Gender, Religion and Development in Rural Bangladesh

This book examines the relationships between gender, religion and development in rural Bangladesh in the context of a series of attacks on NGOs by ?fundamentalist? forces in the country in the early part of the 1990s. Specifically, the focus is on the emergence of rural women as a center of contention as events unfolded. Based on fieldwork carried out in a villag in Chittagong, Bangladesh, the book argues that while it is possible to see the attacks against NGOs as ''resistance'' against ''Western'' or ''elite'' domination and exploitation, a closer look of events reveals that forms of gender inequality operating at domestic and community levels are largely behind the targeting of women beneficiaries of NGOs by the ?fundamentalists?. The book also explores the nature and extent of rural women''s resistance to these events and concludes that instead of representing the ''poor rural women'' of Bangladesh only as victims, their active and creative roles also must be stressed in our analysis.

Autorentext

Ainoon Naher, PhD is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University, Bangladesh. She received her M.A. in Anthropology with distinction from University of Sussex, UK and PhD in Anthropology, magna cum laude, from the South Asian Institute, University of Heidelberg, Germany.