A friend forwarded a link to this site and it has some telling articles. I read them and knew I had to share them.
What I find the most telling is the statement "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." How can women be in positions of power and not do more to help the others like themselves? Or is it just the usual "I got out of that hole, but someone has to stay in there, so let it be them" mentality?
-Sumita

Is fundamentalism a threat to women's rights?
By Rochelle Jones
April 20, 2006

Recent reports in South Asian and international media have been discussing the issue of rising levels of Islamic fundamentalism and political instability in Bangladesh in the context of global terrorism and political Islam.
These concerns have gained increased momentum in the wake of a grenade attack in the North-Eastern town of Laskarpur in January of this year that killed five people, including the former Finance Minister who is a member of the liberal opposition party, Awami League (AL).
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...
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.

Read the entire piece here.

Punishing foeticide
April 5, 2006

Female foeticide has been a blot on the patriarchal Asian society - a society that values males and discriminates against the female sex. The result has been a skewed, highly lopsided sex ratio in parts of India and China.
The social preference for males coupled with modern sex determination tests leading to female foeticide have led to a situation where men in the north Indian states of Punjab and Haryana are forced to seek brides from outside the state and even the region.
This leads to another evil practice of buying poor girls from the eastern states of Bihar and Bengal for marriage. In the light of this, the recent jail sentence to an Indian doctor and his assistant - for revealing the sex of a female foetus and then agreeing to abort it - is a welcome development.

Read the entire piece here.