Faraha Nawaz – författare

This book examines the effects of policies and practices of microfinance NGOs in empowering rural women in Bangladesh. Nawaz seeks to unpack the untold narratives of women''s empowerment and to fill the current knowledge gap in this area. The book goes beyond the narrow minimalist evaluation of microfinance that only focuses on women’s economic empowerment through their ability to access financial resources.  Rather, it looks at whether and how microfinance empowers women in a holistic manner across the socio-cultural, psychological and political spheres of life. The author argues that microfinance reduces levels of poverty, which means that women are better able to meet their practical gender needs; however, they are not empowered unless they are also able to meet their strategic gender needs, including the transformation of gender power relations from the household to state arenas. Therefore, the book argues that in order to bring about higher levels of empowerment, microfinance programs must be combined with other services such as financial literacy, socioeconomic training, education, healthcare, social mobilization and legal support.

Microfinance and Women’s Empowerment in Bangladesh will be of interest to students and scholars across a range of disciplines, including Gender Studies, Development Studies, and Politics.

This book explores the access to healthcare service during a global pandemic by rural ethnic women of Bangladesh. The authors consider different dimensions of accessibility such as- physical access, financial access, health behaviour and different socio-cultural factors of access, and attempts to explore the degree of access to healthcare of rural ethnic women from Santal tribe in Bangladesh during the COVID-19 pandemic. This exploration is likely to be helpful for healthcare providing organizations, international donor agencies, policy makers, and future researchers of gender studies, social policy, development studies among other fields.

This book presents an extensive study of women’s involvement in agricultural activities at the family level in rural Bangladesh, with a particular emphasis on their participation in decision-making. The authors examine the extent to which women are involved in decision-making regarding agricultural practices at family level. In addition to examining women’s contributions to various agricultural tasks, the research expands its scope to include discussions on gender inequality and empowerment, integrating these concepts into the decision-making framework. The authors argue that true participation should not only address the involvement of women in agriculture but also consider their influence on decision-making processes. They stress the importance of factors such as autonomy, control over resources, and self-confidence, which play a crucial role in shaping women’s decision-making ability within the family. Moreover, the research identifies several key barriers to participation, including entrenched patriarchal norms, societal cultural expectations, and institutional challenges, which hinder women’s active involvement in decision-making. The authors advocate for policy reforms and institutional changes to address these challenges, urging government bodies to align policies with their recommendations. The book provides valuable insights for policymakers, government officials, and NGOs working to promote gender-based approach and improve women’s empowerment in rural communities.

This book offers an extensive research work to explore the accessibility of women with disabilities and financial insolvency to social safety net program in rural Bangladesh. The book examines the impact of intersectional identities in accessibility to the human rights in a contextual setting. The authors have also scrutinized the existing policies to identify policy gaps and provide some policy recommendations from this insightful study. Apart from narrower view of the targeting method or implementation of social safety net program on targeting beneficiaries, this research has combined gender and disability in a study framework with making a focus on the Allowances Program for Insolvent Persons with Disabilities provided by Government of Bangladesh. They have argued that intersectional identities (gender, disability, financial insolvency) have influenced over the accessibility to social safety net program as well as identified the challenges of accessibility which provides a broader view of practices of public administration of Bangladesh and enlightens on social and cultural context creating barriers in accessibility to human rights of women with disabilities. The authors argue for bringing changes of the service delivery of the program by bringing change in policies according to human right-based treaties. This book is useful to policy makers, international donor agencies, government officials, and NGOs.