Students Name: Shiyun Li

Date: 03/05/2017
The Assignment Description: Short Report Rough Draft

Status of Women in Bangladesh

Introduction
The rights of women in Bangladesh to pursue freedom and equality have always been
a hit, and currently the rights are under attack by the increasingly power of the
government. The marriage rate for girls by the age of 15 is the highest in Bangladesh
compared to other countries in the world. This report evaluates the status of womens
empowerment in Bangladesh in these four aspects: marriage, womens access to
education, economic independence and divorce. Generally speaking, though
Bangladesh has made huge efforts to eliminate gender inequality, women still lack the
equal rights compared to men. Of note is that the situation is deteriorating due to a
newly passed law for child marriage.

Marriage
In Bangladesh, the minimum legal age to marry is 18 for girls and 21 for boys
separately, but this is poorly implemented and the punishment for violating this law is
not severe. Although Bangladesh has made progress in ending child marriage, it still
has the highest child marriage rates throughout the world. Moreover, around 15% of
girls are less than 18 when they get married (Brides, 2017).
For the past two years Bangladesh has made some efforts to end child marriage, such
as becoming a member of two international human rights conventions on womens
rights and childrens rights, or making commitments that the government will end all
child marriage by 2041. But progress on implementing the plans has always been
slow. Recently, a law at the request of Prime Minister of Bangladesh is passed that
judges are allowed to authorize girls at all ages to get married in special cases such
as accidental or unlawful pregnancy. This move will definitely undermine the
womens rights in marriage (Brides, 2017).

Womens Access to Education

Considerable progress has been made in Bangladesh in the past twenty years by
ensuring girls access to education, especially in terms of basic education. The net rate
of enrollment in aspect of primary schools for children in Bangladesh has increased
from 80% to almost 100% in the past 15 years. Bangladesh has gained apparent
achievement in gender parity. In addition, either at primary or further levels between
the highest and lowest consumption quintiles Bangladesh has achieved remarkable
decreases in disparities (Bangladesh | Educate a Child, 2017).
However, things are not looking good. Despite these and other achievements, because
of the newly passed law in Bangladesh in terms of child marriage, girls are at a
concerned risk of being deceived or forced by their parents or their husbands to give
up study at a young age. Repetition, which measures how many times students drop
and go back to the same grade as well as dropout rates are still significant in
Bangladesh. Recent data tells us that only about 50% of students who start from the
first grade can actually reach the 10th grade. Almost five million children in
Bangladeshi under 13 remain out of school, most of them are from either remote or
poor areas. From the statistics we can see that women are still left behind. After
engagement into marriage, child brides usually had to give up their study, even for the
ones whose family were unwilling to stop their daughters study (Bangladesh |
Educate a Child, 2017).

Economic Independence
Generally speaking, women in Bangladesh are not economically independent. Though
it is said that marriage can offer economic security for many in the country, it can also
cause serious problems like financial difficulty due to quitting jobs, which mostly
results from social and family pressure in Bangladesh. Moreover, womens abilities to
participate in work with salaries are reduced due to the double burden of household
work and in marriage women in Bangladesh lack control over income and savings.
According to Bangladesh government data, over 300,000 women are now divorced. A
considerable number of women are living separately from their husbands. Marital
instability has been attributed as a main reason to ultra and extreme poverty by the
United Nations country team in Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Planning Commission
has reported the more severe vulnerability of women to divorce or abandonment
(Girls Rights Hang in the Balance in Bangladesh, 2017).

Divorce
As stated above in child marriage, 15% of all Bangladeshi women are married by the
age of 18, and because women get better education and can earn their own money,
they're aware to refuse to stay trapped in violent marriages (Why women are driving
divorce in Bangladesh's capital - BBC News, 2017).
Even thats the case, Bangladeshs individual laws in terms of marriage, separation,
and divorce still slightly show discrimination against women. Many laws have been
set differently for various religious people for decades or more than a century ago.
These laws--such as giving ultra-rights to Muslim men to divorce anytime at will but
for women they must ask for their husbands permission --grant men greater powers
than women in marriage and accessing divorce. As a result, women lack deserved
protection and are often trapped in unfair marriages or the risk of ultimate poverty
after divorce by these laws. This leads to unimaginable social and individual problems
for divorced and separated women such as homelessness, bad health and starvation
(Will I Get My Dues Before I Die?, 2017).

Conclusion
In the past two decades Bangladesh has reached considerable achievements in gender
equality. However because of the increase in the power of the government the
situation for women is exacerbating. There is a lot of work remained to be done to
actually obtain gender equality in Bangladesh.

Works Cited

Girls Rights Hang in the Balance in Bangladesh. (2017). Human Rights Watch.
Retrieved 6 March 2017, from https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/02/17/girls-
rights-hang-balance-bangladesh

Bangladesh | Educate a Child. (2017). Educateachild.org. Retrieved 6 March

2017, from http://educateachild.org/our-partners-projects/country/bangladesh

Why women are driving divorce in Bangladesh's capital - BBC News. (2017).
BBC News. Retrieved 6 March 2017, from http://www.bbc.com/news/world-
asia-38462956
Will I Get My Dues Before I Die?. (2017). Human Rights Watch. Retrieved
6 March 2017, from https://www.hrw.org/report/2012/09/17/will-i-get-my-dues-
i-die/harm-women-bangladeshs-discriminatory-laws-marriage

Brides, G. (2017). Bangladesh - Child Marriage Around The World. Girls Not
Brides. Girls Not Brides. Retrieved 6 March 2017, from
http://www.girlsnotbrides.org/child-marriage/bangladesh/