Letter: No simple way out of poverty for Bangladeshi women

Fatimah Shah,Others
Saturday 11 May 1996 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Muhammad Yunus's vision of the "total eradication of poverty", especially for poor women in Bangladesh, is to be applauded ("The good banker", Review, 5 May). Unfortunately we fail to see how his "survival strategy" of giving credit to poor women helps to enhance their position in our society.

He argues that giving women credit helps them to be self-employed at home, keeping them in villages rather than looking for work in factories. How can this help them participate in wider social and political spheres? The Grameen Bank perpetuates rather than challenges the traditional position of women in Bangladesh.

The women in question have sold their souls. Leaving aside that credit ties them into a life-long dependent relationship to the bank, we do not know of any other bank which places conditions on women's lives by dictating what they can and cannot do, for instance insisting that they agree to have small families. This amounts to interfering with a fundamental right that women all over the world should have - the right to control our bodies.

Fatimah Shah, Maher Anjum, Parasathi Teare, Yasmin Kabir

GenderWatch, London E17

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in