What I do in Bangladesh

My family and friends have been asking for a bit of narrative about what I am doing here.  It would have been a bit easier a few months ago, before my responsibilities multiplied.

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I am in Dhaka city more often than I was before, because I am now interning for the UNDP (United Nations Development Programme).  At least 3 days a week I go to the IDB Bhaban, where the majority of UN offices in Bangladesh are housed.  Some of my assignments are really interesting–monitoring the bills in Parliament, for example; others are less exciting.  Today, for example, I’m translating parliamentary committee lists into English.  Not so fun, but also not so taxing.

My second responsibility is to the Char Fasson Orphanage.  When I am in Char Fasson, I sleep in a guest room on the second floor of a building that used to house all the children.  Now, it’s in such bad repair that all the children live in two separate buildings on either side of the original structure.  The orphanage provides a good place from which to conduct my research, but I spend a great deal of time doing no research at all.  Instead, I am often hanging out with the children, helping them to play on the computer I brought for them, taking pictures, and showing pictures.  This past week, T and I helped to write a proposal for Save the Children, which would provide up to $40,000 for livestock, salaries, construction, etc at the orphanage.  The goal is to make the orphanage self-sustaining, so that it does not have to depend on either the government or individual donors for its financial stability.

My third responsibility (rather, the first) is to my dissertation research.  This component involves a number of different activities: listening to the conversations of those with whom I am familiar in Char Fasson, interviews with various religious officials and leaders, and observation of a number of religious events.  As I’ve noted in previous posts, some of my best ‘data’ comes quite unexpectedly, but I like to think that’s it’s all a part of placing myself in the right situations and keeping my eyes and ears open.  My research is essentially about the application of Islamic law in rural areas.  I have yet to decide, though, if the final dissertation will be more about women’s interaction with systems of law or on the issues of religious knowledge of various religious officials in the rural area.  Right now, I’m trying to focus on these things called salish courts; they are local courts which are assumed to have a certain right to operate, merely because the participants agree to abide by the decision of the local ‘judge’.  But the people who sit and make judgments in these courts are not trained in law necessarily. They are chosen because they are supposed to be honest, trust-worthy people who will make a just decision.

That’s a fairly good summary of what I’m doing here.  There are lots of other details that consume my life–heat, mosquitos, (lack of) electricity–but that’s all supposed to be secondary to my ‘real’ tasks.  I think at this point–six and a half months in–that it’s fair to say that I’m a fairly good fieldworker, but my strong point really is in my self-awareness of what I’m doing.  I hope that some of my future publications will be about the process of doing fieldwork and the challeneges that arise, especially as a non-Muslim woman working in a patriarchal Muslim area.

Third parties and the possibility of Gossip

I had the idea, back in the States, that I would come to Char Fasson, perhaps hear stories from Shiraz, Rashida, or other people, and then go to the person about whom I had heard those stories and ask them directly to tell me about their experiences. I expected that in some cases people would refuse. I didn’t really expect people to outright lie.

I shouldn’t say that yet. In fact, it’s not fair to assume that Muzammel is lying to me.  After our short interview (literally 6 minutes), he followed me downstairs and conspiratorially whispered that he would tell me “everything” later.  But during the interview, he denied everything that I had heard about his situation.  The story was particularly interesting, as I had heard it told by others: his daughter had borrowed money from an NGO (micro-credit), but had not been able to pay it back.  Her husband then threatened to Muzammel that if he didn’t offer the money, he would beat the daughter.  But according to Muzammel, it was his wife who borrowed the money, and then, for reasons not clear to me, re-loaned it out to others.  Now they have had to sell their land and their house to pay back the debt.

The topics I’m interested in are often very sensitive for people… I knew that before I started.  But I’ve found myself a bit flustered over how to broach such topics with people. How well should I know them before I start asking about dowery?  Is it rude to ask about things such as second-wives? As I have said before, often the best research information is rather ‘dropped’ into my lap when I least expect it.

The Informant

I have never liked the term ‘informant’, but I like it better than ’subject.’ If not for writing purposes, at least for research purposes it is necessary to understand the role of an informant. I am so very very fortunate to have two people with whom I closely work, and they are amazing. Seraj is the director of the orphanage, and his wife Rashida makes most of my meals. Seraj speaks very clear English, which is obviously very helpful to me, but he is not a research assistant. But the way I think of it, you need an informant who is uncommonly aware of the world around him/her, but leads a common life. Seraj does not make much money and really did not have much education, but he is honest, kind, and wise. Rashida does not know much English, but she has quick intuition and an uncanny sense about people.

Seraj explains the various pir-sahebs who have come to the area

Because I’ve become very close to Rashida and Seraj, I’ve also had a close, intimate look at the everyday life of a rural Bangladeshi family. Some of my best conversations are held as I sit with Rashida in their cooking room, as she prepares meals for the day. This is also the place where other local women will come to talk, ask for money (knowing that Rashida, poor as she is, will have trouble refusing), or to plead their children’s cases.

The Interview

The setting of the formal interview makes me very nervous, and I’ve found that such interviews are less overall helpful to my research than the informal, everyday conversations that I engage in with people I have come to know. When I sit down for the interview, I find myself stumbling over the Bengali, and when I listen to my digital recordings, I feel a bit ashamed that I sound like a first-year learner. But in other settings, I am able to gain quite a bit of information about a number of topics, sometimes unexpectedly!

And then of course there are always obstacles to interviewing. Take, for example, this week. Tomorrow is Qurbani Eid (Eid al-Adha). It’s a holiday, but even in the 5 days leading up to Eid, I’ve had a hard time setting up interviews, because no one is working and some have returned to homes not in the nearby area. And I didn’t have enough time, in those 5 days, to make some of the short trips necessary for other interviews. I guess the up-side is that I have a whole day of participant-observation tomorrow, as the eid-gah (place for communal prayer) is right outside my door!