Abstract Panel


Authors Information
SequenceTypeName TitleFirst NameLast NameDepartmentInstitute / Affiliation
1 Author Mr. Main Uddin Anthropology Jagannath University
Abstract Information
TrackID
:
IUAES23_ABS_T2160
Abstract Theme
:
P049 - Women on the Move: Feminist Studies, Reflections and Imageries of Migration
Abstract Title
:
Sexuality and loneliness of left behind women of migrant households: Regendering the narratives of social relations in rural Bangladesh.
Short Abstract
:
This paper details the loneliness and sexuality of left-behind women in a patriarchal Muslim society in rural Bangladesh following the migration of their husbands abroad. However, the study considers women as active, mobile and resistant subjects who strategize to create opportunities to establish their agency as human beings. 
Long Abstract
:

This paper is an ethnographic account of sexuality and loneliness of the stay behind women in a patriarchal Muslim society in rural Bangladesh following the migration of their husbands abroad. It sheds light on the interrelationship between mobility and vulnerability or empowerment of the left behind women. Particularly, the study explores the pattern of regendering the narratives of mobility and sexuality to understand the roles of women as female agents. Together with a female research assistant, I conducted fieldwork from January to December 2019 to investigate the pattern of regendering the narratives of social relations where women continuously rearrange their socio-cultural positions and increasingly contest the meanings of their gender by performing in the public spheres. The findings of the study show that although women go to public sphere in the absence of men, they remain under subtle and invisible surveillance in the name of ethics, norms and values of the patriarchal society. However, they are not always passive victims as sexual object on the margin of the story rather they are active, mobile and resistant subjects who strategize to create opportunities to establish their agency as human beings.   

Abstract Keywords
:
Agency, mobility, regendering, resistant, sexuality.