Voices of Islam (138 page)
Authors: Vincent J. Cornell
The consensus of my informants was that within the village community, the wealthy and educated males have the power. From wealth comes education and personal connections with other wealthy people or political leaders. Only a very few people, those whom Allah prefers, can accumulate wealth. Women may also accumulate wealth through inheritance or through other means, but they do not play a role in community affairs. Although the Prime Minister of Bangladesh and the leader of the opposition party in Parliament have been women for more than a decade, the majority of the villagers believe that political offi is not a proper occupation for a woman and that those who are elected to such positions will go to Hell.
Islam, Culture, and Women in a Bangladesh Village
51
CONCLUSION: ISLAM AND POWER IN RURAL BANGLADESH
Max Weber defi power (
Macht
) as the ‘‘probability that one actor within a social relationship will be in a position to carry out his own will despite resistance, regardless of the basis on which this probability rests.’’
43
Weber described power in relation to control, authority, and legitimacy. According to him, control is exercised by the command of the power holder as well as the loyalty and obedience of the group the power holder commands. In this regard, he held, ‘‘All conceivable qualities of a person and all conceivable combinations of circumstances may put him in a position to impose his will in a given situation.’’ By virtue of obedience, this command
receives the necessary authority, and thus legitimacy, which ultimately allows the power holder to use force or coercion in order to gain control over the group he commands.
In the rural communities of Bangladesh, males possess the authority and legitimacy of command, and ‘‘the basis on which this probability rests’’ is culture and religion. From the statements reproduced above, it can be seen that women’s perceived agency and their sense of power and powerlessness, are contingent to a considerable degree on their perception of Islam. At the same time, their perception of Islam is greatly influenced by the prevailing cultural practices of their region and community. Whatever rights and privileges Islam provides for women are subsumed within the patriarchal culture of their village and region. Religion is seen as a major support for this culture. According to my informants, wealth, education, and con- nections to influential people are the main sources of power and these are contingent upon God’s blessings. Female informants perceive that their identity is subject to the will of their husbands, who have access to wealth and education. Furthermore, because of their greater autonomy in society, they have greater opportunities to develop connections with infl people.
In short, the female informants that I interviewed perceive power as the ability to act in a way that infl another’s behavior. This belief recalls Robert A. Dahl’s definition of power. Dahl similarly contended that power is the ability to infl ence the behavior of others. In his chapter, ‘‘The Concept of Power,’’ he describes power in the following terms: ‘‘A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that B would not otherwise do.’’
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Dahl argued that power also depends on
resources
or
bases
of power (opportunities, acts, or objects),
means
or
instruments
of power (threats or promises), the
range
or
scope
of power (B’s response to A), and the
amount
or
extent
of power (the probability of power being exercised successfully in conjunction with the means and scope of power). In their response to Dahl, Peter Bachrach and Morton S. Baratz argued that power also has a second face, which they called ‘‘non-decision-making’’—the
52
Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Society
attempt to prevent an issue from ever reaching the decision-making stage.
45
They noted that a person uses power not only to infl the behavior of another but also to exclude the other from participating in the decision- making process. This tactic of ‘‘non–decision making’’ depends on the mobilization of bias. The paradigm of bias was developed by Elmer Schattschneider, who argued, ‘‘All forms of organization have a bias in favor of the exploitation of some kinds of conflict and the suppression of others because organization is the mobilization of bias. Some issues are organized into politics while others are organized out.’’
46
Bachrach and Baratz also held that the exclusionary aspect of power sustains a form of bias that favors the values, myths, rituals, and institutions of a dominant group relative to the others. They maintained that the exercise of autonomous decision making could be prevented by force, threat of sanctions, manipulating symbols, or creating new barriers to participation.
47
Steven Lukes extended the approaches developed by Dahl, Bachrach, and Baratz and added what he called ‘‘power’s third dimension.’’ He held that a person exercises power over another not merely by direct action or by creating barriers to participation but also by ‘‘infl
shaping, or determining his very wants.’’
48
He also maintained that
powerless people ‘‘accept their role in the existing order of things, either because they can see or imagine no alternative to it, or because they see it as natural and unchangeable, or because they value it as divinely ordained and benefi al.’’
49
This might occur, he argued, by controlling another’s thoughts or by affecting another’s perceptions through social forces and institutional practices that affect individuals’ decisions. Gaventa, in his study of power and powerlessness among Appalachian Valley people, showed how socialization as well as ideology infl ced the behaviors of the majority. His findings, he argued, warrant ‘‘the study of social myths, language, and symbols, and how they are shaped or manipulated in power processes.’’
50
The findings of Dahl, Bachrach, Baratz, Lukes, and Gaventa are borne out in the results of my ethnographic study of a rural village in Bangladesh. Males have power over females to the extent that they can get females to do things that they would not otherwise do. The men of rural villages in Bangladesh possess the
resources
of power (property, education, greater mobility) they wield the
instruments
of power (for example, by convening the
shalish
or
bichar
councils) and they exercise the ‘‘second face’’ of power by using such instruments to compel an attitude of ‘‘non–decision making’’ on the part of women. Institutions such as the
paribar
(family unit) and the
shalish
/
bichar
(ad hoc councils) are male-dominated, and thus may be used to exert the pressure of mobilization bias against females. In addition, the sanctions that are imposed by the
shalish
/
bichar
are a potent deterrent for any behavior that is considered undesirable.
Islam, Culture, and Women in a Bangladesh Village
53
Most important, rural women in Bangladesh take the dominance of men for granted. The basis of male dominance is rooted in the belief system of their community, which depends largely on religion. In his famous defi ition of religion as a cultural system, Clifford Geertz stated: ‘‘Religion is (1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulat- ing conceptions of a general order of existence and (4) clothing these conceptions with such an aura of factuality that (5) the moods and motiva- tions seem uniquely realistic.’’
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Geertz argued that religion is one of the essential elements of culture through which the dynamics of symbols are expressed.
52
The overlapping relation between religion and culture can be seen in the fact that cultural patterns ‘‘give meaning, i.e. objective conceptual form, to social and psychological reality both by shaping them- selves to it and by shaping it to themselves.’’
53
In a similar manner, the Christian theologian Paul Tillich maintained, ‘‘Religion is the essence of culture and culture is the form of religion.’’
54
He further noted that all human experience occurs within a cultural milieu and that religion provides culture with form and content but also meaning, a process he called the ‘‘import of meaning.’’
55
For the women of rural Bangladesh, it appears that the institutions of a patriarchal culture whose roots were prior to Islam, combined with the institutions and practices of Islam to subsume the autonomous identity of woman by relegating them to a position of ‘‘non-decision-making.’’ In this situation, the rural woman is taught to regard herself as the shadow of a man. What Allah gives to man, is given to woman only because she is part of a man, not a whole unto herself. Thus, to paraphrase a famous passage of the Bible, ‘‘What God gives, a man can take away.’’
NOTES
John Gaventa,
Power and Powerlessness: Quiescence and Rebellion in an Appalachian Valley
(Urbana and Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois Press, 1980).Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics,
Statistical Pocketbook of Bangladesh 2003
(Dhaka: Government Printing Press, 2005), 3, 424.
3. Ibid., 3, 149.
See, for example, Article 28 of the Constitution of Bangladesh; Ministry of Women and Children Affairs,
Narir Ainee Odhikar
(Legal Rights of Women) (Dhaka: Technical Assistance for Gender Facility and institutional Support for Implementation of the National Action Plan Project, 2000); and Ministry of Women and Children Affairs,
An Introduction to Development Projects
(Dhaka, 2004).Bangladesh, Ministry of Planning,
Bangladesh Data Sheet 1999,
available at http://www.bbsgov.org.Statistical Pocket Book of Bangladesh 2003,
136–137.54
Voices of Life: Family, Home, and SocietyIn the Parliament election of 2001, only six female candidates won seats, and later another woman won in a by-election. Results of the original election are available at the Bangladesh Election Commission’s website, http://w
ww.ece.gov.bd/stat/ Index/htm.Amartya K. Sen, ‘‘Women, Technology and Sexual Divisions,’’
Trade and Development—An UNCTAD Review
6 (1985): 195–223; see also, idem,
Rationality and Freedom
(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2002).World Bank,
Toward Gender Equality: The Role of Public Policy
(Washington, D.C.: The World Bank, 1995).For example, see Carolyn M. Elliot, ‘‘Theories of Development: An Assessment,’’ in
Women and National Development: The Complexities of Change,
eds. B.X. Bunster et al. (Chicago/London: The University of Chicago Press, 1977), 1–8.For a detailed discussion of the place of women in nationalist discourses, see Ranajit Guha, ed.,
A Subaltern Studies Reader, 1986–1995
(Minneapolis, Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press, 1997), Chandra’s death, 34–62; and Dipesh Chakrabarty,
Provincializing Europe
(Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 2000).Census conducted by the present author.
See Jenneke Arens and Jos V. Beurden,
Jhagrapur: Poor Peasants and Women in a Village in Bangladesh
(Birmingham, U.K.: Third World Publications, 1977).See Sharon B. Merriam,
Case Study Research in Education: A Qualitative Approach
(San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass, 1988).Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln, ‘‘Introduction: The Discipline and Practice of Qualitative Research,’’ in
Handbook of Qualitative Research, Second Edition,
eds. Norman K. Denzin and Yvonna S. Lincoln (Newbury Park, California: Sage Press, 2000) 1–28.Catherine Marshall and Gretchen B. Rossman, eds.,
Designing Qualitative Research,
3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications, 1999).Census conducted by the present author. Statistically, an adult is a person who is 15 years of age or older.
According to the Muslim Family Law Ordinance of 1961, polygamy is not illegal but difficult. Written permission of the first wife is necessary for the husband to have a second wife, which then must be justifi and endorsed by the Chairman of the Union Council. It is thus easier for a husband to divorce his first wife than to gain her permission to marry a second wife.
A. Miranda, ‘‘Nuptility in Bangladesh,’’
Journal of Social Studies,
no. 9 (1980): 58–98.Jean Ellickson, ‘‘A Believer among Believers: The Religious Beliefs, Practices, and Meanings in a Village in Bangladesh’’ (Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University, 1972).
John P. Thorp, ‘‘Masters of Earth: Conceptions of Power among Muslims of Rural Bangladesh’’ (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, 1978).
Geoffrey D. Wood, ‘‘Class Differentiation and Power in Bandakgram: The Minifundist Case,’’ in
Exploitation and the Rural Poor: A Working Paper on the RuralIslam, Culture, and Women in a Bangladesh Village
55Power Structure in Bangladesh,
ed. M. A. Huq (Comilla, Bangladesh: Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development, 1976), 60–96.Jitka Kotalova,
Belonging to Others: Cultural Construction of Womanhood Among Muslims in a Village in Bangladesh
(Uppsala, Sweden: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, 1993).Santi Rozario,
Purity and Communal Boundaries: Women and Social Change in a Bangladeshi Village
(North Sydney, Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1994).The Muslim Family Law Ordinance of 1961.
See for details, Saira R. Khan,
The Socio-Legal Status of Bangali Women in Bangladesh: Implications for Development
(Dhaka, Bangladesh: University Press, 2001).For a detailed discussion and review of the laws of divorce in other Muslim countries, see Alamgir M. Serajuddin,
Shari‘a Law and Society: Tradition and change in South Asia
(Oxford, U.K.: Oxford University Press, 2001).See Khan,
Socio-Legal Status of Bangali Women;
see also, Taslima Monsoor,
From Patriarchy to Gender Equality: Family Law and Its Impact on Women in Bangladesh
(Dhaka, Bangladesh: University Press, 1999); and Tazeen Murshid,
The Sacred and the Secular: Bengal Muslim Discourses, 1871–1977
(Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1995).See Kirsten Westergaard,
State and Rural Society in Bangladesh
, Scandinavian Institute of Asian Studies Monograph Series no. 49 (London/Malmo¨, U.K./Sweden: Curzon Press, 1985).Abdul Quadir Zilani, popularly known as
Bara
Pir, was a famous Sufi saint of twelfth-century Baghdad. Known to history as ‘Abd al-Qadir al-Jilani (d. 1166
CE
), he was the founder of the Qadiriyya Sufi order, one of the most widespread Sufi confraternities in the Muslim world.For detailed information on the social effects of
parda,
see Sajeda Amin, ‘‘The Poverty-Purdah Trap in Rural Bangladesh: Implications for Women’s Roles in the Family,’’ Working Paper Series no. 75 (New York: Research Division, The Population Council, 1995).Shelley Feldman, ‘‘Purdah and Changing Patterns of Social Control among Rural Women in Bangladesh,’’
Journal of Marriage and the Family,
45 no. 4 (1983): 949–960.David Abecassis,
Identity, Islam, and Human Development in Rural Bangladesh
(Dhaka, Bangladesh: University Press, 1990), 57.See for further details Peter J. Bertocci, ‘‘Models of Solidarity, Structures of Power: The Politics of Community in Rural Bangladesh,’’ in
Political Anthropology Yearbook 1,
ed., Myron J. Aronoff (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1990), 97–125; Rafi din Ahmed, ed. ‘‘Islam and the Social Construction of the Bangladesh Countryside,’’
Understanding the Bengal Muslims: Interpretative Essays
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2001), 71–85.See, for example, Taj I. Hashmi,
Women and Islam in Bangladesh: Beyond Subjugation and Tyranny
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000).See the US State Department’s website http://www.stat
e.gov/g/drl/rls/ irf/2005/51616.htm retrieved on March 29, 2005 and also Amnesty Internationals56
Voices of Life: Family, Home, and Societywebsite http://web.amnesty.org/library/i
ndex/ENGASA130012001?open& of=ENG-BGD retrieved on April 03, 2006.Thorp, ‘‘Masters of Earth,’’ 68.