Coming Out Of The Private: Women Forging Voices In Bangladesh

This chapter makes an attempt to probe into the politics of women’s voice in Bangladesh. The chapter argues that there are structural factors within the state and society that act as barriers for women in Bangladesh to vocalise their opinions in the public sphere. Yet parallel forces are at work at national and international levels that enable women to create their spaces and voices despite these structural limitations.

The chapter is divided into five sections The first examines the concept of voice; in the second section the structural barriers to voice are analysed; the third section probes into enabling factors for voice creation; in the fourth section the paper makes an in-depth analysis of the public/political sphere to demonstrate women’s efforts to come out of the private. In the concluding section, issues are suggested for giving scope to the voices of women by pointing out the existing lacunae within the movement for women’s voices.