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Women and children crowd in to see how Ruma shows me her writing.
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Neighbors peek through the window of Ruma’s place.
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“My house is small,” says Ruma in English when we approach her place. She invites me (right) to take a seat on her bed.
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“I love Nari Jibon,” says Ruma.
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Ruma is proud of her writing skills, and shows her exercises in her home.
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Fatima, on the left, helps produce men’s pants in a garment factory eleven hours a day starting at seven in the morning. Today, she got off at one o’ clock.
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Ruma’s daughter-in-law, Lovely, starts work in a garment factory in August. She will sew on buttons. Ruma wants to teach writing and reading to her three-year-old son Rapi.
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Bubbling away in the afternoon: Ruma’s pot of egg curry is on the second flame frome the right in the shared kitchen.
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Published July 14, 2009

A quiet fragile woman in a bright yellow sari drifts in and out of the doorframe of the computer room. Sixty-five-year old Ruma has been with Nari Jibon since the beginning of the project in March 2005. She helps the tailoring students, brings tea, and welcomes guests at Nari Jibon.

Project

Bangladesh: The (Un)Power of Women

As U.S. citizens missed their chance to elect a woman for president for the first time in 2008, Bangladeshis elected a female prime minister past December for the fourth time. Sheik Hasina is currently one of 11 female heads of state worldwide according to the Council of Women World Leaders (Aspen Institute).
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September 21, 2009 / The WIP

Hit or Miss

Stine Eckert
September 3, 2009 / Untold Stories

Bangladesh: Stine Eckert sums up the situation of women in Bangladesh

Stine Eckert
Stine Eckert, Pulitzer Student Fellow
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