Women Empowerment Through Islamic Microfinance Schemes in Bangladesh

Abstract

Islamic microfinance programs have been used, for some time in Bangladesh, as an instrument to empower women and fight poverty. Women are specifically targeted by Islamic microfinance under the rural development scheme of Islami Bank Bangladesh Limited (IBBL), which provides interest-free loans and many other benefits to the women groups involved. The main aim of this chapter is two-fold: firstly, to check for a positive relationship between Islamic microfinance and the socio-economic empowerment of women and secondly, to explore the perspective in which Islamic microfinance packages function in Bangladesh and how the system of their performance can be enhanced. A structured questionnaire survey method was employed to see the socioeconomic empowerment of the women through Islamic microfinance program and under what circumstances would such a program be more useful? The results of this study show that the growth in women’s revenues and resources plays an important role in improving women’s financial freedom and sense of self-possession. However, a significant policy lesson from this study is that, it is essential to redirect Islamic microfinance to more sectors and more beneficiaries, in order to spread its benefits in the developmental activities, which will drive the contribution toward the socio-economic empowerment of the recipients and toward the socio-economic development of the country, in the long-run.