Transnational feminism and women’s activism: Strategies for engagement and empowerment in Bangladesh

ABSTRACT

This article aims to review the strategic experience of individuals and human rights organizations for human rights, women's rights, gender equality and social justice in Bangladesh. Following an empirical research methodology, this article has been written on the four themes: education, engagement, empowerment, and advocacy. The organizations were selected because of their creative concepts, innovative approaches, achievements and impact on the public. The study focuses on how the “Unite for Body Rights” program provides education related to Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR); how men from local community engage themselves in promoting gender equality and social justice; how “acid survivors” transform themselves into “survivor ambassadors” and empower themselves as women’s rights activists; and how the five leading human rights organizations in Bangladesh contributed to “banning the ‘two-finger test’ on rape survivors.” This article also evaluates the obstacles faced and marks them as lessons for the future.

ABSTRACT IN BANGLA

KEYWORDS:

• Women’s rights
• gender equality
• education
• engagement
• empowerment
• advocacy

KEYWORDS:

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Acknowledgements

I have prepared this article with the help of experts from three different organizations named “Association for Prevention of Septic Abortion Bangladesh,” “Ain O Salish Kendra,” “Acid Survivors Foundation” in Bangladesh. The experts gave me their data on key informant interviews, annual reports, documents and I could access their websites. I pay my sincere gratitude to all of them and all the authors for their efforts and contributions. Particularly, I would like to thank the Asian Center for Women’s Studies at Ewha Womans University, Seoul, South Korea, because they gave me an opportunity to present an earlier version of this paper at the 14th Ewha Global Empowerment Program (EGEP).

Notes on contributor

Solnara AKTAR is a lecturer at the Department of Drama and Dramatics in Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She has undertaken research projects, such as “Action Theater: Subject, Form & Performance Style,” which touched upon the law, human rights and gender equality. In January 2019, she published an article, Transforming the role of female by male actor: The background is traditional Bangla folk theater “Padmar Nachon.” She is also a resource pool member at the Rights Centre Trust and the Bangladesh Human Rights Theatre Council where she offers training sessions on theater, human rights, gender and VAW for youth, cultural activism and human rights defense. From 2011 to 2016, she was a Senior Theater Activist at Ain O Salish Kendra, a national human rights and legal aid organization where she was responsible for creating awareness about human rights and gender equality through theater and cultural activism.