Paper short abstract:

This paper explains how the political discourse around equalizing inheritance rights has differed from other areas of economic empowerment for women in Bangladesh, and why this has posed such obstacles for the implementation of the country’s National Women Development Policy of Bangladesh.

Paper long abstract:

Inheritance rights are among the most contentious areas of family law in countries where family matters for Muslims are guided by shari'a or Islamic principles. The National Women Development Policy or NWDP of Bangladesh includes a clause said to be promoting equal inheritance rights between men and women, with religious right wing opposition this clause, particularly from Islami Oikyo Jote and later Hefazat-e-Islam, long stifling the policy from effective implementation. And yet the clause does not exist in the policy, and the policy itself has no binding legal authority. This study analyses the reasons why this imaginary clause has posed such obstacles relative to many other of the NWDP's very real directives on women's economic empowerment. Using systematic process analysis and data drawn from government documents, expert interviews, and newspaper archives, my analysis compares the political discourse around attempts at protecting women's rights in the law and economic development policies on women to reveal why the latter has been so much more successful in enhancing women's empowerment than the former.