‘Transnationalism reversed’: Engaging religion, development and women's organizing in Bangladesh

SynopsisThis paper situates women's activism in Bangladesh within the intersecting forces of rising religious extremism, transnational feminism, and global capitalist development. My work here seeks to illuminate intra-movement tensions in the context of women's organizing in Bangladesh to theorize and imagine feminist alliances that are more equitable and just across borders of nation, class and community. At once complicit and transformative, I look at the contradictory spaces women's groups are carving out within multiple constraining power structures. Moving beyond a dualistic framework that posits development and women's rights in opposition to religion and oppression, which serves a narrow and elitist agenda, I call for a more serious engagement with the transnational dependency links and accountability on all sides for forging more equitable and democratic struggles and alliances.