Term Paper

Building Solidarity Against Patriarchy:

Santi Rozario

November 2004

CARE Bangladesh

CONTENTS

Abbreviations 4

Acknowledgments 6

1. Introduction 7

1.1 Background to the Report 7

1.2 General Comments 8

1.3 Empowerment and Solidarity 9

2 Women's Organizations and their Strategies 10

2.1 Introduction 10

2.2 Divisions in the Women’s Movement 12

2.3 Is the Women’s Movement Addressing the Root Causes of Oppression? 13

2.4 Dealing with Symptoms Not Causes 15

2.5 Violence Against Women: Tackling Domestic Violence 16

3. Spontaneous Grass Roots Movements 16

3.1 Introduction 16

3.2 Spontaneous Protests 16

3.3 Village Cooperatives and Mutual Saving Schemes 16

4. Review of CARE’s Approaches to Discrimination and Violence against Women 16

4.1 Introduction 16

4.2. RLP Farmers Field School Groups 16

4.3 BUILD Income-Generating Projects 16

4.4 BUILD Market Program 16

4.5 Women Union Parishad Members 16

4.6 Working With Imams 16

4.7 Folk Drama at a Dinajpur PHL Project 16

4.8 PHL Forum to Prevent Violence against Women 16

4.9 CARE’s Partner NGOs and Gender Issues 16

4.10 Conclusion 16

5 Women in Bangladeshi Society and Culture 16

5.1 Introduction 16

5.2 Purity, Izzat and The “Middle” Class 16

5.3 Marriage and the Dependency of Women 16

5.4 The Growth of Dowry: Valorizing Men, Devalorizing Women 16

The Demographic Imbalance: Surplus of Women and Shortage of Men. 16

The Socio-economic Transformation: Dowry as the Product of Modernity. 16

The Ideological Justification: Valorisation of Men vs Devalorisation of Women. 16

Disjunction Between Culture and Economy. 16

Dowry as the Source of Capital 16

5.5 Islamist Movements and Women 16

6 Recommendations and Conclusion 16

6.1 Recommendations 16

6.2 Overall Directions 16

A: Create Unity Through a Campaign on Dowry, Inheritance Rights and Domestic Violence 16...