Inter-Asia Cultural Studies

ISSN: 1464-9373 (Print) 1469-8447 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/riac20

Formulating an agenda for the women's

movement: a review of Naripokkho
Firdous Azim
To cite this article: Firdous Azim (2001) Formulating an agenda for the women's
movement: a review of Naripokkho, Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 2:3, 389-394, DOI:
10.1080/14649370120096512
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14649370120096512

Published online: 09 Dec 2010.

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Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, Volume 2, Number 3, 2001

Formulating an agenda for the womens movement: a

review of Naripokkho

Downloaded by [Queensland University of Technology] at 10:59 23 October 2015

Firdous AZIM

Naripokkho is a womans activist organization in Bangladesh. Coming into being in

1983, it has tried, through the 18 years of its
existence, to keep up a core of discussion and
consultations amongst its members, which
then forms the launching pad for its activities.
It started as a small group of women, as an
absolutely voluntary and membership based
organization, which would meet every Tuesday, to discuss whatever issue seemed to the
women to be import to the lives of women in
Bangladesh. Eighteen years on, the nature of
the organization has transformed, but what
we have held on to are the Tuesday sessions,
where we still brainstorm, debate and thrash
out issues and concepts.
A short pro le of the organization is as
follows.
Naripokkho is a womens activist organization founded in 1983. It undertakes advocacy, research and training on various issues
related to womens rights and development.
Naripokkho s work revolves around the following four themes:
violence against women and human rights;
reproductive rights and women s health;
gender issues in the environment and development; and
representation of women in media and cultural politics.

The organization is supported by its membership, which represents a wide variety of

skills and expertise in different disciplines,
through their voluntary contribution of professional time and funds.
Naripokkho is an activist womens organi-

zation and sees itself as a vanguard as well as

an integral part of the women s movement.
Naripokkhos af nities and similarities with
other womens organizations and groups, lie
in the cause of ghting for womens rights
and for creating a better social environment
for women. While we recognize and respond
to the need to build solidarity to create a
common vision of the future, we nevertheless
hold on to an autonomous identity and clearly
articulate our differences of opinion or approach even from those other groups, which
together can be seen to form the womens
movement in the country. This gives us the
space and opportunity to work as a tight
group, which responds on the ground to issues concerning women in Bangladesh.
At the same time that Naripokkho has
prioritized the mobilization of local level
women s groups in building an autonomous
women s movement, it continues to participate in collaborative activities and coalitions
with other national level womens organizations on speci c issues and programmes.
I will point to some of the processes and
events that have led to the evolution of the
organization. I do not intend to follow
through all the processes that have culminated in all our various activities, but will
concentrate on our emphasis on the issue of
violence against women and our experience
with consensus and coalition building.

De ning movements
There are certain key moments in our history
which perhaps have led to the mixed nature

ISSN 1464-9373 Print/ISSN 1469-8447 Online/01/030389 06

DOI: 10.1080/ 14649370120096512

2001 Taylor & Francis Ltd

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390 Firdous Azim

of the organization, and that perhaps will
emerge as our de ning characteristics.
The rst such moment I would locate in
1985, when from a small discussion and consciousness-raising group, we rst made an
impact on the public/political arena. 1985 was
a year when the then military dictator of the
country had clamped down on all political
activities, and political groups were working
out ways in which to make their presence felt
in the public eye. Towards this end, a huge
mobilization against violence against women
was undertaken. As a womans group, we
welcomed the attention that the issue was
getting in the public eye, and participated
whole-heartedly in the mobilization movement. But it was at this point that differences
between the womens groups and the
women s wings of political parties started becoming apparent. At one level, violence was
being used in an instrumental manner, and
hence the incidences of rape, assault and murder were being cited as examples of `law and
order breakdowns. For womens groups, this
was an opportunity to highlight the endemic
nature of violence against women in our societies, to bring out issues of discrimination,
deprivation and disadvantage and to relate
individual incidents of violence to the general
insecurities of women s lives. Hence, under
the leadership of Naripokkho, womens
groups formed a separate caucus and tried to
get their voices heard over the cry of `law and
order breakdown.
The difference in approach helped us
de ne a difference of interest, whereas
amongst the political circles this was seen as
an unhelpful and even diversionary tactic.
This also alerted us to the need for strategizing before becoming involved in larger political movements, and to the need for making
public our standpoints on political issues as
they related to womens social and political
positioning. This was a great learning experience for us. Henceforth, our discussion sessions became more focused, debating issues of
national importance and relating the womens
question to them. We also learnt the ways of
using the press and organizing discussion
meetings to take our standpoints to a larger
audience, of building consensus around our

views and standpoints, and hence building

alliances based on this preliminary work. The
experience of `consciousness-raising at the individual level, which was perhaps what we
were doing up until this point, was extended
to a wider public sphere.
The other thing that we have carried from
this moment is that the issue of violence
against women has remained the base for
most of our activities and programmes. At
that moment in 1985, we were concerned with
extending the concept of violence to include
considerations of sexual and social women s
positioning, to follow through the various
stages of womens lives and to trace the history of deprivation and discrimination as part
of the cycle of violence. At times, this extended de nition is what has been most helpful in bringing about an understanding of
womens place in society, at others we have
used a more restricted de nition, concentrating on physical and sexual violence, to help us
focus on ways of combating violence against
women. The whole process of discussion is
very helpful in keeping up this uidity, making everything a process rather than a goal to
be achieved or a target to be met. It also
makes for a very dynamic group, which is
always ready to rethink and consider issues
that may have been considered to be resolved.
If 1985 was a great learning moment for
us, then 1988 can be identi ed as the period
when we put some of these lessons to use.
Naripokkho mounted a huge campaign
against a proposed constitutional amendment
that would make Islam the state religion of
the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh. Our
stand on secularism was very clear, and we
insisted that the state had no right to legislate
on peoples religious beliefs or practices, nor
could it incorporate religion as one of the
de ning principles of a republic or state. We
used our standpoints on gender equality to
talk about the equality of all citizens of the
state, regardless of religion, and of the states
duty to treat all its citizens equally. Other
constitutional anomalies also came to the fore
at this point, especially regarding personal
laws pertaining to inheritance, marriage, divorce and family life, which are governed by
religious laws. Not only are religious laws

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A review of Naripokkho 391

discriminatory against women, but they also
discriminate against citizens on the basis of
their religious identities. We made alliances
across groups, including political parties,
other women and citizens groups and human
rights groups. But having taken the lead on
the issue, and being clear as to its importance
and signi cance, we were able to deal with
differences, and to make our voices clearly
heard this time round. We instituted a writ
petition stating that this amendment was contrary to the spirit of the constitution, and
would work against the establishment of the
equality of rights of its citizens.
It was thus very early on in our history
that we emerged as a strong actor in the civil
political life of the country. However, acceptance has always been a problem we have
constantly been relegated to the margins, but
as a marginal voice, we were strong and were
successful in making ourselves heard. We also
have to guard our autonomy as a womens
group very strongly, because there is always
an effort to see us as part of some other
political alliance or movement. Forming alliances or joining them, while jealously guarding the autonomy of our standpoints, is a real
challenge, and a lot of our time is spent discussing strategy.
So far, I have traced how a small womens
group could, within 5 years of its existence,
make its presence felt nationally. The 1980s
was also the decade of globalization, and with
the UN Declaration of the Decade for Women
in 1975, a lot of womens development activities had already begun in the country. All
major NGOs and development organizations
had women s development added on to their
agendas, and both at the donor level (i.e.
internationally) and government level (nationally) the focus on womens development was
strong. We as a womans membership organization were placed somewhat differently
within this whole discourse. We were not a
development or a service delivery organization, but we were nevertheless demanding
equal rights and resource allocations for
women. Much of our membership was composed of `development workers, and we were
all involved with the issue of national development and the place of women. Conducting

workshops with women workers of development organizations was one of our rst activities. Initially, these workshops consisted of
relating personal experiences and building up
a social understanding of gender position
from our own lives. The next step was to use
these workshops to build standpoints on the
issue of womens development, and to
in uence NGO policy or even governmental
policy as they affected women s social and
political positioning. Workshops led to consultancies, and we found ourselves active
players in the debate on women and development, of women s relation to national development and women s economic roles.
This experience and background work
helped us at this juncture to get involved with
the preparatory activities centring around the
International Conference on Population and
Development (ICPD) in Cairo in 1994, and the
Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. We had not participated in the
Nairobi Conference in 1985, but by now we
had enough of a national presence to make an
input into the national activities leading to
both the Cairo and Beijing conferences. Given
that we have always emphasized womens
understanding of their experiences, we used
the preparatory Beijing activities to consult
with small and local level women s organizations who are based all over the country.
Many of these organizations are completely
outside any national forum, and do not have
the linkages by which women can form a
common platform to debate and mobilize
around the issues, as Naripokkho had learnt.
While this was a way that we could link the
local, the national and the international, we
also recognized the need for formal linkages
within the nation itself.
This is when Naripokkho went through
another very important transformatory moment: 1994 1995. To establish this link or network between womens groups all over the
country, we felt we needed a permanent of ce
with permanent staff. This was a dif cult and
much-debated decision, because I think everyone was aware of the fundamental nature of
this transformation. With this we became a
membership organization that runs certain
projects: a network project and a study on

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392 Firdous Azim

violence against women. These programmes
have now proliferated: the networking project
has really been expanded and is being consolidated, the pilot research on violence has now
made Naripokkho a researcher on the issue
on a cross-national research formulated by the
World Health Organization. Moreover, as an
offshoot of the research on violence, a project
that monitors services for women survivors is
also working, with observers posted in police
stations, special courts and hospitals. The voluntary work goes on apace: all these programmes or projects have inputs from
Naripokkho membership through special
working and consultative committees. Keeping the womens question alive through campaigns and the press is part of our everyday
work.

Building an agenda
Asked to review or describe Naripokkhos
work, I think all members would emphasize
the discussion process through which we
de ne our positions. The emphasis has always
been, not on some theoretical approach or
understanding of issues, but our own working
through of these problems and concepts. Of
course not one of us comes to this forum with
a blank slate or a tabula rasa: previous work
and academic, and even life, experience
guides our conversations and our concerns.
While this kind of openness has remained a
source of strength, it has also led to confusions regarding public perceptions of the
group. We have often seemed inconsistent, we
ourselves have been hesitant to proceed without the consensus of the group and have
perhaps been tardy in our response to situations that needed more immediate action. As
we were initially a small group based on
membership only, our subsequent interactions
with governmental and international agencies
were not immediately justi able to many, and
there had to be a lot of soul searching before
the organization could take on funded
projects and programmes. Again, these are the
practicalities of the situations, and organizational response has been guided based on
those. However, if we are talking about

agenda building, we do need to formulate a

more conceptual framework for the organization.
Perhaps this is the point at which we need
to talk generally about the women s movement in Bangladesh. Looking for the `origins
of this movement, we can trace it back to a
nationalistic discourse, taking its roots in the
various movements for national independence
that make up our history. The Liberation War
of 1971 and the emergence of Bangladesh as a
nation-state, created a national sphere in
which different national interests found space
to voice their demands and to take their place
as active agents in the new nation. Women s
participation in the War of Liberation, although cited, was however, in the early years
after independence, seen either as an auxiliary
role women as nurses, carriers, messengers
and so on
or else women were seen as
`dishonoured victims of rape. Bangladesh
had also come into being as a war-torn and
devastated nation, and the rst years of its
history are marked by famine and poverty. By
the middle of the 1970s, `development became the keyword in Bangladesh, and the
country was a ripe eld where different agencies, both national and international, experimented with different approaches to, and
models of, development. Women were right
at the centre of these approaches, mainly as
bene ciaries or `targets of development exercises.
Coming into being in 1983, Naripokkho
was placed in a situation where the women s
autonomy of being or activity was seen as
`participation, both in the nationalist/historical discourse and de nitely in the development approaches. Seen within this context,
Naripokkhos initial emphasis on women s
rst-hand experiences in our early workshops
was really innovative. Theoretical reconsiderations of the status of the womans rst-person voice as the purveyor of women s
experiences or as a way into women s consciousness were rife at the time Naripokkho
came into being. We, however, felt that we
were living at a time and place when we had
to tap into womens perceptions of their lives
and situations to create an agenda that would
speak on behalf of women. It was also during

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A review of Naripokkho 393

this period that concepts of `women in development or WID were being challenged and
the word `gender was replacing `women in
the development discourse. Programmes and
projects in Bangladesh acted as the elds
where these concepts were tried out. But
keeping outside these conceptual frameworks,
we tried to focus on the individual woman, to
valorize her understanding, and formulate an
activist feminist agenda based on that understanding.
While doing that, we realized that the formulation of a conceptual framework and the
exigencies of public activism in Bangladesh go
hand in hand. What Naripokkhos experience
or history can hold up for the women s movement as a whole, and even theoretically, is a
re-examination of the status of womens
voices and womens experiences. While WID
led to GAD (Gender and Development), or
women s development issues were seen to be
part of the gendered power structures and
hierarchies within society and culture, the operative word seems to have become `empowerment. This term is used to denote all kinds
of activities and programmes. Our building
on women s voices has allowed us to bring a
more informed and nuanced understanding of
the factors leading to womens overall subordination. The issue of power and its effects
within the family and the community has
always been central in our discussions. So
when the development discourse came up
with the concept of `empowerment , we could
bring to the discourse our own understanding
of the term. In one way we can see ourselves
as a voice in tandem or collaboration with the
theoretical bases of the development discourse. In another we can be seen as voices of
opposition who, if not from below, at least
from the eld, as it were, engage with, and
hope to in uence and transform the main
terms of the discourse.
Our work can also be seen as an effort to
create an alternative site or source of knowledge. It is interesting to see how we place or
position ourselves as a group Do we see ourselves as mediators between the international
spheres that decide the fates of `third-world
peoples? That is one way of interpreting the
interventions we say we have made in the

overall approach to womens development in

the country. Creating the links between the
local, the national and the international levels
places us on the level of an intermediary.
Bringing `grass-roots voices to the national or
the international levels is also the function of
an intermediary. This role, no matter how
crucial, can only be of limited value.
The same role can be seen as that of an
intervention, and of seriously reformulating
and redirecting social and political thought.
This is perhaps the task that needs to be
performed more systematically at this juncture. We are standing at the threshold of
another de ning moment of our history as an
organization. This is the juncture at which we
have to take our perceptions to become part of
the way in which womens issues are brought
into discourse and policy and to wrest our
standpoints based on our experiences as an
organization in the mainstream of thinking
about women. In 1985, we formulated a new
de nition of `violence in order to understand
the position of women, and successfully took
this de nition to a wider audience. This
changed the way that violence against women
was thought about and resisted. As we have
seen, our subsequent activism has centred on
this concept. We have provided a dynamic
enough space that allows us to modify
de nitions of violence in particular contexts.
That same moment in 1985 had also taught
us alliance-building skills. This is a skill we
have built on in our subsequent activism.
Besides putting into place a network of
women s organizations all over Bangladesh,
we have worked with various kinds of groups
on different issues. Our alliance building and
networking has also brought to focus the concept of difference and diversity within
women. The dif culties of incorporating diverse women s groups rst came to the fore
when we collaborated with a group of brothel
residents to resist an eviction threat to their
brothel. It was not only that we had to work
to make the voices of women who were
known to be sex workers heard, we also had
to grapple with the differences between `us
and `them. This difference was not just one of
social and sexual positioning, but differences
in strategy and approach. This also high-

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394 Firdous Azim

lighted to us the importance of sexuality in
de ning womens social positioning. While
rights of sex workers were easy to articulate
and ght for, womens sexuality of exploitation and agency, of commodi cation and
desire were more dif cult to analyse and to
bring into public discourse. Again, if we go
back to the beginning, gendered power relations within the family were part of our initial
intense discussions. Now this understanding
has to be spread over a larger variety of
situations in which women live and grow,
and to look at sexual arrangements within
society and the ways in which they affect
women.
The history of our organization can per-

haps show the way that small groups working

and thinking intensively together are spaces
where concepts can be debated and formulated, as well as spaces that can devise ways
through which the rights of women can be
fought for and even attained. Questions of
womens subordination form the focus of
womens groups, and this can help to focus
on working towards the attainment of equality and freedom.

Authors biography
Firdous AZIM is a member of Naripokkho and a
professor in the Department of English, University
of Dhaka.