Women Empowerment Through Islamic Microfinance Schemes in Bangladesh

Abul Hassan, Salah Al Shalhoob, Yaser Ahmad Fallatah and Toseef Azid

Chapter 26 in Economic Empowerment of Women in the Islamic World:Theory and Practice, 2020, pp 547-576 from World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

Abstract: Islamic microfinance programs have been used, for some time in Bangladesh, as an instrument to empower women and fight poverty. Women are specifically targeted by Islamic microfinance under the rural development scheme of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), which provides interest-free loans and many other benefits to the women groups involved. The main aim of this chapter is two-fold: firstly, to check for a positive relationship between Islamic microfinance and the socio-economic empowerment of women and secondly, to explore the perspective in which Islamic microfinance packages function in Bangladesh and how the system of their performance can be enhanced. A structured questionnaire survey method was employed to see the socioeconomic empowerment of the women through Islamic microfinance program and under what circumstances would such a program be more useful? The results of this study show that the growth in women’s revenues and resources plays an important role in improving women’s financial freedom and sense of self-possession. However, a significant policy lesson from this study is that, it is essential to redirect Islamic microfinance to more sectors and more beneficiaries, in order to spread its benefits in the developmental activities, which will drive the contribution toward the socio-economic empowerment of the recipients and toward the socio-economic development of the country, in the long-run.

Keywords: Islam; Gender Studies; Women Studies; Quran; Sunnah; Female Empowerment; Shariah; Prophet Muhammad; Business in Islam; Patriarchal Fundamentalism; Secular Feminism; Women's Rights; Human Rights; Aceh; Gender Empowerment Measure; Globalization; Press Freedom; Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; Education; Arab World; Nanofinance; Microfinance; Labour; Ottoman Empire; Iran; Waqaf; Waqf; Malaysia; Pakistan; Singapore; Dual-Income Households; Bangladesh; Food Security; Human Capital; Saudi Arabia; Turkey (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 J16 O1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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