TY - JOUR
T1 - Good laws, bad outcomes
T2 - land rights and inheritance practices for Christian women in Bangladesh
AU - Das, Joyce
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law.
PY - 2016/5/3
Y1 - 2016/5/3
N2 - This paper explores a critical gender issue: women's land rights in the context of legal pluralism, focusing on the minority Christian community in Bangladesh. While the Christian Personal Law in Bangladesh provides substantial inheritance rights, in practice most women fail to exercise these rights. This paper shows that women's land (dis)inheritance is closely linked with processes of identity creation and protection. Linking theories of legal pluralism with community identity and gender, this paper argues that the patriarchal Bangladeshi Christian community use, alter, or locally create the law to protect their identity as a religious minority community at the expense of women's land rights. On the basis of my ethnographic research carried out in Bangladesh, I also examine the consequences of gender inequality in land inheritance practices, finding a difference between legal land ownership and actual possession and use. These consequences travel generation after generation and both increase the possibilities of exacerbating the inter- and intra-religious conflicts and tensions within Bangladesh and often aggravate the insecurities and vulnerabilities of the Christian minorities.
AB - This paper explores a critical gender issue: women's land rights in the context of legal pluralism, focusing on the minority Christian community in Bangladesh. While the Christian Personal Law in Bangladesh provides substantial inheritance rights, in practice most women fail to exercise these rights. This paper shows that women's land (dis)inheritance is closely linked with processes of identity creation and protection. Linking theories of legal pluralism with community identity and gender, this paper argues that the patriarchal Bangladeshi Christian community use, alter, or locally create the law to protect their identity as a religious minority community at the expense of women's land rights. On the basis of my ethnographic research carried out in Bangladesh, I also examine the consequences of gender inequality in land inheritance practices, finding a difference between legal land ownership and actual possession and use. These consequences travel generation after generation and both increase the possibilities of exacerbating the inter- and intra-religious conflicts and tensions within Bangladesh and often aggravate the insecurities and vulnerabilities of the Christian minorities.
KW - Bangladesh
KW - Legal pluralism
KW - gender
KW - inheritance
KW - minority identity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85012888350&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/07329113.2016.1197512
DO - 10.1080/07329113.2016.1197512
M3 - Article
SN - 0732-9113
VL - 48
SP - 159
EP - 185
JO - Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law
JF - Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law
IS - 2
ER -