Muslim Women in the Economy

Development, Faith and Globalisation

Shamim Samani, Dora Marinova, Shamim Samani, Dora Marinova

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Economics
• eBook ISBN:
  9780429558245
• Subtopic: Islamic Theology
• Index: Economics

This book explores the changing role of Muslim women in the economy in the twenty-first century. Sociological developments such as secular education, female-focused policies, national and global commitments to gender equality as well as contemporary technological advances have all served to shift and redefine the domestic and public roles of Muslim women, leading in many places to increases in workplace participation ?and entrepreneurship. The volume investigates the contexts of these shifts and the experiences of women balancing faith and other commitments to actively engage in the economy in vastly different countries.

The book looks at how family codes and the understandings of Muslim male and female roles sit alongside social and economic advances and the increases in women partaking in the economy. ?Within a globalised world, it also highlights the importance of the implementation of the current sustainable development priorities in the context of Muslim societies, including Sustainable Development Goal 5 that focuses on the vital role of women and their full participation in all areas of sustainable development.

With cases ranging from Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bangladesh, ?Pakistan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Kenya through to Spain, Bulgaria? and Australia, Muslim Women in the Economy will be of considerable interest to those studying, researching and interested in gender, development and religious studies.

Part 1

Gender policies and economic participation

1 Progressing in a man’s world

Women’s workforce participation in Bangladesh

Shagufta M. Trishna, Amzad Hossain and Dora Marinova

Their Lord responded to them: “I do not let go to waste the labour of any worker from among you whether male or female, for all of you (human beings) are the offspring of one another”

(The Holy Qur’an, 3: 195)¹

Introduction

In the last few decades, Bangladesh has witnessed a sharp increase of women’s participation in the country’s workforce – from 24% in 1990 to 36% in 2018 (The Global Economy 2019a). The legal framework of the country also mandates equal remuneration for females and males for work of equal value as well as non-discrimination based on gender when employing (Our World in Data 2015). Women’s contribution has become visible not only in low-paid sectors, such as agriculture, the readymade garments industry, hotels and restaurants, but also in areas which require higher education, including telecommunications, banking and insurance services (Roy and Hossain 2015; Khatun 2018). The industrial sector, comprising mainly the apparel industry where 80% of the employees are women (World Bank 2017), has been the driving force fuelling up female employment over the past decade and has become the source of 90% of the country’s exports (Workman 2019).

Despite this significant progress, according to the 2018 World Bank data (The Global Economy 2019b) Bangladesh remains one of the economies with a relatively low female labour force participation, ranking 155th of 181 countries (whose average rate is 52% or 16% higher than that of Bangladesh). Another worrying statistic that possibly contributes to the relatively low female engagement with the formal job market is the large share of women, namely 59% in 2014 (Our World in Data 2015), who marry before they reach the age of 18. Furthermore, there is serious under-representation of women in senior and middle management as well as in political and ministerial positions (Our World in Data 2015; Khatun 2018).

Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim country with 89% of its 168 million population following Islam; Hinduism is practised by 10% and the remaining 0.9% represent other spiritual or non-religious practices (World Population Review 2019). Religion obviously impacts women’s values and worldviews but since its establishment, Bangladesh has remained a secular country where the female contribution to its economy is determined by a range of factors. What this chapter argues is that religion is not a prohibitive factor to female participation in the labour force of Bangladesh. There are numerous examples of women who have successfully achieved high positions of power and influence, including Sheikh Hasina, the country’s Prime Minister since 2009. However, we describe the obstacles faced by women as “a man’s world” dominated by male-centredness, decisions and behaviours which undervalue female contributions to the economy.

This situation is not unique to Bangladesh and transcends the fabrics of most contemporary, including Western, societies. Notwithstanding this and similar to many developed countries, the Bangladesh economy is being transformed by the emergent female consciousness and involvement which allow women to seek control and change their own material situation (Rowbotham 2015) as well as participate and be visible in all public spheres.

The chapter analyses women’s progress referring to the latest available statistical and comparative information. Starting with the Islamic religious background, it argues that the significant achievements of Bangladesh and its women have occurred within a social environment that continues to represent a man’s world with male dominance. Women’s participation is challenging the foundations of patriarchy (Kabeer 2016) and hegemonic masculinity (Connell 1987) contributing towards a more sustainable world where no one should be left behind (United Nations 2018) in the opportunities to work, study and fully display their potential.

Women in Islam

Muslim women may be challenged with varied experiences within and between diverse societies and cultures, but they share adherence to Islam, which affects their lifestyle, quite often to a large extent. It also gives them a communal identity that assists in connecting eclectic social, cultural and economic differences. According to Bae (2016, 7), religious “[b]eliefs are not only reflections of our being but they facilitate our orientations to our respective realities”. In this sense, religion is a societal identifier, a way of “being in the world” (Lindquist and Coleman 2008, 15) and part of the social and economic environment that connects and ties together the particular individual – be it male or female, and society.

Religious influence, however, can be used to justify gender inequality within a broader context of patriarchy or male dominance which can be found in any place where men continue to believe in “false entitlements to unequal power” (Carabí and Armengol 2014, 2). The impediments confronted by women in emerging Muslim economies are nonetheless more complex as they exploit factors, such as illiteracy, tradition and isolation, to make people blindly believe in the religious interpretations by predominantly male Islamic fundamentalists, rather than to study, discover and build a personal understanding of their own faith.

Islam’s basic concept of men and women claims that they are to functionally complement each other and similar to everything else in the universe, have been created in a pair where one is incomplete without the other (Eaton 2000). Both, “men and women are equal in God’s sight” (The Oxford Dictionary of Islam 2019, para. 1). Although Islam separates the social functions of men and women – a woman’s duties being within the periphery of her home where she is the dominant member, and a man’s sphere being the outside world, this distinction is not practically as unbending as it may appear (Murata 1992). Many Muslim women have held and continue to be part of the political power. In Islamic history and contemporary society, there are examples of Muslim women’s exemplary contribution to public life where they have served as queens, elected heads of state or parliament and influential business administrators or entrepreneurs. Bangladeshi’s current and a former prime minister – Sheikh Hasina and Khalida Zia, are such examples.

Although socially defined by religion, the status of women in contemporary Muslim societies is not predominantly directed by Qur’anic scripts but by the prevailing cultural norms, such as patriarchy, economic invisibility and hegemonic masculinity. Hence, tensions exist between those interested in maintaining patriarchy and those advocating that Muslim women should be liberated (The Oxford Dictionary of Islam 2019). None of these two positions provides a meaningful foundation for achieving sustainable development as they oppose the two genders rather than generate a common ground for synergies and complementarity in tackling the challenges of planetary health and economic prosperity.

Within this context, even the use of terms such as “women’s empowerment” is questionable. Women already have the ability to bear another life for nine months, give birth, nurse and raise infants, and do not need to receive permission or authority from the opposite gender to be able to carry out other duties. Moreover, women should not see themselves or be seen as weak and lacking confidence as such attitudes are unjustifiable and can be degrading.

In Islam, the conservative role of women overshadows that of men – family and home are considered to be the centre of their existence and a man’s profession is not to take precedence over the realm of his personal and family life (Eaton 2000). However, this guidance is seldom observed. Instead, women’s role is subjugated to that of their partners and any contributions within the home are left unnoticed. The economic system, including national accounts and the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as its main indicator, reinforces this “man’s world” as it does not explicitly recognise work in the home, in subsistence agriculture or in raising children. It measures goods and services that are traded outside the home (Messac 2018) – the realm of men in general and excludes women’s domestic and care responsibilities. Hence, it is the market-based economic development and the monetary estimates of production introduced in the 1950s (United Nations 1953) that have disempowered women by making their contributions to society invisible.

Within the current system of national income and GDP accounting women (and men for that matter) are left with the choice of embracing the new economic realities, including the labour market and political life outside the home, or remain economically invisible by dedicating numerous hours to unpaid domestic and care work. One of the sustainable development goals calls for recognising and valuing the work in the family and home (the realm of Muslim women), and “shared responsibility within the household and family” (United Nations n.d.) in order to allow more time for female participation in the paid workforce. With a history of women forming movements to assert their rights and who do not wait to be “empowered” socially or religiously, Bangladesh is witnessing a strong female participation in the country’s labour force increasingly evolving with each passing year.

Women in Bangladesh

The patterns of female employment opportunities throughout the world have experienced considerable transformation. Bangladesh, as well as other Asian countries, such as Pakistan, Indonesia and the Middle East, have augmented the economic and employment involvement of women (World Economic Forum 2018). Population growth rate in the country where 49% of people are women, has begun to slow down and reached 1.03% in 2019 compared to over 2% in the 1990s (World Population Review 2019). The reduction in the total fertility rate to 2.1 children per woman compared to 4 in the 1990s (World Bank 2019a) has also allowed more time to be spent on activities outside the home. Women in Bangladesh, similar to other Muslim countries, are constantly transforming established perceptions about their role and place within the public realm. They are increasingly engaging with the broader society and the economy. In addition to employment, women have become active participants in politics. While the share of women in parliament in some Muslim countries, such as Yemen, Oman and Qatar, is still very low below at around 10%, in Bangladesh this has reached 21% (Inter-Parliamentary Union 2019).

Gender-based disparities are measured by the World Economic Forum (2018) based on four indicators, namely: economic participation and opportunity, educational attainment, health and survival, and political empowerment. Ranked 48th out of 149 countries, in 2018 Bangladesh is performing better than even industrialised countries, such as the United States which ranked 51st. Its achievements are particularly prominent in the area of health and survival where it scores 0.969 (out of 1), education with a score of 0.95 (out of 1) and political empowerment with a score of 0.526 (out of 1). This makes it the top-ranking country in South Asia and second among the lower middle-income countries with a combined score of 0.721 (out of 1) indicating that Bangladesh has closed 72% of the overall gender gap (World Economic Forum 2018). Bangladesh also ranks 5th in the world in political empowerment (World Economic Forum 2018).

These are significant accomplishments for a country that began its history as an independent nation only in 1972. During this time, Bangladeshi women have had to reconcile and renegotiate their religious and social values. Launched as a secular country after its independence, women have been an esteemed part of the movement for the preservation and official use of the Bengali language, emancipation and economic development in recent decades. They have continuously raised their voices against violence, oppression and gender discrimination at home and also in the workplace. Bangladesh, acknowledged as a Muslim state with a society arguably dominated by men, has indeed been a role model in experiencing an appreciable reformation in its social and communal scenario. Women’s contribution to policy and decision-making has played an effective role in the country’s societal achievements. Bangladesh has been one of the few countries to achi...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• List of illustrations
• Acknowledgments
• List of contributors
• Introduction: Changing prospects for Muslim women in the global economy
• PART 1: Gender policies and economic participation
• PART 2: Negotiating the workplace
• PART 3: Opportunities in the global economy
• Index