Browsing by Author "Sultan, Maheen"

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Accessing the performance of GQAL in changing gender norms and behaviour
(BRAC University, 2012-09) Mahmud, Simeen; Sultan, Maheen; Huq, Lopita
Backlash in action? or inaction? stalled implementation of the domestic violence (prevention and protection) Act 2010 in Bangladesh
(Institute of Development Studies, 2023-06) Sultan, Maheen; Mahpara, Pragyna
While the formulation and enactment of the Act was an achievement for the government and the coalition that championed it (the Citizens’ Initiative Against Domestic Violence, CIDV), its implementation has been weak. In Bangladesh, dominant social norms have led to stereotyping domestic violence as a trivial, personal matter, which has led to service providers delegitimising and deprioritising the issue. Combined with all the gender biases that operate within the judiciary and other government departments, this has resulted in an unsatisfactory use of the Act for women seeking redress from violence. This paper explores to what extent this lax implementation is due to the weak capacity of implementing agencies versus deliberate/intentional inaction in the form of backlash. It also examines how women’s rights organisations have articulated feminist voices in terms of agenda and framing and used collective agency to counter the pushback.
BRAC’s steadfast endeavour to break the gender divide
(The Daily Star, 2021-04-02) Sultan, Maheen
Community health workers as agents of change: Negotiating pathways of empowerment
(BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2016-09) Mahmud, Simeen; Sultan, Maheen
In Bangladesh, health and family planning programs were the ﬁrst major employers of rural women in outside paid work. Thus, women community health workers became the pioneers in bringing rural women into outside formal employment in a social/economic context that not only discouraged women’s participation in paid outside work but also actively restricted their mobility in the public domain. Although for women today, working as community health workers is no longer a departure from the norm, this was not always the case. This paper looks at contemporary women health workers in Bangladesh to explore how they have re-negotiated purdah and social norms to emerge as valued members of their families and respected members of their communities. While the work of a health worker was itself an extension of women’s traditional care roles and was conceived precisely because norms around women’s visibility and seclusion were so strong at the time that women were difficult to reach with male health workers, this job has been able to negotiate norms to make women’s breadwinner roles and mobility in the public sphere more socially acceptable. It is noteworthy that in this process of change and continuity, women’s trade-oﬀs have been more diﬃcult within the sphere of family and their individual lives, and relatively easier in the sphere of community life. There was some evidence that the speciﬁc organizational context in which women worked had bearing upon these changes.
Countering online gender-based violence: cyber security or state security and the dilemmas of policy engagement
(Institute of Development Studies, 2025) Antara, Iffat Jahan; Sultan, Maheen; Novelly, Shamshad Navia; Islam, Mohaiminul
Bangladesh has experienced rapid growth in the number of active internet and social media users. Internet subscribers have increased from 31.1 million in February 2012 to 131.37 million in December 2023. Online participation has increased, and the nature of this participation has changed over time, with social media playing a significant role in shaping public opinion and mobilising social movements. This paper explores the dilemmas faced by gender justice activists in Bangladesh regarding whether and how to engage with laws that conflict with fundamental freedoms and rights, while acknowledging the importance of a legal framework to regulate cyberspace. The research also examines the difficulties and limitations faced by activists in navigating existing institutions and laws to provide redress for victims of online gender-based violence (OGBV).
Do poor people’s dreams ever come true? Educational Aspirations and Lived Realities in Urban Slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh
(Springer Link, 2022-02) Sultan, Maheen; Saeger, Jennifer; Rashid, Sabina F.; Haque, Mohammed Ashraful; Khondaker, Sahida
Bangladesh has made progress in advancing adolescent girls’ education, but there remain substantial evidence gaps around age and gender differences in motivations, retention, and access to education for adolescents living in urban slums. This article draws on quantitative and qualitative data collected in 2017 and 2018 by Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) with adolescents aged 10–17 across three low-income areas in Dhaka to explore adolescent educational attainment, aspirations, and environmental factors that constrain both. We find high educational and professional aspirations among adolescents and their parents, with parental support being an important predictor of both current enrolment and adolescent aspirations. Location is also an important predictor of adolescent aspirations and enrolment, highlighting the importance of infrastructure and services, integration into the city, and stability of the community (including schools and facilities), along with higher incomes and better employment opportunities for households.
Gender equitable policy reforms in Bangladesh: The role of informal networks and practices
(Effective States and Inclusive Development Research Centre (ESID), 2020-09) Sultan, Maheen; Mahpara, Pragyna
The paper explores how power operates in a gendered manner and how informal processes shape possibilities for gender equity. It investigates how and why gender equality policies are formulated, when these may not be popular with formal institutions, what role informal networks and practices play in their promotion or opposition, and whether the influence of informal networks varies across different types of policies. In clientelist contexts such as Bangladesh, informal networks and networking are particularly important, as they allow patrons to maintain their privilege, even after formal institutional reforms are carried out. (The paper analyses three types of policy or legal change cases: Compulsory Primary Education Act 1990 (ameliorative); Domestic Violence (DV) law 2010 (transformative status change policy); and the National Women’s Development Policy (NWDP) 2014 (transformative doctrinal change). These were placed on a continuum based on the degree of resistance they generate from actors resisting gender equality reforms using categories developed by Htun and Weldon (2018). Our analysis found that the degree of resistance in the compulsory primary education act was minimal, while transformative policy changes generated resistance with different outcomes. Though the three cases showed the importance of informal networks and practices, particularly personal relations, to gain access to key actors; their significance in diffusing resistance varied across cases. The ability of critical actors within the state depended on their ability to counter resistance from oppositional groups. Mobilization strategies that worked for law enactment did not necessarily work for policy implementation. The strength of informal networks used by the oppositional forces to gender equality and the political cost to the ruling party determined the effectiveness of informal networks across the cases. Currently, as Bangladesh politics shifts towards a more ‘dominant party’ system, the space for mobilization becomes limited for dissenting actors, particularly on issues where women’s rights groups disagree with the state.
In search of justice: Untold tales of domestic violence survivors
(BRAC Institute of Governance and Development, 2022-03-01) Sultan, Maheen; Akter, Marufa; Mahpara, Pragyna; Pabony, Nuha Anoor; Tasnin, Fariha; Hossain, Sara; Titir, Abdullah; Siddiki, Esrat Jahan; Antor, Sadiul Islam
This is the English translation of the book titled ন্যায়বিচারের সন্ধানেঃ পারিবারিক সহিংসতার শিকার নারীদের অব্যক্ত উপাখ্যান, published by BIGD and GIZ. Domestic violence is pervasive in Bangladesh. While there are remedies in place for domestic violence—protective and punitive measures—and institutional mechanisms for responses, access to justice remains a challenge. This report presents twelve case studies drawn from a wider study, exploring in depth each woman’s complex justice journey during the pandemic. It is intended to allow readers—academics, practitioners, and those supporting women and girls who are survivors of domestic violence—to reflect on their individual and institutional roles and responsibilities, and to strengthen strategies of response. The original study titled “Access to Justice During COVID-19 for Survivors of Domestic Violence” was carried out by the BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD), between November 2020 and April 2021, to understand the experiences of domestic violence survivors in seeking justice during the pandemic, their coping mechanisms, how they sought to deal with adversity and their complex justice journeys during COVID-19. The study aimed to examine the lived experiences of vulnerable married women with limited education and financial means, who had faced violence by their husbands and in-laws and sought assistance from legal service providers. It was commissioned by the Rule of Law Programme, GIZ Bangladesh, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO), and carried out in collaboration with three non-governmental organizations (NGOs), namely BRAC, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST), and Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS) Bangladesh.
Intersecting barriers to adolescents’ educational access during COVID-19: Exploring the role of gender, disability and poverty
(Elsevier, 2021-09) Jones, Nicola; Tapia, Ingrid Sanchez; Baird, Sarah; Guglielmi, Silvia; Oakley, Erin; Yadete, Workneh Abebe; Sultan, Maheen; Pincock, Kate
This article explores the social determinants of adolescents’ access to education during the COVID-19 pandemic in three diverse urban contexts in Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Jordan. It provides novel empirical data from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence longitudinal study, drawing on phone surveys (4441), qualitative interviews with adolescents aged 12–19 years (500), and key informant interviews conducted between April and October 2020. Findings highlight that the pandemic is compounding pre-existing vulnerabilities to educational disadvantage, and that gender, poverty and disability are intersecting to deepen social inequalities. The paper concludes by reflecting on policy implications for inclusive distance education in emergencies.
Intersecting disadvantages for married adolescents: Life after marriage pre- and post-COVID-19 in contexts of displacement
(Elsevier, 2022-03) Baird, Sarah; Murphy, Maureen; Seager, Jennifer; Jones, Nicola; Malhotra, Anju; Alheiwidi, Sarah; Emirie, Guday; Rashid, Sabina; Sultan, Maheen
Abstract Purpose Although there is a growing evidence base on the drivers of child marriage, comparatively little is known about the experiences of married girls in refugee settings and how their development trajectories diverge from those of their nonmarried peers, particularly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Drawing on cross-national panel data from Bangladesh and Jordan, this article explores diversity in child marriage experiences in contexts affected by forced displacement, highlighting how married girls’ well-being differs from that of their unmarried peers, and how COVID-19 has reinforced these differences. Methods We analyzed longitudinal survey data—collected pre- and post-COVID-19—from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence study with 293 ever-married and 1,102 never-married adolescent girls. Multivariate regression analysis assessed the well-being of married and unmarried girls across contexts and refugee status, both prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic. These quantitative data are complemented by in-depth qualitative data from adolescents (n = 112), and key informant interviews with service providers and community leaders (n = 62). Results Our findings highlight that married girls in contexts affected by displacement are disadvantaged in multiple ways, but that the patterning of disadvantage varies across contexts, and that marriage can also have protective effects in certain contexts. The COVID-19 pandemic has, however, served to exacerbate existing inequalities in all contexts. Discussion Although child marriage prevention efforts remain critical, there is also an urgent need for programming that targets married girls in refugee and host communities to mitigate negative outcomes among this vulnerable group.
Mobilising for women's rights and the role of resources : synthesis report, Bangladesh
(Pathways of Women’s Empowerment and BRAC University, 2011-02) Nazneen, Sohela; Sultan, Maheen; Mukhopadhyay, Maitrayee
Mobilizing support and negotiating change: women's organizations building constituencies in Bangladesh
(BRAC University, 2011-11) Nazneen, Sohela; Sultan, Maheen
This paper describes and analyzes how three national level women’s organizations in Bangladesh mobilized support around a particular issue among their membership and allies. The paper uses social movement/resource mobilization theories and feminist studies on the state and social movement for grounding this research. The focus is on the decade of the 1990s and the present decade. Through these case studies the research aims to capture the diversity of the strategies used by these organizations for building constituencies‐‐internally and externally, i.e., within the civil society organizations, media, political parties and state bureaucracies. All three case study organizations, have strategically packaged the issues differently for their own members and external supporters depending on the emotional response they want to invoke and the social costs involved in packaging an issue in a specific way. The strategies these organizations used to build support within the state, political parties and the civil society are influenced by the following factors: i) the contradictory positions of the Bangladeshi state on gender equity issues; ii) aid dependence and politicization of the civil bureaucracy. These factors have led feminist organizations to engage with the state in a strategic manner i.e. seizing opportunities, as and when they arise, to further their cause. This type of behavior is motivated by the need to preserve autonomy, organizational legitimacy, and on the use of personal connections to access state machinery. Generally, women’s organizations have tried to distance themselves from the political parties and have not directly lobbied for their issues to be incorporated into the agendas. This is due to the fact that the costs of engaging with political parties remain high and these organizations have not established themselves as major players in the political system. The nature of exchange with the civil society is marked by considerations for mutual reciprocity based on personal obligations, legitimacy concerns, and asymmetrical power relations, which at times have adversely affected accountability relations within coalitions.
National discourses on women's empowerment in Bangladesh: continuities and change
(BRAC University, 2011-07) Hossain, Naomi; Nazneen, Sohela; Sultan, Maheen
As Bangladesh turns 40, improvements in women’s wellbeing and increased agency are claimed to be some of the most significant gains in the postindependence era. Various economic and social development indicators show that in the last 20 years, Bangladesh, a poor, Muslim‐majority country in the classic patriarchal belt, has made substantial progress in increasing women’s access to education and healthcare (including increasing life‐expectancy), and in improving women’s participation in the labour force. The actors implementing such programmes and policies and claiming to promote women’s empowerment are numerous, and they occupy a significant position within national political traditions and development discourses. In the 1970s and 1980s development ideas around women’s empowerment in Bangladesh were influenced by an overtly instrumentalist logic within the international donor sphere. This led to the women’s empowerment agenda being perceived as a donor driven project, which overlooks how domestic actors such as political parties, women’s organizations and national NGOs have influenced thinking and action around it. This paper explores how these perceptions and narratives around women’s empowerment have evolved in Bangladesh from 2000 to date. It studies the concepts of women’s empowerment in public discourse and reviews the meanings and uses of the term by selected women’s organizations, donor agencies, political parties and development NGOs. By reviewing the publicly available documents of these organizations, the paper analyses the multiple discourses on women’s empowerment, showing the different concepts associated with it and how notions such as power, domains and processes of empowerment are understood by these actors. It also highlights how these different discourses have influenced each other and where they have diverged, with an emphasis on what these divergences mean in terms of advancing women’s interests in Bangladesh.
Openings and resistances: Women in the Bangladesh Civil Service
(Routledge, 2016) Sultan, Maheen; Jahan, Ferdous
Over the past decades, women’s labor force participation (LFP) rate has risen from 26.1 percent in 2002/2003 to 36 percent in 2010. While employment is an important aspect of women’s empowerment and of national development, women’s active participation in decision making is not only important for ensuring equality and justice for themselves as citizens but also so that the institutions in which they are employed become more responsive and capable of addressing the needs of women as well as those of men. This chapter will identify and analyze factors that account for the successful advancement of women to senior positions in the Civil Service of Bangladesh (BCS) and the measures – such as quotas – that have been taken to ensure the increased recruitment of women. It also explores the reasons why women have not made as much progress as one would expect. The chapter will argue that although the overall representation of women in the Civil Service has increased, the presence of women at the higher level positions is still low, which is indicative of the existence of certain barriers to the advancement of women. It will use the concepts of diversity and representative bureaucracy to discuss the presence and role of women in the bureaucracy.
Positionality and transformative knowledge in conducting 'feminist' research on empowerment in Bangladesh
(© 2013 Elsevier Ltd.) Nazneen, Sohela; Sultan, Maheen
This article is based on the experiences and reflections of a group of researchers in Bangladesh (of which we were members) studying women's empowerment. We investigate the kinds of epistemological and ethical dilemmas that arose from how they selectively presented their identities to gain access and tried to create 'positional spaces' in conducting fieldwork. We also explore how these researchers engaged in co-production of knowledge with research participants and tried to balanced our multiple accountabilities in this process. By exploring these issues, we analyze assumptions about 'feminist' research practices and our struggles to live up to these. Based on this analysis we argue that there is scope for exploring individual identity based positionality in the following areas that are less studied in feminist methodology literature: a) how research dynamics are affected when participants are more powerful than [feminist] researchers, and b) the nature of discomforts that [feminist] researchers experience when they engage with participants who espouse to different gender ideologies. We also explore how transformative research is linked to co-production, politics of representation and processual reflexivity (i.e., how and by whom what kind of knowledge is produced; Nagar & Geiger, 2007). We argue that these issues have implications for how we research women's empowerment in developing country contexts.
Positionality and transformative knowledge in conducting 'feminist' research on empowerment in Bangladesh
(© 2013 Elsevier Ltd.) Nazneen, Sohela; Sultan, Maheen
This article is based on the experiences and reflections of a group of researchers in Bangladesh (of which we were members) studying women's empowerment. We investigate the kinds of epistemological and ethical dilemmas that arose from how they selectively presented their identities to gain access and tried to create 'positional spaces' in conducting fieldwork. We also explore how these researchers engaged in co-production of knowledge with research participants and tried to balanced our multiple accountabilities in this process. By exploring these issues, we analyze assumptions about 'feminist' research practices and our struggles to live up to these. Based on this analysis we argue that there is scope for exploring individual identity based positionality in the following areas that are less studied in feminist methodology literature: a) how research dynamics are affected when participants are more powerful than [feminist] researchers, and b) the nature of discomforts that [feminist] researchers experience when they engage with participants who espouse to different gender ideologies. We also explore how transformative research is linked to co-production, politics of representation and processual reflexivity (i.e., how and by whom what kind of knowledge is produced; Nagar & Geiger, 2007). We argue that these issues have implications for how we research women's empowerment in developing country contexts.
Protecting women’s family rights in a minority community: Hindu family law reform in Bangladesh
(Institute of Development Studies, 2025) Sultan, Maheen; Roy Nath, Shravasti; Rabbi, Abu Sayem; Islam, Mohaiminul
Family laws in Bangladesh are shaped by religious laws and traditions which have traditionally shown discrimination towards women irrespective of their religious identities. There has been an emphasis on reforming Muslim family laws to abolish discrimination and to ensure equality in conformity with international human rights standards. In recent times, however, civil society actors have attempted a range of reform initiatives on Hindu family laws, particularly in relation to marriage registration and inheritance. They have achieved partial success but have faced resistance from the Bangladeshi state as well as from conservative Hindu religious leaders. This paper explores how backlash manifests in law reforms relating to minority communities. The authors examine the nature of backlash from the state, the Hindu community, and Hindu religious leaders, as well as the strategies taken by pro-reform actors to counter this backlash, and the effectiveness of these strategies.
Quiet revolution? Women’s collective empowerment and BRAC
(Taylor & Francis, 2023-03-15) Nazneen, Sohela; Sultan, Maheen; Chowdhury, Nobonita
BRAC’s focus on women and community organisations in the 1970s was lauded as bringing forth “a quiet revolution.” We explore the evolution of BRAC’s selected programs that built community forums and argue that while BRAC successfully retained its focus on women’s inclusion, its approach to collective empowerment is marked by contradictions. The shifts in funding structures that emphasised individual empowerment, the organisation’s emphasis on scaling up programs at the expense of investing in building community organisations, and the accommodation of patriarchal norms to prevent backlash from local actors – all resulted in trade-offs, limiting programming on collective empowerment.
Social protection experiences of and attitudes towards new urban poor after Covid-19 in Bangladesh
(Institute of Development Studies, 2024-02-14) Roelen, Keetie; Diwakar, Vidya; Huq, Lopita; Sultan, Maheen; Ahmed, Md. Shakil; Chowdhury, Kabita; Al Mamun, Saklain; Rabbi, Abu Sayem; Rahman, Nuzaba Tahreen; Rownak, Raisa; Sumanthiran, Shilohni
The Covid-19 pandemic led to a large increase in poverty in Bangladesh, especially in urban areas. Rising food prices and high inflation rates further compounded already high levels of socioeconomic uncertainty. Social protection is vital to help mitigate the effects of crisis and make households more resilient to uncertainty. This paper provides insights into urban residents’ experiences of poverty and the support they received since the Covid-19 pandemic, and derives implications for social protection programming in urban Bangladesh. Using secondary longitudinal data collected since the start of the pandemic with new quantitative surveys and qualitative data collected in Kallyanpur, Dhaka and Shantinagar, Chittagong in March 2023, the study points to high levels of precarity; poverty’s toll on mental health; widespread stigmatisation and discrimination of residents of low-income neighbourhoods, and inadequate social protection support. It argues for the need to expand social protection in urban areas; counter area-based discrimination; ensure dignified delivery of assistance, and provide an integrated policy response.
Women's representation in the union parishad
(BRAC University, 2016-07) Sultan, Maheen; Hasan, Bayazid; Khondaker, Sahida Islam; Enam, Ahmed Asif; Mahmood, Towhid Iqram; Nazneen, Sohela