Papers by Mohammad M Salehin
Hexagon series on human and environmental security and peace, 2009
About one fifth of the world population, that is 1.2 billion people, live in extreme income pover... more About one fifth of the world population, that is 1.2 billion people, live in extreme income poverty with less than one US $ a day. Another 1.6 billion have less than two US $ a day (CHS 2003: 73). Most of the poor live in severe livelihood uncertainty and lack ac-cess to basic ...
Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures
An extensive and diverse nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector has long been active in Bangla... more An extensive and diverse nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector has long been active in Bangladesh, engaging in numerous areas and activities, having become integral to socioeconomic development and social mobilization shortly after the birth of the country in 1971. In a country badly af…
This project investigates the relationship between religion, the state, development and Religious... more This project investigates the relationship between religion, the state, development and Religious NGOs (RNGOs) in general and Islamic NGOs in particular in Bangladesh. Based on fieldwork with three Islamic NGOs, and carried out in Bangladesh over the period of July 2010 to February 2011, this research attempts to answer five specific research questions. This research uses qualitative interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation to collect data from beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of Islamic NGOs (including beneficiaries of secular NGOs), NGO officials and local key informants in three districts in Bangladesh. A new form of ‘governmentality’—a pious or sacralised governmentality, as this research argues, emerged in the context of hegemonic neoliberal governmentality. This new form of governmentality is revealed through the practices and programs of the Islamic NGOs, for example, through their practice of ‘entrepreneurial Homo economicus’. Thus Islamic NGOs also changed the ideological structures shaping the lives of rural women through an Islamic version of ‘women empowerment’ and the enhancement of Muslim women’s agency. Although an Islamic ideological construct informs the programs and activities of Islamic NGOs, these NGOs are having a crisis in their Islamic identity due to their alleged connections with Islamists, war-crimes and subsequent state surveillance. Yet, this research argues that in the context of the perceived ‘coercive’ practices of secular NGOs Islamic NGOs have the potential to emerge as an alternative development practice in Bangladesh.
Religion and Gender, 2015
Societies Without Borders, 2014
Hexagon Series on Human and Environmental Security and Peace, 2009
About one fifth of the world population, that is 1.2 billion people, live in extreme income pover... more About one fifth of the world population, that is 1.2 billion people, live in extreme income poverty with less than one US $ a day. Another 1.6 billion have less than two US $ a day (CHS 2003: 73). Most of the poor live in severe livelihood uncertainty and lack ac-cess to basic ...
Sociology of Islam, 2013
The relationship between democracy and Islam is very complex, hence requires a rigorous scholarsh... more The relationship between democracy and Islam is very complex, hence requires a rigorous scholarship to understand this complex interplay. The present paper examines the “success” as well as impediments in democratic consolidation in a Muslim majority state, Bangladesh. Through assessing electoral competitiveness, constitutional guarantees and implementation, women’s rights and political participation, and victory of secular party over Islamist, this paper considers Bangladesh as a “successful” Muslim democracy. Islam, this paper argues, is not a problem in democratization while there are a number of factors obstructing democratization in the Muslim majority states. To analyse the nexus between Islam and democracy, it is imperative to pay meticulous attention to explain the nature of the state and its social formation, origin, nature and practices of Islam in a particular society rather than just labelling Islam as incompatible with democracy. In the Muslim majority state like Bangla...
The present paper aims to understand the role of Islamic NGOs in transforming gender relations in... more The present paper aims to understand the role of Islamic NGOs in transforming gender relations in the rural areas of Bangladesh. Based on fieldwork carried out over the period of July 2010 -February 2011 in Bangladesh, this paper argues that Islamic NGOs have changed the ideological structure shaping the lives of rural women, through the issues of empowerment and piety. Islamic NGOs have been successful in mobilizing women to create a "sense of guilt" regarding interest charges by the microcredit program of non-Islamic NGOs, and have advocated an Islamic version of "women empowerment" by enhancing Muslim women"s agency. Hence, a "different model of gender relations" in contrast to the liberal model is emerging that envisages Muslim women"s piety as central to constructing "good women" which informs the way they appear and behave in the public. For the purpose of the research, qualitative interviews, FGDs, and observations were conduc...
Societies Without Borders
Ahmed, an Egyptian American scholar at the Harvard Divinity School is one of the leading academic... more Ahmed, an Egyptian American scholar at the Harvard Divinity School is one of the leading academics who have long been addressing the complexities intertwined in the Muslim societies regarding conditions and lives of women particularly in the Arab world. Her previous seminal work on Women and Gender in Islam (1993) explores the historical roots and traces the developments in Islamic discourses on women and gender issues spanning form pre-Islamic Middle East to contemporary Arab world. Her latest work A Quiet Revolution (2011) provides a grand narrative of the veiling and unveiling in Egypt and the resurgence of veiling in the US particularly after the 9/11. She combines her personal experiences with the expedition in the Egyptian history to offer a meticulous analysis of social and cultural construction of the meaning, and significance of veiling with the changes in the socio-political context of Egypt. She also depicts a parallel resurgence of the veil in the US with the beginning o...
Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures, 2018
An extensive and diverse nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector has long been active in Bangla... more An extensive and diverse nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector has long been active in Bangladesh, engaging in numerous areas and activities, having become integral to socioeconomic development and social mobilization shortly after the birth of the country in 1971. In a country badly af…
Routledge Contemporary South Asia Series, 2016
NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) have emerged in both a development and aid capacity in Bang... more NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) have emerged in both a development and aid capacity in Bangladesh, providing wide-reaching public services to the country’s population living in extreme poverty. However, resistance to and limitations of NGO-led development - which in conjunction with Bangladesh’s social transformation - led to a new religious-based NGO development practice.
Looking at the role of Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh, the book investigates new forms of neoliberal governmentality supported by international donors. It discusses how this form of social regulation produces and reproduces subjectivities, particularly Muslim women subjectivity, and has combined religious and economic rationality, further complicating the boundaries and the relationship between Islam, modernity, and development. The book argues that both secular and Islamic NGOs target women in the name of empowerment but more importantly as the most reliable partners to meet their debt obligations of micro-financing schemes, including shari’a-based financing. The targeted women, in turn, experience Islamic NGOs as less coercive and more sensitive to their religious environment in the rural village community than are secular NGOs.
Providing a comparative study of the role of religious and secular NGOs in the implementation of neoliberal policies and development strategies, this book will be a significant addition to research on South Asian Politics, Development Studies, Gender Studies, and Religion.
Societies Without Borders: Human Rights and the Social Sciences 9:2 (2014) 224-226 (EISSN 1872-1915), Aug 25, 2014
Islam and Development: Exploring the Invisible Aid Economy, Publisher: Ashgate, Editors: Matthew Clarke, David Tittensor, Aug 2014
PhD Thesis
This project investigates the relationship between religion, the state, development and Religious... more This project investigates the relationship between religion, the state, development and Religious NGOs (RNGOs) in general and Islamic NGOs in particular in Bangladesh. Based on fieldwork with three Islamic NGOs, and carried out in Bangladesh over the period of July 2010 to February 2011, this research attempts to answer five specific research questions. This research uses qualitative interviews, focus group discussions, and participant observation to collect data from beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of Islamic NGOs (including beneficiaries of secular NGOs), NGO officials and local key informants in three districts in Bangladesh. A new form of ‘governmentality’—a pious or sacralised governmentality, as this research argues, emerged in the context of hegemonic neoliberal governmentality. This new form of governmentality is revealed through the practices and programs of the Islamic NGOs, for example, through their practice of ‘entrepreneurial Homo economicus’. Thus Islamic NGOs also changed the ideological structures shaping the lives of rural women through an Islamic version of ‘women empowerment’ and the enhancement of Muslim women’s agency. Although an Islamic ideological construct informs the programs and activities of Islamic NGOs, these NGOs are having a crisis in their Islamic identity due to their alleged connections with Islamists, war-crimes and subsequent state surveillance. Yet, this research argues that in the context of the perceived ‘coercive’ practices of secular NGOs Islamic NGOs have the potential to emerge as an alternative development practice in Bangladesh.
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Papers by Mohammad M Salehin
Looking at the role of Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh, the book investigates new forms of neoliberal governmentality supported by international donors. It discusses how this form of social regulation produces and reproduces subjectivities, particularly Muslim women subjectivity, and has combined religious and economic rationality, further complicating the boundaries and the relationship between Islam, modernity, and development. The book argues that both secular and Islamic NGOs target women in the name of empowerment but more importantly as the most reliable partners to meet their debt obligations of micro-financing schemes, including shari’a-based financing. The targeted women, in turn, experience Islamic NGOs as less coercive and more sensitive to their religious environment in the rural village community than are secular NGOs.
Providing a comparative study of the role of religious and secular NGOs in the implementation of neoliberal policies and development strategies, this book will be a significant addition to research on South Asian Politics, Development Studies, Gender Studies, and Religion.
Looking at the role of Islamic NGOs in Bangladesh, the book investigates new forms of neoliberal governmentality supported by international donors. It discusses how this form of social regulation produces and reproduces subjectivities, particularly Muslim women subjectivity, and has combined religious and economic rationality, further complicating the boundaries and the relationship between Islam, modernity, and development. The book argues that both secular and Islamic NGOs target women in the name of empowerment but more importantly as the most reliable partners to meet their debt obligations of micro-financing schemes, including shari’a-based financing. The targeted women, in turn, experience Islamic NGOs as less coercive and more sensitive to their religious environment in the rural village community than are secular NGOs.
Providing a comparative study of the role of religious and secular NGOs in the implementation of neoliberal policies and development strategies, this book will be a significant addition to research on South Asian Politics, Development Studies, Gender Studies, and Religion.