Rights, Roles, and Rural Realities: A Case Study on the Effects of Fatwa Decrees Against Women in Rural Bangladesh

Abstract This paper examines the relationship between gender, religion, and development within the context of illegal fatwas (i. e. religious edicts) affecting women in rural Bangladesh. Based on ethnographic fieldwork carried out in two districts in Bangladesh, this paper argues that biased fatwa decrees at the rural level against women are not simply the expression of traditional religious beliefs; social and cultural gender roles and perceptions defined through patriarchy must be taken into account. The advent of the women-centered development agenda in rural Bangladesh and the emergence of the female working-class have led to an increase in religious fundamentalism in rural communities. Fatwas thus reflect this increase as a result of friction between NGO programs seeking to provide women with new opportunities and rural male elites set on maintaining traditional power structures. This study reveals the importance of NGO-led interventions as the best justice-seeking mechanism to empower rural women in Bangladesh, and highlights the significance of engaging with various competing factors that lead to gender violence in the country.