Unruly Women the Politics of Confinement & Resistance Karlene Faith Review
Bangladesh
Alternative Names
Bengali
Orientation
Identification. "Bangladesh" is a combination of the Bengali words, Bangla and Desh, meaning the land or land where the Bangla language is spoken. The state formerly was known every bit East Pakistan.
Location and Geography. Bangladesh straddles the Bay of Bengal in south Asia. To the west and n it is bounded past India; to the southeast, it borders Myanmar. The topography is predominantly a low-lying floodplain. About half the total area is actively deltaic and is prone to flooding in the monsoon season from May through September. The Ganges/Padma River flows into the country from the northwest, while the Brahmaputra/ Jamuna enters from the north. The majuscule city, Dhaka, is near the indicate where those river systems meet. The country is suitable for rice tillage.
In the due north and the southeast the land is more hilly and dry, and tea is grown. The Chittagong Loma Tracts accept extensive hardwood forests. The vast river delta area is dwelling house to the dominant plains culture. The hilly areas of the northeast and southeast are occupied past much smaller tribal groups, many of which have strongly resisted domination by the national authorities and the population force per unit area from Bangladeshis who move into and try to settle in their traditional areas. In 1998 an accord was reached between the armed tribal group Shanti Bahini and the government.
Demography. Bangladesh is the most densely populated nonisland nation in the earth. With approximately 125 million inhabitants living in an area of 55,813 foursquare miles, in that location are about 2,240 persons per square mile. The majority of the population (98 percent) is Bengali, with 2 percent belonging to tribal or other not-Bengali groups. Approximately 83 per centum of the population is Muslim, sixteen percent is Hindu, and 1 percentage is Buddhist, Christian, or other. Annual population growth rate is at nearly two per centum.
Infant bloodshed is approximately seventy-five per one thousand live births. Life expectancy for both men and women is fifty-viii years, all the same the sex ratios for cohorts higher up sixty years of age are skewed toward males. Girls between one and four years of age are almost twice as likely every bit boys to die.
In the early 1980s the almanac rate of population increase was above 2.5 pct, but in the tardily 1990s it decreased to 1.9 percent. The success of population command may be due to the demographic transition (decreasing nascency and decease rates), decreasing farm sizes, increasing urbanization, and national campaigns to control fertility (funded largely by other nations).
Linguistic Affiliation. The principal linguistic communication is Bangla, chosen Bengali by nigh nonnatives, an Indo-European language spoken not merely by Bangladeshis, merely too by people who are culturally Bengali. This includes about 300 million people from Bangladesh, West Bengal, and Bihar, besides as Bengali speakers in other Indian states. The linguistic communication dates from well before the nativity of Christ. Bangla varies by region, and people may not understand the language of a person from another district. Notwithstanding, differences in dialect consist primarily of slight differences in emphasis or pronunciation and small-scale grammatical usages.
Language differences mirror social and religious divisions. Bangla is divided into two fairly distinct forms: sadhu basha, learned or formal linguistic communication, and cholit basha, common language. Sadhu basha is the language of the literate tradition, formal essays
People's republic of bangladesh
and poesy, and the well educated. Cholit basha is the spoken vernacular, the linguistic communication of the great majority of Bengalis. Cholit basha is the medium past which the corking majority of people communicate in a land in which l per centum of men and 26 per centum of women are literate. There are as well pocket-size usage variations between Muslims and Hindus, along with minor vocabulary differences.
Symbolism. The most of import symbol of national identity is the Bangla linguistic communication. The flag is a dark green rectangle with a red circle just left of eye. Greenish symbolizes the trees and fields of the countryside; red represents the ascension sun and the blood spilled in the 1971 war for liberation. The national anthem was taken from a poem past Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore and links a love of the natural realm and land with the national identity.
Since independence in 1971, the national identity has evolved. Islamic religious identity has become an increasingly of import element in the national dialogue. Many Islamic holy days are nationally celebrated, and Islam pervades public space and the media.
History and Ethnic Relations
Emergence of the Nation. The cosmos of the independent nation represents the triumph of ethnic and cultural politics. The region that is now Bangladesh has been part of a number of of import political entities, including Indian empires, Buddhist kingdoms, the Moghul empire, the British empire and the Pakistani nation.
Until 1947 People's republic of bangladesh was known as Eastward Bengal province and had been part of Great britain's India property since the 1700s. In 1947, Uk, in conjunction with India'south leading indigenous political organizations, partitioned the Indian colony into Republic of india and Pakistan. The province of Eastward Bengal was made part of Islamic republic of pakistan and was referred to as Due east Pakistan. Westward Pakistan was carved from the northwest provinces of the British Indian empire. This segmentation of territory represented an attempt to create a Muslim nation on Hindu Republic of india's peripheries. However, the west and eastward wings of Pakistan were separated past more than 1,000 miles of Republic of india, creating cultural discontinuity betwixt the 2 wings. The ethnic groups of Pakistan and the Indian Muslims who left Bharat subsequently segmentation were greatly different in language and way of life from the old East Bengalis: Due west Pakistan was more oriented toward the Middle Eastward and Arab Islamic influence than was Eastward Pakistan, which independent Hindu, Buddhist, Islamic, and British cultural influences.
From the commencement of Pakistan's creation, the Bengali population in the east was more numerous than the Pakistani population in the western fly, yet West Pakistan became the seat of government and controlled nearly all national resources. West Pakistanis generally viewed Bengalis as inferior, weak, and less Islamic. From 1947 to 1970, West Pakistan reluctantly gave in to Bengali calls for power within the government, armed forces, and civil service, just increasing social unrest in the east led to a perception among regime officials that the people of Bengal were unruly and untrust worthy "Hinduized" citizens. Successive Pakistani regimes, increasingly concerned with consolidating their ability over the entire country, often criticized the Hindu minority in Bengal. This was axiomatic in Prime number Minister Nazimuddin's attempt in 1952 to brand Urdu, the predominant linguistic communication of West Pakistan, the country linguistic communication. The effect in the east was to energize opposition movements, radicalize students at Dhaka University, and give new meaning to a Bengali identity that stressed the cultural unity of the east instead of a pan-Islamic brotherhood.
Through the 1960s, the Bengali public welcomed a message that stressed the uniqueness of Bengali culture, and this formed the basis for calls for self-conclusion or autonomy. In the late 1960s, the Pakistani government attempted to fore-stall scheduled elections. The elections were held on 7 December 1970, and Pakistanis voted straight for members of the National Associates.
The Awami League, led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was largely a Bengali party which called for autonomy for the e. Sheikh Mujib wanted to reconfigure Islamic republic of pakistan every bit a confederation of two equal partners. His party won 1 of 162 seats in the Due east Pakistan provincial assembly and 160 of the three hundred seats in the National Associates. The Awami League would command national politics and take the ability to name the prime government minister. President Yahya, all the same, postponed the convening of the National Associates to prevent a Bengali power grab. In response, Sheikh Mujib and the Awami League led civil disobedience in Due east Pakistan. West Pakistan began to move more troops into the east, and on 25 March 1971, the Pakistani army carried out a systematic execution of several hundred people, arrested Mujib, and transported him to the westward. On 26 March the Awami League declared E Pakistan an independent nation, and past April the Bengalis were in open conflict with the Pakistani war machine.
In a 10-month war of liberation, Bangladeshi units called Mukhti Bahini (freedom fighters), largely trained and armed by Indian forces, battled Pakistani troops throughout the country in guerrilla skirmishes. The Pakistanis systematically sought out political opponents and executed Hindu men on sight. Close to 10 million people fled Bangladesh for West Bengal, in India. In early December 1971, the Indian army entered Bangladesh, engaged Pakistani military forces with the help of the Mukhti Bahini, and in a ten-twenty-four hour period period subdued the Pakistani forces. On 16 December the Pakistani military surrendered. In January 1972, Mujib was released from confinement and became the prime minister of Bangladesh.
People's republic of bangladesh was founded every bit a "autonomous, secular, socialist country," but the new state represented the triumph of a Bangladeshi Muslim civilization and language. The administration degenerated into abuse, and Mujib attempted to create a one-party state. On 15 August 1975 he was assassinated, forth with much of his family, past army officers. Since that fourth dimension, Bangladesh has been both less socialistic and less secular.
Full general Ziaur Rahman became martial law administrator in December 1976 and president in 1977. On 30 May 1981, Zia was assassinated by army officers. His dominion had been fierce and repressive, merely he had improved national economy. Afterward a short-lived civilian government, a anemic insurrection placed Army main of staff General Mohammed Ershad in part as martial police force ambassador; he subsequently became president. Civilian opposition increased, and the Awami League, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), and the religious fundamentalist party Jamaat-i-Islami united in a seven-year serial of crippling strikes. In December 1990, Ershad was forced to resign.
A caretaker government held national elections early in 1991. The BNP, headed by Khaleda Zia, widow of former President Zia, formed a authorities in an brotherhood with the Jamaat-i-Islami. Political factionalism intensified over the next five years, and on 23 June 1996, the Awami League took control of Parliament. At its head was Sheikh Hasina Wazed, the daughter of Sheikh Mujib.
National Identity. Bangladeshi national identity is rooted in a Bengali culture that transcends international borders and includes the surface area of Bangladesh itself and West Bengal, India. Symbolically, Bangladeshi identity is centered on the 1971 struggle for independence from Pakistan. During that struggle, the primal elements of Bangladeshi identity coalesced around the importance of the Bengali female parent tongue and the distinctiveness of a culture or way of life continued to the floodplains of the region. Since that fourth dimension, national identity has go increasingly linked to Islamic symbols as opposed to the Hindu Bengali, a fact that serves to reinforce the difference between Hindu West Bengal and Islamic People's republic of bangladesh. Existence Bangladeshi in some sense ways feeling connected to the natural land–h2o systems of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and other rivers that drain into the Bay of Bengal. In that location is an envisioning of nature and the annual bike every bit intensely cute, every bit deep green paddy turns
A man eating a meal on his houseboat in Sunderbans National Park. Fish and rice are a mutual part of the diet.
golden, night clouds heavy with monsoon rains gradually clear, and flooded fields dry. Even urban families retain a sense of connectedness to this rural system. The great poets of the region, Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nurul Islam have enshrined the Bengali sense of the beauty and ability of the region's nature.
Ethnic Relations. The most significant social divide is between Muslims and Hindus. In 1947 millions of Hindus moved w into West Bengal, while millions of Muslims moved east into the newly created Eastward Pakistan. Violence occurred every bit the columns of people moved past each other. Today, in virtually sections of the country, Hindus and Muslims alive peacefully in adjacent areas and are connected by their economic roles and structures. Both groups view themselves as members of the same civilisation.
From 1976 to 1998 there was sustained cultural disharmonize over the control of the southeastern Chittagong Hill Tracts. That area is dwelling to a number of tribal groups that resisted the motion of Bangladeshi Muslims into their territory. In 1998, a peace accord granted those groups a degree of autonomy and self-governance. These tribal groups still do not identify themselves with the national culture.
Urbanism, Architecture, and the Use of Space
Bangladesh is however primarily a rural culture, and the gram or village is an of import spatial and cultural concept even for residents of the major cities. Most people identify with a natal or ancestral village in the countryside.
Houses in villages are commonly rectangular, and are dried mud, bamboo, or cherry-red brick structures with thatch roofs. Many are built on height of earthen or wooden platforms to keep them to a higher place the flood line. Houses have picayune interior decoration, and wall infinite is reserved for storage. Furniture is minimal, often consisting only of depression stools. People slumber on thin bamboo mats. Houses have verandas in the front end, and much of daily life takes identify under their eaves rather than indoors. A separate smaller mud or bamboo construction serves as a kitchen ( rana ghor ), but during the dry season many women construct hearths and cook in the household courtyard. Rural houses are unproblematic and functional, only are not generally considered aesthetic showcases.
The village household is a patrilineal extended compound linked to a pond used for daily household needs, a nearby river that provides fish, copse that provide fruit (mango and jackfruit especially), and rice fields. The village and the household not only embody important natural motifs but serve as the locus of bequeathed family unit identity. Urban dwellers effort to brand at least one trip per year to "their hamlet."
Architectural styles in the cities evidence numerous historical influences, including Moghul and Islamic motifs with curved arches, windows, and minarets, and foursquare British colonial wood and concrete construction. The National Parliament building (Shongshad Bhabon) in Dhaka, designed by the American architect Louis Kahn, reflects a synthesis of western modernity and curved Islamic-influenced spaces. The National Monument in Savar, a wide-based spire that becomes narrower as information technology rises, is the symbol of the country'southward liberation.
Considering of the population density, space is at a premium. People of the same sex interact closely, and touching is common. On public transportation strangers often are pressed together for long periods. In public spaces, women are constrained in their movements and they rarely enter the public sphere unaccompanied. Men are much more complimentary in their movement. The rules regarding the gender differential in the use of public space are less closely adhered to in urban areas than in rural areas.
Food and Economy
Nutrient in Daily Life. Rice and fish are the foundation of the diet; a day without a repast with rice is nearly inconceivable. Fish, meats, poultry, and vegetables are cooked in spicy back-scratch ( torkari ) sauces that incorporate cumin, coriander, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, and other spices. Muslims do not consume pork and Hindus do not consume beefiness. Increasingly common is the training of ruti, a whole wheat round flatbread, in the morning, which is eaten with curries from the night before. Also of import to the diet is dal, a thin soup based on ground lentils, chickpeas, or other legumes that is poured over rice. A sweet homemade yogurt commonly finishes a repast. A typical meal consists of a large bowl of rice to which is added modest portions of fish and vegetable curries. Breakfast is the meal that varies the most, existence rice- or bread-based. A favorite breakfast dish is panthabhat, leftover cold rice in water or milk mixed with gur (appointment palm sugar). Nutrient is eaten with the right hand by mixing the curry into the rice so gathering portions with the fingertips. In city restaurants that cater to foreigners, people may use silverware.
Three meals are consumed daily. Water is the nigh common beverage. Before the meal, the right hand is washed with water above the eating basin. With the make clean knuckles of the right hand the interior of the bowl is rubbed, the water is discarded, and the basin is filled with food. After the meal, one washes the right hand again, belongings it over the emptied bowl.
Snacks include fruits such equally assistant, mango, and jackfruit, besides as puffed rice and small fried food items. For many men, specially in urbanized regions and bazaars, no twenty-four hours is complete without a loving cup of sweet tea with milk at a small tea stall, sometimes accompanied past confections.
Food Customs at Ceremonial Occasions. At weddings and on important holidays, food plays an important role. At holiday or formal functions, guests are encouraged to consume to their capacity. At weddings, a common nutrient is biryani, a rice dish with lamb or beef and a blend of spices, especially saffron. On special occasions, the rice used is 1 of the effectively, thinner-grained types. If biryani is not eaten, a complete multicourse meal is served: foods are brought out sequentially and added to one's rice bowl later the previous class is finished. A complete dinner may include chicken, fish, vegetable, caprine animal, or beefiness curries and dal. The last fleck of rice is finished with yogurt ( doi ).
On other important occasions, such equally the Eid holidays, a caprine animal or cow is slaughtered on the premises and curries are prepared from the fresh meat. Some of the meat is given to relatives and to the poor.
Bones Economy. With a per capita gross national product (GNP) of $350 and an overall GNP of $44 billion, Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the earth. The merely significant natural resource is natural gas.
Approximately 75 pct of the workforce is involved in agriculture, and fifteen per centum and 10 pct are employed in the service and industrial sectors, respectively. Bangladesh has been characterized as a nation of small, subsistence-based farmers, and nearly all people in rural areas are involved in the production or processing of agricultural goods. The majority of the rural population engages in agricultural product, primarily of rice, jute, pulses, wheat, and some vegetables. Virtually all agricultural output is consumed within the country, and grain must be imported. The large population places heavy demands on the nutrient-producing sectors of the economy. The majority of the labor involved in nutrient production is human- and beast-based. Relatively trivial agronomical export takes place.
A Bangladeshi man hanging fish to dry in the sun in Sunderbans. Bangladesh topography is predominantly a low-lying floodplain.
In the countryside, typically about ten villages are linked in a market arrangement that centers on a bazaar occurring at to the lowest degree once per week. On boutique days, villagers bring in agricultural produce or crafts such equally h2o pots to sell to town and metropolis agents. Farmers then visit kiosks to purchase spices, kerosene, soap, vegetables or fish, and salt.
Land Tenure and Property. With a population density of more than than two thousand per square mile, land tenure and belongings rights are critical aspects of survival. The boilerplate subcontract owner has less than three acres of state divided into a number of pocket-size plots scattered in different directions from the household. Property is sold merely in cases of family emergency, since agricultural land is the primary means of survival. Ordinarily, among Muslims state is inherited every bit past a household caput'southward sons, despite Islamic laws that specify shares for daughters and wives. Among Hindu farmers inheritance practices are similar. When agricultural land is partitioned, each plot is divided amidst a human being's sons, ensuring that each one has a geographically dispersed belongings. The only sections of rural areas that are not privately endemic are rivers and paths.
Commercial Activities. In rural areas Hindus perform much of the traditional craft production of items for everyday life; caste groups include weavers, potters, atomic number 26 and gilded smiths, and carpenters. Some of these groups have been greatly reduced in number, particularly weavers, who have been replaced past gear up-made clothing produced primarily in Dhaka.
Agronomics accounts for 25 percent of GDP. The major crops are rice, jute, wheat, tea, sugarcane, and vegetables.
Major Industries. In recent years industrial growth has occurred primarily in the garment and textile industries. Jute processing and jute production fabrication remain major industries. Overall, industry accounted for virtually 28 per centum of gross domestic product (GDP) in 1998.
Merchandise. Exports totaled $4.4 billion in 1996, with the United States consuming one-third of those exports. Primary export markets are for jute (used in rug backing, burlap, and rope), fish, garments, and textiles. Imports totaled $7.ane billion and largely consisted of majuscule goods, grains, petroleum, and chemicals. The country relies on an annual arrival of at least $1 billion from international sources, not including the humanitarian assistance that is part of the national economical system. Agriculture deemed for nearly 25 per centum of the GDP in 1998.
Transporting straw on the Ganges River Delta. The majority of Bangladeshi, about 75 percent, are agricultural workers.
Division of Labor. The division of labor is based on age and education. Young children are economically productive in rural areas, hauling h2o, watching animals, and helping with postharvest processing. The primary agricultural tasks, all the same, are performed past men. Education allows an individual to seek employment exterior the agricultural sector, although the opportunities for educated young men in rural areas are extremely express. A service or industry chore often goes to the individual who can offering the highest bribe to visitor officials.
Social Stratification
Classes and Castes. The Muslim class organization is similar to a caste structure. The ashraf is a small upperclass of former-coin descendants of early Muslim officials and merchants whose roots are in Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, Turkey, and Iran. Some ashraf families trace their lineage to the Prophet Mohammed. The residue of the population is conceived of every bit the indigenous majority atraf. This stardom mirrors the Hindu separation between the Brahman and those in lower castes. While both Muslim and Hindu categories are recognized past educated people, the vast majority of citizens envision class in a more localized, rural context.
In rural areas, form is linked to the amount of land owned, occupation, and educational activity. A landowner with more v acres is at the top of the socioeconomic calibration, and small subsistence farmers are in the middle. At the bottom of the scale are the landless rural households that account for virtually 30 percent of the rural population. Landowning status reflects socioeconomic class position in rural areas, although occupation and education besides play a function. The virtually highly educated people agree positions requiring literacy and mathematical skills, such as in banks and government offices, and are generally accorded a higher condition than are farmers. Pocket-sized businessmen may earn as much as those who take jobs requiring an education but take a lower social status.
Hindu castes likewise play a role in the rural economy. Hindu groups are involved in the hereditary occupations that fill the economic niches that support a farming-based economy. Minor numbers of college caste groups have remained in the country, and some of those people are large landowners, businessmen, and service providers.
In urban areas the corking majority of people are laborers. In that location is a heart class of small businessmen and midlevel function workers, and higher up this is an emerging entrepreneurial group and upper-level service workers.
Symbols of Social Stratification. Ane of the most obvious symbols of grade status is dress. The traditional garment for men is the lungi, a cloth tube skirt that hangs to the ankles; for women, the sari is the norm. The lungi is worn past about men, except those who consider themselves to have high socioeconomic status, amid whom pants and shirt are worn. Besides indicative of high standing are loose white cotton pajama pants and a long white shirt. White clothes among men symbolizes an occupation that does not crave physical labor. A man with high continuing will non exist seen physically conveying anything; that job is left to an assistant or laborer. Saris likewise serve as course markers, with elaborate and finely worked cloth symbolizing high condition. Poverty is marked past the cheap, rough green or indigo cotton wool cloth saris of poor women. Gold jewelry indicates a high social standing among women.
A physical-faced house and a ceramic tile roof provide evidence of wealth. An auto is well beyond the means of most people, and a motorcycle is a sign of status. Color televisions, telephones, and electricity are other symbols associated with wealth.
Political Life
Government. The People's Democracy of People's republic of bangladesh is a parliamentary democracy that includes a president, a prime government minister, and a unicameral parliament ( Jayitya Shongshod ). Three hundred members of parliament are elected to the 330-seat legislature in local elections held every five years. Thirty seats are reserved for women members of parliament. The prime minister, who is appointed past the president, must accept the back up of a majority of parliament members. The president is elected by the parliament every five years to that largely ceremonial post. The land is divided into four divisions, xx districts, subdistricts, union parishads, and villages. In local politics, the most of import political level is the union in rural areas; in urban regions, it is the municipality ( pourashava ). Members are elected locally, and campaigning is extremely competitive.
Leadership and Political Officials. There are more than l political parties. Party adherence extends from the national level down to the village, where factions with links to the national parties vie for local control and help solve local disputes. Leaders at the local level are socioeconomically well-off individuals who gain respect within the party structure, are charismatic, and take stiff kinship ties. Local leaders draw and maintain supporters, particularly at election fourth dimension, by offering tangible, relatively small rewards.
The dominant political parties are the Awami League (AL), the BNP, the Jatiya Party (JP), and the Jamaat-i-Islami (JI). The Awami League is a secular-oriented, formerly socialist-leaning political party. It is not stringently anti-India, is fairly liberal with regard to indigenous and religious groups, and supports a free-market economy. The BNP, headed past erstwhile Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, is less secular, more explicitly Islamic in orientation, and more anti-India. The JP is close to the BNP in overall orientation, only pushed through a beak in Parliament that fabricated Islam the country organized religion in 1988. The JI emphasizes Islam, Koranic law, and connections to the Arab Eye East.
Social Issues and Control. Legal procedures are based on the English language common-police force system, and supreme court justices and lower-level judges are appointed by the president. District courts at the district capitals are the closest formal venues for legal proceedings arising from local disputes. There are police forces only in the cities and towns. When in that location is a severe conflict or crime in rural areas, it may take days for the police to arrive.
In rural areas, a slap-up bargain of social control takes place informally. When a criminal is caught, justice may exist apportioned locally. In the case of minor theft, a thief may exist beaten by a crowd. In serious disputes between families, heads of the involved kinship groups or local political leaders negotiate and the offending political party is required to make restitution in coin and/or land. Police force may be paid to ensure that they exercise non investigate. Nonviolent disputes over holding or rights may be decided through hamlet councils ( panchayat ) headed past the nearly respected heads of the strongest kinship groups. When arbitration or negotiation fails, the police may be chosen in and formal legal proceedings may brainstorm. People do not conceive of the informal procedures as taking the law into their own easily.
Military Activity. The military has played an active part in the development of the political structure and climate of the country since its inception and has been a source of construction during crises. It has been involved in two coups since 1971. The only real conflict the ground forces has encountered was sporadic fighting with the Shakti Bahini in the Chittagong Hill Tracts from the mid-1970s until 1998, after which an accord between the authorities and those tribal groups was produced.
Route workers undertake structure work in Decca. Laborers make up the vast majority of workers in urban areas.
Social Welfare and Alter Programs
People's republic of bangladesh is awash in social change programs sponsored past international organizations such as the Un, the Earth Bank, Intendance, USAID, and other nations' evolution agencies. Those organizations support project areas such as population control, agricultural and economic development, urban poverty, ecology conservation, and women's economic evolution.
Nongovernmental Organizations and Other Associations
The Grameen Bank created the popular microcredit practice, which has given the poor, especially poor women, access to credit. This model is based on creating small circles of people who know and can influence each other to pay back loans. When one fellow member has repaid a loan, another fellow member of the group becomes eligible to receive credit. Other nongovernmental organizations include the Bangladesh Rural Advocacy Committee, Probashi, and Aat Din.
Gender Roles and Statuses
Division of Labor by Gender. Women traditionally are in accuse of household affairs and are non encouraged to move outside the immediate neighborhood unaccompanied. Thus, most women'southward economic and social lives revolve around the dwelling, children, and family. Islamic practice reserves prayer inside the mosque for males just; women practice religion within the home. People's republic of bangladesh has had two female prime ministers since 1991, both elected with widespread popular support, only women are not more often than not publicly agile in politics.
Men are expected to exist the heads of their households and to work outside the dwelling. Men frequently practise the majority of the shopping, since that requires interaction in crowded markets. Men spend a lot of time socializing with other men outside the dwelling house.
The Relative Status of Women and Men. The society is patriarchal in nearly every surface area of life, although some women have accomplished significant positions of political power at the national level. For ordinary women, move is confined, education is stressed less than it is for men, and authorization is reserved for a woman's father, older brother, and hubby.
Matrimony, Family, and Kinship
Wedlock. Marriage is about always an arranged affair and takes place when the parents, particularly the male parent, decide that a child should be married. Men ally typically around age twenty-5 or older, and women marry between ages xv and twenty; thus the husband is unremarkably at least 10 years older than the wife. Muslims permit polygynous matrimony, just its occurrence is rare and is dependent on a homo'due south ability to back up multiple households.
A parent who decides that a child is fix to marry may contact agencies, become-betweens, relatives, and friends to detect an appropriate mate. Of immediate concern are the status and characteristics of the potential in-law'south family. Generally an equal lucifer is sought in terms of family economical condition, educational background, and piousness. A father may let his child to cull among 5 or half-dozen potential mates, providing the kid with the relevant data on each candidate. It is customary for the child to rule out conspicuously unacceptable candidates, leaving a slate of candidates from which the begetter can cull. An arrangement betwixt two families may be sealed with an agreement on a dowry and the types of gifts to be made to the groom. Among
The Sitara (star) mosque in Dacca. Organized religion plays a fundamental role in society, and almost every village has a mosque.
the educated the dowry practise is no longer prevalent.
Divorce is a source of social stigma. A Muslim human being may initiate a divorce by stating "I divorce you" iii times, merely very strong family pressure level commonly ensures that divorces do not occur. A divorce can exist most difficult for the woman, who must render to her parent'south household.
Domestic Unit. The most common unit of measurement is the patrilineally-related extended family living in a household called a barhi. A barhi is composed of a husband and wife, their unmarried children, and their developed sons with their wives and children. Grandparents as well may exist present, as well as patrilineally-related brothers, cousins, nieces, and nephews. The oldest homo is the authority effigy, although the oldest woman may exert considerable dominance within the household. A barhi in rural areas is composed of three or iv houses which face up each other to form a square courtyard in which common tasks are done. Nutrient supplies often are shared, and young couples must contribute their earnings to the household caput. Cooking, all the same, often is done inside the constituent nuclear family units.
Inheritance. Islamic inheritance rules specify that a daughter should receive 1-half the share of a son. However, this do is rarely followed, and upon a household head's death, property is divided equally amongst his sons. Daughters may receive produce and gifts from their brothers when they visit as "bounty" for their lack of an inheritance. A widow may receive a share of her husband's belongings, but this is rare. Sons, however, are custom-bound to care for their mothers, who retain pregnant power over the rest of the household.
Kin Groups. The patrilineal descent principle is important, and the lineage is very often localized within a geographic neighborhood in which it constitutes a majority. Lineage members can exist chosen on in times of fiscal crisis, particularly when support is needed to settle local disputes. Lineages do non meet regularly or control group resource.
Socialization
Infant Care. About women requite nascence in their natal households, to which they return when childbirth is most. A husband is sent a bulletin when the child is born. 5 or seven days after the nascence the husband and his shut male person relatives visit the newborn, and a feast and ritual haircutting accept place. The newborn is given an amulet that is tied effectually the waist, its eye sockets may be blackened with soot or makeup, and a small soot mark is applied to the infant'due south forehead and the sole of the foot for protection against spirits. Newborns and infants are seldom left unattended. Virtually infants are in constant contact with their mothers, other women, or the daughters in the household. Since well-nigh all women breastfeed, infant and female parent sleep within close accomplish. Infants' needs are attended to constantly; a crying infant is given attending immediately.
Child Rearing and Education. Children are raised within the extended family and learn early that individual desires are secondary to the needs of the family group. Post-obit orders is expected on the basis of age; an developed or older kid's commands must exist obeyed as a sign of respect. Child care falls primarily to household women and their daughters. Boys accept more than latitude for motion outside the household.
Betwixt ages five and 10, boys undergo a circumcision ( musulmani ), unremarkably during the cool months. There is no comparable ritual for girls, and the menarche is not publicly marked.
Nigh children begin school at historic period v or six, and attendance tends to drop off as children get more productive within the household (female) and agronomical economic system (male). Near 75 percent of children attend primary schoolhouse. The college a family unit'due south socioeconomic status, the more than likely it is for both boys and girls to terminate their primary educations. Relatively few families tin beget to send their children to college (nearly 17 pct), and fifty-fifty fewer children attend a university. Those who enter a university usually come up from relatively well-off families. While school attendance drops off overall as the grades increase, females stop attending school earlier than practice males.
Higher Educational activity. Great value is placed on higher education, and those who have university degrees and professional qualifications are accorded loftier status. In rural areas the opportunities for individuals with such feel are limited; thus, nigh educated people are concentrated in urban areas.
Bangladesh has a number of excellent universities in its largest urban areas that offering both undergraduate through mail-graduate degrees. The about prominent universities, nigh of which are state supported, include: Dhaka Academy, Rajshahi University, Chittagong University, Jahngirnagar Academy, Bangladesh University of Applied science and Technology, and Bangladesh Agricultural University. Contest for university access is intense (especially at Dhaka University) and admission is dependent on scores received on loftier schoolhouse examinations held annually, as in the British arrangement
A young daughter makes matchboxes in the slums of Khulna. There is a marked split betwixt rich and poor in most of the country.
of educational activity. University life in Bangladesh can be difficult. A four-year caste may really crave 5 to eight years to complete due to frequent university closings. The student bodies and faculties of universities are heavily politicized along national political political party lines. Protests, strikes, and sporadic political party-based violence are common, equally student groups play out national political agendas on their campuses and vie for members. Almost every academy student finds information technology easier to survive the system past condign a member of the pupil wing of a political party.
While the universities are the scenes of political struggle, they are also centers of intellectual and cultural creativity. Students may obtain first-class training in all fields, including the arts, police force, medicine, and engineering. Universities are also somewhat like islands where some of the ordinary rules of social interaction are relaxed. For example, male– female interaction on campuses is more open and less monitored than in society as a whole. Trip the light fantastic toe and theater presentations are common, as are academic debates.
Etiquette
Personal interaction is initiated with the greeting Assalam Waleykum ("peace be with y'all"), to which the required response is, Waleykum Assalam ("and with yous"). Amongst Hindus, the right greeting is Nomoshkar, as the hands are brought together under the chin. Men may shake hands if they are of equal condition but do not grasp hands firmly. Respect is expressed after a handshake past placing the correct hand over the heart. Men and women practice not shake easily with each other. In same-sex conversation, touching is mutual and individuals may stand or sit very shut. The closer individuals are in terms of status, the closer their spatial interaction is. Get out-taking is sealed with the phrase Khoda Hafez.
Differences in age and status are marked through language conventions. Individuals with higher status are not addressed by personal proper name; instead, a championship or kinship term is used.
Visitors are always asked to sit, and if no chairs are available, a low stool or a bamboo mat is provided. Information technology is considered improper for a visitor to sit on the floor or footing. It is incumbent on the host to offer guests something to eat.
In crowded public places that provide services, such as train stations, the mail office, or bazaars, queuing is non adept and receiving service is dependent on pushing and maintaining 1's identify inside the throng. Open staring is not considered impolite.
Religion
Religious Beliefs. The symbols and sounds of Islam, such every bit the telephone call to prayer, punctuate daily life. Bangladeshis conceptualize themselves and others fundamentally through their religious heritage. For example, the nationality of foreigners is considered secondary to their religious identity.
Islam is a part of everyday life in all parts of the country, and nearly every hamlet has at to the lowest degree a pocket-size mosque and an imam (cleric). Prayer is supposed to be performed v times daily, but only the committed uphold that standard. Friday afternoon prayer is often the just time that mosques become crowded.
Throughout the state there is a belief in spirits that inhabit natural spaces such as trees, hollows, and riverbanks. These beliefs are derided by Islamic religious authorities.
Hinduism encompasses an array of deities, including Krishna, Ram, Durga, Kali, and Ganesh. Bangladeshi Hindus pay particular attending to the female goddess Durga, and rituals devoted to her are among the most widely celebrated.
Religious Practitioners. The imam is associated with a mosque and is an important person in both rural and urban society, leading a grouping of followers. The imam's ability is based on his noesis of the Koran and memorization of phrases in Standard arabic. Relatively few imams understand Arabic in the spoken or written form. An imam's power is based on his ability to persuade groups of men to human action in conjunction with Islamic rules. In many villages the imam is believed to have access to the supernatural, with the ability to write charms that protect individuals from evil spirits, imbue liquids with holy healing properties, or ward off or opposite of bad luck.
Brahman priests perform rituals for the Hindu community during the major festivals when offerings are made only too in daily acts of worship. They are respected, but Hinduism does not have the codified hierarchical structure of Islam. Thus, a Brahman priest may not accept a position of leadership exterior his religious duties.
Rituals and Holy Places. The chief Islamic holidays in Bangladesh include: Eid-ul-Azha (the tenth mean solar day of the Muslim month Zilhaj ), in which a goat or cow is sacrificed in laurels of Allah; Shob-i-Barat (the fourteenth or fifteenth 24-hour interval of Shaban ), when Allah records an individual's future for the rest of the year; Ramadan (the calendar month Ramzan ), a month-long menses of fasting betwixt dawn and sunset; Eid-ul-Fitr (the first day of the month Shawal, following the end of Ramzan ), characterized by alms giving to the poor; and Shob-i-Meraz (the twenty-7th day of Rajab ), which commemorates the nighttime when Mohammed ascended to heaven. Islamic holidays are publicly celebrated in afternoon prayers at mosques and outdoor open areas, where many men assemble and movement through their prayers in unison.
Among the most important Hindu celebrations are Saraswati Puja (February), dedicated to the deity Saraswati, who takes the form of a swan. She is the patron of learning, and propitiating her is of import for students. Durga Puja (Oct) pays homage to the female warrior goddess Durga, who has ten arms, carries a sword, and rides a lion. After a nine-day festival, images of Durga and her associates are placed in a procession and fix into a river. Kali Puja (November) is also called the Festival of Lights and honors Kali, a female deity who has the ability to give and accept away life. Candles are lit in and effectually homes.
A young Bengali woman performs a traditional Manipuri dance. Almost all traditional dancers are women.
Other Hindu and Islamic rituals are celebrated in villages and neighborhoods and are dependent on important family unit or local traditions. Celebrations take place at many local shrines and temples.
Decease and the Afterlife. Muslims believe that later death the soul is judged and moves to heaven or hell. Funerals require that the trunk be washed, the nostrils and ears be plugged with cotton or cloth, and the body be wrapped in a white shroud. The body is cached or entombed in a brick or concrete structure. In Hinduism, reincarnation is expected and one'south actions throughout life make up one's mind one's future lives. As the family unit mourns and shut relatives shave their heads, the torso is transported to the funeral ghat (banking company along a river), where prayers are recited. The trunk is to be placed on a pyre and cremated, and the ashes are thrown into the river.
Medicine and Health Care
The pluralistic health care system includes healers such as physicians, nonprofessionally trained doctors, Aryuvedic practitioners, homeopaths, fakirs, and naturopaths. In rural areas, for non-life-threatening acute conditions, the type of healer consulted depends largely on local reputation. In many places, the patient consults a homeopath or a nonprofessional doctor who is familiar with local remedies as well as modern medical practices. Professional person physicians are consulted past the educated and by those who have not received relief from other sources. Ordinarily, people pursue alternative treatments simultaneously, visiting a fakir for an amulet, an imam for blessed oil, and a physician for medicine.
A nationally run organization of public hospitals provides free service. However, prescriptions and some medical supplies are the responsibleness of patients and their families.
Aryuvedic beliefs based on humoral theories are common among both Hindus and Muslims. These beliefs are ordinarily expressed through the categorization of the inherent hot or cold properties of foods. An imbalance in hot or cold food intake is believed to lead to sickness. Health is restored when this imbalance is counteracted through dietary means.
Secular Celebrations
Ekushee (21 February), besides called Shaheed Dibash, is the National Day of Martyrs commemorating those who died defending the Bangla language in 1952. Political speeches are held, and a memorial service takes place at the Shaheed Minar (Martyr's Monument) in Dhaka. Shadheenata Dibash, or Independence Day (26 March), marks the 24-hour interval when Bangladesh declared itself separate from Islamic republic of pakistan. The event is marked with war machine parades and political speeches. Poila Boishakh, the Bengali New year, is historic on the first day of the calendar month of Boishakh (more often than not in April). Poetry readings and musical events take place. May Solar day (1 May) celebrates labor and workers with speeches and cultural events. Bijoy Dibosh, or Victory Day (16 December), commemorates the solar day in 1971 when Pakistani forces surrendered to a joint Bangladeshi–Indian force. Cultural and political events are held.
The Arts and Humanities
Support for the Arts. Artists are largely self-supporting. The Bangla Academy in Dhaka provides support for some artists, particularly writers and poets. Many artists sell aesthetic works that have utilitarian functions.
Literature. Virtually people, regardless of their degree of literacy, can recite more than than one poem with dramatic inflection. Best known are the works of the two poet–heroes of the region: Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nurul Islam. Tagore was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913. Although from Westward Bengal, he is respected as a Bengali who championed the preservation of Bangla language and culture. His poem "Aureate Bengal" was adopted as the national anthem.
The most famous contemporary writer is Taslima Nasreen, whose novellas and essays question the Islamic justification for the customary treatment of women. Conservative religious regime have tried to have her arrested and take called for her death for blasphemy. She lives in exile.
Graphic Arts. Nigh graphic arts autumn within the domain of traditional production past Hindu caste groups. The most pervasive art form throughout the land is pottery, including water jugs and bowls of scarlet clay, often with a blood-red slip and incising. Some Hindu sculptors produce brightly painted works depicting Durga and other deities. Drawing and painting are most visible on the backs of rickshaws and the wooden sides of trucks.
Functioning Arts. Bengali music encompasses a number of traditions and mirrors some of the country's poetry. The most common instruments are the harmonium, the tabla, and the sitar. Generally, classical musicians are adept at the rhythms and melodic backdrop associated with Hindu and Urdu devotional music. More popular today are the secular male–female duets that accompany Bengali and Hindi films. These songs are rooted in the classical tradition but have a freer gimmicky melodic structure. Traditional dance is characterized by a rural thematic element with particular hand, foot, and head movements. Dance is virtually a female-only enterprise. Plays are traditionally an of import part of village life, and traveling shows stop throughout the countryside. Idiot box dramas portray family relationships, love, and economic reward and disadvantage. Plays in the cities, particularly in Dhaka, are attended by the educated immature.
The State of the Concrete and Social Sciences
Dhaka University offers courses in nearly bookish disciplines. Sciences such as physics and chemistry have very good programs, although in that location is a lack of up-to-date laboratories and equipment. In the social sciences, the field of economics is particularly strong, along with anthropology, sociology, and political scientific discipline. Many top students in the physical and social sciences study abroad, particularly in the U.s. and Europe. The top applied science program is at the Bangladesh Academy of Engineering and Technology. Electrical, sea/naval, civil, and mechanical applied science have very skillful programs. Education in figurer engineering is improving rapidly.
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—M ICHAEL S. H ARRIS , WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF Due east LIZABETH 50 LOYD
As well read article about Bangladesh from Wikipedia
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