Dilemma and Intricacies of Law, Society and Religion towards the Empowerment of Women in Bangladesh

As a signatory of different international instruments approbating women’s empowerment, Bangladesh is committed to playing a lead role especially in the harmonious field of gender-sensitive employment for its citizens. Many laws and regulations have been made to combat the ideas and practices of depriving women of their rights. But the provisions regarding the rights of women in these instruments have failed to show proper success, mainly due to a deficient societal approach, including values of the society and the mind setup of its inhabitants, especially the males who dominate the country. Legal lacuna, religious misconceptions and misinterpretations, and patriarchal interpretation of law reinforce the mindset of the society to be more problematic. This paper depicts the framework of the empowerment of women, comments on the legal, social and religious status of women in Bangladesh, identifies key challenges for empowering women and suggests some recommendations to overcome thereof.