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August 4, 2002
EXCERPTS: No different from us
Dr Saira Rahman Khan writes about the hold of patriarchal customs on the society in Bangladesh where the shalish (jirga) and fatwa continue to be powerful forces in the villages
PATRIARCHAL customs and economic poverty are starkly evident among rural society. And it is these two factors which are the reasons for a specific form of violence against women. Due to patriarchal customs, girls are taken out of school, women made to observe purdah and have almost no say in the decision making process in either their own homes or in public. Economic poverty of the majority has led to the formation of a rural elite group land owners, money lenders and petty businessmen who form the hub of the decision-making process of rural communities. They are joined by the religious elite the mullahs, and teachers of madressahs (religious schools).
Women have little participation in these community affairs, even those who belong to the elite group. They adhere to the tradition of cooking, rearing children and observing purdah. However, these women form a small rural minority who can afford to stay at home. A majority of rural women suffer from poverty, specially, as has been mentioned, those who head households and have been widowed, deserted or whose husbands have migrated.
Furthermore, vested interest groups among the rural elite have traditionally found ways and means to keep a hold on rural power politics. They have been joined by some of the religious elite, who find in themselves the authority to pass judgment over alleged wrongdoers specially poor women in the form of fatwa (religious decrees). The women so accused are not even allowed to defend themselves or their actions.
Patriarchy is the main reason for this social behaviour, as customary belief has it that men are superior and women must be chastised. Unfortunately, many rural women take this as their due, as they have been brought up on the belief that it is acceptable for their fathers to beat their mothers and themselves and for their husbands to do the same once they are married! This belief receives a wider view when it comes to community activities and some women accept the judgment passed against them by the (male dominated) community. Unfortunately, this has led to certain illegal acts of violence against women in the form of abetting of suicide, physical abuse and even burning to death.
Here we seek to highlight the forms of violence faced specifically by rural women in the country as a result of vested interest groups who refuse to let women earn a living, emerge from purdah and practice their constitutional right to public participation. More than eighty per cent of the population of Bangladesh live in the rural areas, and therefore those areas are the strongholds of potential human resources. Unless women are allowed to take part in the processes for rural economic planning and development and social activities, their needs and requirements will not be heeded, not will they be able to contribute to the finances of the household.
This, in turn, will ultimately cause the stagnation and standstill of national resource mobilization. Some non-government organizations and micro-finance institutions have made attempts to improve the economic situation of rural women, but these, too, have been targets of some rural elite and vested interest groups...
A large majority of the vast population of Bangladesh live in the rural areas of the country, where most live below the poverty level. The village society in Bangladesh is based on age-old customs and traditions and these are the threads which still run through the fabric of day-to-day life. These customs and traditions are based predominantly on patriarchal norms and ideas.
The patriarchy prevalent in rural Bangladesh is starkly evident in the duopoly that controls village life the social and the religious elite. The former comprises the influential village elders, the headman, the affluent land owners, the moneylender and in some cases the chairman and/or members of the village or union council and the latter comprises the village imam (leader of prayers) and the teacher of the village madressah (Islamic religious school) in all, anyone in village society who holds power over the remaining villagers. Both these groups have a mutual interest-based relationship, which is brought forth strongly at the village shalish.
More often than not, villagers resort to traditional means of dispute resolution when an offence of any kind occurs. This method is called a shalish and is one of the ways in which rural justice is carried out. However, in recent times, this village committee has overstepped its boundaries and has, as will be seen, committed violent abuses against women handing down judgments against them illegally.
The women of rural Bangladesh, either through their fear of social stigma or of their total ignorance of the law, are relatively more abused and violated than their sisters in the cities and other urban areas. Another reason for this abuse is the lack of interest taken by the law enforcing agents in those areas, who tend to turn a blind eye to the overstepping of traditional and customary methods of dispute resolution in the villages and who regard domestic violence as a social and not a legal issue.
Sometimes they themselves take part in such activities of domestic violence. Much of the violence faced by rural women also involves the power and authority wielded by the village elders, elite and the imam of the local mosque. Most of the violence is suffered by the Muslim women of rural Bangladesh, who, along with their menfolk make up the majority of the religious population in Bangladesh and who are generally unquestioning of religious authority and for the most part illiterate.
All Bengali Muslims, even if they know little else about Islam, know that there is no God but God, Allah, and that Muhammad is the Prophet of God. This statement of faith is repeated in Arabic at every namaz (act of prayer), but unlike other formal prayers the meaning of which may not be appreciated by all who use them, the people do know the meaning of this one.
This concoction has turned out to be a deadly weapon in the hands of the religious leaders of rural Bangladesh. Poverty, illiteracy and the blind fear of God keep the women subjugated to a life of drudgery and near-slavery in a strong patriarchal atmosphere, where everything that goes wrong the inability to produce a son, the lack of food, the lack of or large number of offspring is always their fault and the burden of punishment is borne by them. Indeed, this has prompted a grassroots level women-oriented non-government organization called Baachte Shekha (Learning to Survive) to produce a poster in Bangla depicting a woman with eight arms each doing a different chore cradling a baby, sweeping the yard, winnowing rice, feeding chickens, cooking. In the corner, her husband sits on his haunches with a contemptuous look on his face and smoking a hookah. The caption on the poster reads: My wife does no work at all!.
Excerpted with permission from
The socio-legal status of Bengali women in Bangladesh: implications for development
By Saira Rahman Khan
The University Press Ltd, Red Crescent Building, 114 Motijheel C/A, P.O. Box 2611, Dhaka-1000
E-mail: upl@bangla.net Website:
www.uplbooks.com
ISBN 984-05-1545-4
320pp. Takas375
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