Feminism in Bangladesh: 1971-2000: Voices from women’s movement

Abstract

This thesis analyses feminist formulations through the eyes of the key protagonists of the women‘s movement spanning over the first three decades of Bangladesh (1971-2000). The study attempts to look at the development and evolution of feminist thought by sifting through the voices of the women‘s movements and activism in contemporary Bangladesh. The focus is to reveal the particular forms and contents of feminist thought, its indigenous and autonomous forms, alongside its contemporary trends and nature, underscoring its distinct features if any. This entire effort, encapsulated in four major chapters, intends to look into the complex process of issues raised, and responses made by the women‘s movement. In order to taper this intricate and vast engagement under one umbrella, three major women‘s organisations (Bangladesh Mahila Parishad, Women for Women and Naripokkho) were purposefully selected to locate feminist constructions. Each represented their distinctive nature and characteristics, with their own historical rationale that make them worthy of being selected as the most prominent organisations of the country. Voices from the key protagonists of the movement, representing these three organisations are the mainstay of this thesis. This study has chosen four broad areas i.e. violence against women, rights for women, question of religion and interface between state and global feminism, with fourteen subissues in total under each category, which are again found to be connected and intermingled with each other. Among the four broad areas selected, VAW (Chapter Two) emerged as the most common thread for all, overarching the entire array of the movement. Under VAW, the most prominent concerns highlighted by the respondents included the following: war time rape and atrocities against women in 1971, rehabilitation process by the state in association with the key persons from the movement, including abortion, adoption and declaration of war victims as Birangona. Apart from its engagement in the rehabilitation process during the seventies, the women‘s movement highlighted the issue of death in the brothel (Case Shabmeher), acid attacks, rape and murder under police custody (Case of Yasmin) during the subsequent decades of the eighties and nineties.