bangladeshi government did not give her much support either. Nasrin said that she was a lighting rod for resentment by Islamic extremist over the rising power of village women. Human rights groups in the West were the main ones that took up her cause.
Nasrin returned to Bangladesh in September 1998 to care for her ailing mother. Both the police and Islamic groups were on her tail when they found out she was in the country. Two months later she ordered to surrender to police on charges of blasphemy. She again fled Bangladesh and made her home in Kolkata.
In 2004, a Muslim cleric offered a $440 reward to anyone who was able to successfully humiliate Nasreen by blackening her face with shoe polish or ink or by garlanding her with shoes. In 2007, lawmakers and members of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen party attacked her at the press club in Hyderabad, India at the launch of a Telugu translation of one of her novels. Reuters reported: “An uneasy-looking Nasreen backed into a corner as several middle-aged men threw a leather case, bunches of flowers and other objects at her head and threatened her with a chair. Some of the mob shouted for her death.” Her forhead was bruised in the attack.
Taslima Nasrin’s Life
In a speech published in Reader’s Digest, Taslima Nasarin said: “I was born in Mymensingh in Bangladesh, to a Muslim family. It was a very conservative society. I was lucky because my father decided to send me to school. He wanted me to go to school and then college and he wanted me to become a doctor. In school I saw so many girls, so many classmates of mine, who were made to quit their studies because they were forced to marry when they were 13 or 14. They wanted to continue with their education but couldn’t because their parents decided that they should marry instead. [Source: Taslima Nasrin, Reader’s Digest, October 12, 2018]
“At that time, married girls were not allowed to study. Many of my classmates wanted to be doctors or engineers but couldn't … My father wanted me to become a doctor so I studied to become one. When I was a child, I saw the role of women in my family. My grandmother was just like a slave; she was treated like a child-bearing machine, nothing else. Even though my father was a doctor, an educated person, my mother was oppressed by my father. My mother was [a] very good student but she had to quit school because my grandparents didn’t want her to study post marriage. And I didn’t want a life like my grandmother or my mother, so it was good that I got a chance to study. My father was a secular man but my mother was religious. She asked me to read the Quran and pray. But I always wanted to know the meaning of the verses that I read. When I asked my mother, she said, “You don’t need to know the meaning of the verses in the Quran, you just need to read the Quran in Arabic and Allah will be happy.”
“I was a curious child; I wanted to know what I was reading. One day, when I was 12, I got a Bengali translation of the Quran and read it, and found instances of inequalities and injustices against women. So I stopped believing in religion. When I studied other religions, I found that they too are also very much against women. Women are oppressed through religion, culture, customs and tradition. I didn’t know why we did not protest against these misogynistic cultures. I started writing about this when I was young, just a teenager. I had seen my eldest brother write poems so I wanted to try it out too. When I was 17, I started publishing and editing literary magazines.
Taslima Nasrin on Writing
In the speech published in Reader’s Digest, Taslima Nasarin said: “It was not easy for a girl to publish magazines or get published in the ’70s. From 1978, I started editing a poetry magazine, which received contributions from Bangladeshi poets as also from poets in West Bengal. I was writing poetry and stories in a country where most people think it is okay for men to write. But not women. [Source: Taslima Nasrin, Reader’s Digest, October 12, 2018]
“For a woman to start writing would mean she had some problems. That such women were unhappy. And that unhappy women either committed suicide or became prostitutes — or, worse, they started writing. I started writing in that kind of environment. I mostly wrote about women. The women I had seen in the street, the women I met, the suffering of women I heard about.
“When I was writing about women’s rights, I had not read any books on feminism. I just saw what was happening in our society and wrote about that, encouraging women to fight for their right. And many women told me that my writings inspired them, gave them strength.
“I told myself I must not stop my writing. I must continue because it touched lives. I was encouraged by women to keep writing even though misogynists hated me. Religious fundamentalists too, because I criticized religious oppression against women; many Islamic fanatics were angry with me.
Taslima Nasrin on Wearing a Burka and a Lack of Women’s Rights in Bangladesh
In the speech published in Reader’s Digest, Taslima Nasarin said: “I always aspired for greater freedom. I didn’t have enough of it. My father, even though he wanted me to study, did not allow me to go outside: to go to the cinema, to the theatre, to a concert, or even to a friend’s house. My brother had that right to do whatever he wanted to do but I didn’t. My sister didn’t either. Throughout my childhood I have seen how girls and women are oppressed. [Source: Taslima Nasrin, Reader’s Digest, October 12, 2018]
“My mother wanted me to wear a burka. She wore the burka and I didn't like it. In the ’70s not many young women wore burkas, but now that the country has been Islamized, many women can be seen wearing hijabs and burkas. It is very sad: Why are women required to wear hijabs and burkas? Because men can have sexual urges if they see them. So women have to cover up. It is very strange too: Women also have sexual urges. I don’t think anybody wants to admit that. Going by this logic, women might also experience sexual urges if they see men but, hypocritically, men do not have to hide their body.
“When I studied medicine, nobody wore a hijab or burka. Now almost every woman wears it. When I look at the country that so changed in the last 20 years, it alarms me. When I started writing, I chose to write about women’s rights, the oppression against women, on our fight for equal rights and freedom.
“We have to fight misogyny and men also have to participate in this movement. It is not the women’s duty alone to get equality for women, it is the men’s duty too. Because it is our society, and both men and women need to make it better. Women have proved that they can do what men can do. Women are in the military; women are part of the police; women are doctors, engineers. Men haven’t proved they can do what women can. Child care is still thought of as a woman’s duty. No! It’s a man’s duty too. They should also try to do everything that women traditionally did. I don’t want to discard men from the women’s movement. Men are in a powerful position. Men can help to make their society better. With gender equality, men don’t have to live with their slaves — they can live with their equal partners.
Taslima Nasrin on Freedom of Expression and the Oppression of Religion
Nasrin said: “In 1993, they issued a fatwa against me. They put a price on my head; and instead of supporting me, the Bangladeshi government took action against me. The government filed a case against me on the grounds of hurting religious sentiments. I had to go into hiding, and, ultimately, I was forced out of my country. Twenty-four years ago my life in exile started. Because I talked about women who are oppressed because of religion, culture, customs and traditions. Had I talked against the culture of misogyny, it might have been okay, but the problem starts when I talk against religion, especially Islam.
“When I criticize Hinduism, or Christianity, Judaism, or Buddhism, they don’t issue decrees against me, but when I’m critical of Islam, then the fundamentalists start issuing fatwas. Hundreds and thousands of fanatics took to the street demanding my execution by hanging. And what I found astounded me: Islam had been exempted from critical scrutiny that applied to other religions.
“Freedom of expression is very important for democracy and without the freedom of offending, freedom of expression can not exist. I believe in this. I am against all kinds of fundamentalism. To get equality, we need to fight fundamentalism. We need to fight against the misogynistic cultures that are currently plaguing our society. And I will continue with my writings, and I will continue my fight until death, wherever I stay.
“I would love to be in India; I feel at home here. Perhaps people think I shouldn’t have the right to offend others. I do not intentionally want to offend anybody but I like to express my feelings, which are often inconsonant with others, and so it would offend them. If you want change, there will be some who would get offended. If you want to create a society where no women is oppressed, if you want to create an equal society, you have to hurt the misogynists.
“Their getting offended shouldn’t stop your progressive thoughts and limit your expression of ideas. Throughout history we have seen a handful of people change society. Not millions but a few who bring in change. I only hope that the governments support us: those of us who need their freedom to express their views against systemic oppression. Clearly, the religious have the freedom to express their views but not the non-religious.
“Whenever non-religious people express their views, the government and fanatics go after them and try to drown out their voice. But in a democracy everyone should enjoy the same rights equally. I do not think that if you believe in religion then you can also believe in women’s rights because religion, as it is, is not compatible with women’s rights, human rights and freedom of expression. In our subcontinent we see fanaticism on the rise. I hope that one day good sense will prevail and lead to the creation of a better society.
“We don’t need religious laws. We have Islamic laws that date back to the seventh century. Recently triple talaq was abolished and everyone thought that Muslim women finally have freedom. No. They don’t. All religious laws should be abolished. Women are still oppressed because of them: marriage, child custody and inheritance laws. There is no equality. I hope that, one day, Bangladesh will get a uniform civil code, based on equality. I don’t think all women will become free and have access to their rights if we have uniform civil codes. But it will be a start.
Taslima Nasrin Poem: “You Go Girl
The name of my poem is ‘You Go Girl’.
They said — take it easy …
Said — calm down …
Said — stop talkin’ …
Said — shut up …
They said — sit down …
Said — bow your head …
Said — keep on cryin’, let the tears roll …
“What should you do in response?
“You should stand up now
Should stand right up
Hold your back straight
Hold your head high …
You should speak
Speak your mind
Speak it loudly
Scream!
“You should scream so loud that they must run for cover.
They will say — ‘You are shameless!’
When you hear that, just laugh …
“They will say — ‘You have a loose character!’
When you hear that, just laugh louder …
They will say — ‘You are rotten!’
So just laugh, laugh even louder …
Hearing you laugh, they will shout,‘You are a whore!’
“When they say that,
Just put your hands on your hips,
Stand firm and say,
‘Yes, yes, I am a whore!’
“They will be shocked.
They will stare in disbelief.
They will wait for you to say more, much more …
The men amongst them will turn red and sweat.
The women amongst them will dream to be a whore like you.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Bangladesh National Portal (www.bangladesh.gov.bd), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022