Citation

Karim L. Cult. Dyn. 2004; 16(2-3): 291-318.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0921374004047752

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This article analyzes the conflicts and contradictions released by the processes of democratization and globalization in Bangladesh as they are played out between two competing groups of rural patrons: the clergy and the developmental non-governmental organizations. Both groups vie for rural dominance by fighting over the role of women in society. By investigating the violent circumstances surrounding a poor women’s rally in 1998, I examine how, in this conflict, these women were vulnerably situated in relation to the clergy and the NGO. The Bangladeshi state, which has fostered an Islamic ideology, remains complicit in this violation of women. I further argue that the good intentions of feminist NGOs are constrained in their ability to offer an autonomous critique of NGO practices because of their structural dependence on the NGOs.