Global-Local Interactions: First Three Decades of The Women’s Movement in Bangladesh

The main focus of this paper is to look into the feminist formulations with particular emphasis on global–local interactions and its impact in shaping the contours of the women’s movement in Bangladesh. The time frame of this study covers the first three decades of Bangladesh i.e. 1971-2000. The paper reveals that the feminist formulations are not the sole prerogative of the women’s organisations or the feminists alone. There are several sites and platforms where feminist articulations are made. The women’s movement, while making its own articulations, is also engaged in a dialogue with other actors in the wider domain of feminism. Among other actors and sites of feminist formulations, the state and global feminism have come out as two major sites, with which the women’s movement is constantly interacting, shaping and being shaped in its journey of feminist developments. This study made use of qualitative research methodology, conducting in-depth interviews and collecting life stories of key protagonists of the women’s movement, and blending such primary data with secondary source materials.