Renegotiating patriarchy
I was fortunate to join Naila Kabeer’s book launch event organized jointly by BIGD, Naripokkho, and Sangat; my invite was from Sangat. I really wanted to take a photo with Professor Naila Kabeer, but felt shy to ask for it when I could see all the intellectual elites around. I hope to take a better photo in another upcoming lecture.
I learned about Naila Kabeer’s empowerment framework from a feminist research group from Monash University, really in debt for this. The framework talked about the conditions needed for empowerment — access to resources, agency, and finally, it leads to empowerment. I tried to make sense of this framework from a technology context (nah, that paper never got accepted!)
I wanted to write as much I remember and understand from the discussion from Dr. Kabeer on her new book. It talks about how patriarchy remains present which just changed its format over time. Before going into that, she mentioned how we, as Bangladeshis, have done better than our neighboring ones in terms of valuing daughters equally as sons. In some cases, families preferred a daughter over a son. The most beautiful thing here is, how individuals and communities improved the situation over their lived experiences. A woman changed the way she treated her daughter equally, which she did not receive from her parents. It takes place at the individual level and also at the collective level. This generation (of mothers) treats and empowers their daughters the way they wish to be treated. The mothers are making sure their daughters are educated, but not too educated, so it's a problem to get a groom.
It's nice to see how communities have continued to progress under all regimes in her research. It was a priority to ensure development by the authorities regardless of their viewpoints, but it was not specifically designed to fight inequality. Also, how communities adjusted with religious views to ensure space to grow and live; often preferring to marfoti system over shariati system of handling liberal religious practices over much stricter ones. The critical role of religion came through the research. She mentioned how she thinks Jamat, a religion oriented political group, would never be mainstream since women do not trust them to ensure their space for growth.
Finally, the renegotiation of patriarchy came into discussion. Women are now empowered, working, but they are doing it all under the patriarchal framing. They show the man of the house as the main character not to hurt his ego. They do it to gain access, to make life livable by not losing protection. Thus, patriarchy stays with renewed terms, not disrupted but redefined.
Will we be able to push it away forcefully?
The talk, discussion followed by the talk were a treat to end the year of 2024 with thoughts to consider in my mind. Thank you Bipasha Apu, Sangat.