MDG 3:  Promote Gender Equality and Empower Woman 

Disclaimer: Some of the MDG data presented in this website have been adjusted by the responsible specialized agencies to ensure international comparability, in compliance with their shared mandate to assess progress towards the MDGs at the regional and global levels.^[1] 

Indicators (United Nations)  

3.1  RATIOS OF GIRLS TO BOYS IN EDUCATION 

1. Primary  :
   1. 2000:
   2. 2005: 1.04^[2]
   3. 2008: 1.06^[3]
2. Secondary: 
   1. 2000: 1.02^[4]
   2. 2005: 1.06^[5]
   3. 2008:1.05^[6]
3. Tertiary:
   1. 2000: 0.49^[7]
   2. 2005: 0.52^[8]
   3. 2008: 0.55^[9]

Religious fundamentalism also restricts access to education for some groups in Bangladesh while fostering gender discrimination through differences in curriculum: “State funds for single sex madrassahs for Muslim girls foster gender discrimination through differentials in school curriculum and also exclude non-Muslim communities from educational opportunities.”^[10] 

Voices from the ground:

Videos:

a.    This video focuses on a woman in Bangladesh who could not attend school due to lack of transportation. She explains how the emergence of the boat schools for woman has allowed her daughter to overcome that barrier and gain an education. Watch the video

b.    This video highlights the stipend programme that the World Bank supported in 1993, helping families support their daughters have secondary school education. At the time this video was posted, in July 2007, there were more than 3.9 million Bengali girls in secondary school. Watch the video 

c.    This video focuses on an 11 year old girl, Halima who is not in school. Instead, she works at a garment making factory in Bangladesh, making clothes for an international clothing company, earning 6.20 dollars a day. Watch the video

 d.    What started as a demonstration against women's rights after Friday prayers, turned into a full blown riot, when the government’s plans to give women more rights in education, job opportunities as well as equal rights with men to inherit property. There were about a thousand protestors, most members of the Anti-Koran Law Resistance Committee, which advocates Sharia law, expressed their anger over the government's plans to give women more rights. Watch the video

News/MagazineArticles:

a.    This article by the Women News Network highlights how new, innovative learning centres are helping girls stay in school. Read it here

3.2 SHARE OF WOMEN IN WAGE EMPLOYMENT IN THE NON-AGRICULTURAL SECTOR

1. 2000: 24.7^[11]
2. 2005: 20.1 (total paid employment) ^[12] 
3. 2008:        

Critical Indicators to monitor labour force participation

      3.2.1 Labour Force Participation:

    Labour Force Participation:

1. Female Economic Activity rate: 52.7%^[13]
2. Change in Economic Activity Rate using index (1990 = 100) 2005: 83^[14]
3. As % of male rate 2005: 61%^[15]

Voices from the Ground

Videos:

a.    What started as a demonstration against women's rights after Friday prayers, turned into a full blown riot, when the government’s plans to give women more rights in education, job opportunities as well as equal rights with men to inherit property. There were about a thousand protestors, most members of the Anti-Koran Law Resistance Committee, which advocates Sharia law, expressed their anger over the government's plans to give women more rights. Watch the video

News/MagazineArticles:

a.    Both these articles highlight the leading Islamic seminary Darul Uloom Deoband’s view that women who work with men are un-Islamic where they "have to talk with men frankly and without veil" and, by implication, decreed that acceptance of the woman’s earnings by a family was against the Sharia. Read more.

       Article 1     Article 2    

 __________________________________________________________________________________________________________

1. 2000: 9.1^[16] (In 2004, the number of seats in parliament was raised from 300 to 345, with the addition of 45 reserved seats for women. These reserved seats were filled in September and October 2005, being allocated to political parties in proportion to their share of the national vote received in the 2001 election. The parliament was dissolved on 27 October 2006, in view of elections that were to take place. Women held 52 of the 345 seats (15%) in the outgoing parliament)
2. 2005: 2^[17]
3. 2010: 18.6^[18]   

The CEDAW shadow reports offer a glimpse of the multifarious challenges, both structural and social, which inhibit women’s political participation. Lack of political will in instituting measures which ensure women’s political participation is an issue. In Bangladesh, “No legislation has been introduced thus far for direct elections to a number of reserved seats, as demanded by women’s groups.. The Government has not adequately addressed the fact that women who occupy positions of political power suffer discrimination and harassment in a manner that can influence their abilities to carry out their responsibilities.. Insufficient efforts have been made to protect the voting rights of women... Lateral appointments of senior qualified women made in 1998 have been suspended.”^[19] 

Critical indicators to monitor women’s legislation

3.3.1 Laws on equality; protecting women from violence^[20]: 

a.    Domestic Violence:  Suppression of Violence Against Women and Children Act (2000)

b.    Anti-Rape: The penal code and the Prevention of Oppression Against Women and Children Act (2000) provide the legal framework for prosecuting crimes of rape

c.    Anti-Marital Rape: There are currently no anti-marital rape laws in Bangladesh

d.    Anti-Sexual Harassment: There are currently no anti-sexual harassment laws in Bangladesh

e.    Anti-Trafficking: Suppression of Violence Against Women and Children Act (2000)

Bangladesh (2000) passed these laws before 2004. These laws were battles hard-won by the persistent effort to advocate for and champion these laws into fruition.

Although laws on VAW exist, violence against women continues to be a serious problem in the region. The sheer number of women who face some form of violence in their lives is only as shocking as the range of forms of violence against women that emerge in reports.

In Bangladesh, according to Azim’s survey, “the most common forms of violence were identified respectively as torture for dowry and battering, threats, abduction, rape, trafficking, murder, abandonment, acid burn, burns from fire, 101 lashes or fatwa-related-community violence, and gouging eyes out of sockets. This data was not only based on newspaper reports, but also on records from State institutions such as the police, courts and hospital as well as a house-to-house survey in the capital city of Dhaka. In the survey, none of the women who reported violence reported going to State authorities for redress. Another interesting aspect of the finding was that in most cases women are acquainted with the men who attack them. Among the seventy-nine (79) women interviewed in the Dhaka Medical College Hospital, it was found that women could identify sixty-six (66) perpetrators (approximately 88% cases) whereas in contrast only eleven (11), or fourteen percent (14%) were unknown perpetrators. In two (2) cases no perpetrator could be gathered. Also it was found that younger women were more susceptible to being victims of violence. In a recent survey in the capital city of Dhaka, 60% of the eight hundred and thirty five randomly selected women interviewed reported life-time experiences of physical violence at the hands of their husbands. Respondents also reported 13% sexual abuse and 67% verbal abuse by their husbands. Physical violence included being pushed, shaken, having their hair pulled, hands twisted, slapped, beaten, kicked, grabbed by throat, attacked with knife and other instruments and burned. Sexual abuse was measured by only one item – husband’s deliberate attempts at physically hurting the woman during sexual intercourse. Verbal abuse included being ridiculed and shouted at by husband. The same questionnaire used in Naripokkho’s Pilot Study was used in the Rapid Assessment Study [by Siddiqi] where a total of two hundred and two (202) women were purposively selected for interviews. Of this sample, one hundred and two (102) were from urban and one hundred (100) from rural area were interviewed. Twenty-three percent (23%) respondents said they were regularly slapped by their husbands and 35% women said their husbands at some point in their lives had beaten them up. In contrast 3% women said they themselves have beaten their husbands (sometimes). 14% women said that their husbands regularly beat them. 20% women said that they have been thrown on the floor and then kicked by their husbands. Eighty-five (85) married women, i.e., 74% of the respondents reported they suffered physical violence on a regular basis. 4% of women have said that their husbands have threatened them with a knife. 13% of women have said that their husbands have tightened their hands around their throats. Nearly 5% of women say that their husbands have tried to burn them at some point. 21% of women said that during sexual relations their husbands purposely tried to hurt them. Existing literature [by Jahan and Sadi] reveals that younger women (below 30 years of age) are more likely to face family violence.”^[21] 

In Bangladesh, the Naripokkho Pilot Study on Violence against Women found that rape was the second most common form of violence in police First Information Reports of violence against women as well as the form of violence for which women are admitted to hospital for treatment. ASK documentation, shows that the majority of rape victims were young. i.e., 1345(66%) of total victims are below 25 years of age. Out of total 2045 victims, 39% were below 15 years of age indicating the extremely vulnerable position of girl children in Bangladesh. In 28% (567) cases age is not mentioned. Out of these total 2045 incidents, only 37% of the cases are filed. Although most institutional records show that younger women are more susceptible to rape a detailed look at institutional case records reveals that the age of women is not recorded in most court dockets. In the year 2000, the total number of rapes was five hundred and seventy-one (571) as reported in the daily news. Of these three hundred and two (302) cases involved the rape of minor girls and two hundred seventy-six cases (276) involved women above 18 years of age. In several incidents of rape there was more than one woman who was assaulted.Thus for 1519 incidents, the number of people assaulted were 1543. It is also noteworthy that these data do not reflect a major rise in the reporting of rape cases.^[22]