Feminist Community-led Perspectives on Disaster Adaptations

Stories from Wetland Local Women Communities in Bangladesh

Authors

  • Margot Hurlbert University of Regina
  • Barsha Kairy University of Regina
  • Ranjan Datta Mount Royal University

Keywords:

conventional disaster management, resilience, sustainable disaster management, women-led disaster management

Abstract

This paper offers an in-depth exploration of the critical role played by women within vulnerable wetland communities in Bangladesh, particularly in the context of disaster adaptations. As climate change-induced disasters become increasingly prevalent, it is essential to recognize women’s agency, knowledge, and resilience within these communities, and between minority Hindu and majority Muslim women. Employing a feminist framework, this research delves into the nuanced dynamics of gender, faith, and community-based disaster adaptation strategies. Through narratives and stories from local women, the paper unveils the innovative and adaptive approaches often overlooked in conventional disaster management practices, the heightened agency of majority Muslim women and their “witnessing” of the suffering of the minority Hindu women. It highlights the intersectionality of gender, faith, poverty, and environmental vulnerability, shedding light on the unique challenges faced by women in wetland areas, especially vulnerable Indigenous and Hindu minority women. The findings of this paper underscore the need for more inclusive, gender-responsive disaster policies and programs, and call for a shift away from top-down approaches to more participatory, community-led solutions. By amplifying the voices and experiences of local women in Bangladesh, this paper contributes to a broader discourse on sustainable disaster adaptation strategies, ultimately striving for greater equity and resilience in the face of climate-related challenges.

Author Biographies

  • Margot Hurlbert, University of Regina

    Margot Hurlbert is a Professor and Canada Research Chair, Tier 1, Climate Change, Energy, and Sustainability Policy of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, University of Regina. She explores the gap between what is needed to address climate change and current policy and behaviour. Margot’s scholarship concerns climate change adaptation and mitigation, energy, Indigenous peoples, water, droughts, floods, water governance and sustainability, and achieving net zero emissions. Margot was Coordinating Lead Author of a chapter of the Special Report of the Intergovernmental Panel (IPCC) on “Climate Change on Land” (2019) and a Review Editor and Contributing Author for the IPCC’s AR6 (WGI and WGII)(2021/2022). She also worked on Future Earth’s Earth Commission Working Group on Transformations (2019-2022) and is an expert panel member on “Adaptation” for the Canadian Climate Institute and on the Research Board of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). 

  • Barsha Kairy, University of Regina

    Barsha Kairy is a student in the Master of Public Policy program at the Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy University of Regina. She belongs to one of the minority communities in Bangladesh. Kairy’s research interests include gender, climate crisis, community-led disaster resilience, policy, and decolonial community research.

  • Ranjan Datta, Mount Royal University

    Ranjan Datta is Canada Research Chair in Community Disaster Research and Associate Professor at the Department of Humanities, Mount Royal University, Calgary, in Alberta. Ranjan’s research interests include advocating for critical anti-racist perspectives on community disaster research, Indigenous environmental sustainability, community-led climate change solutions, and decolonial community research.

References

Alam, K., and M.H. Rahman. 2019. “Post-Disaster Recovery in the Cyclone Aila Affected Coastline of Bangladesh: Women’s Role, Challenges and Opportunities.” Natural Hazards 96(3):1067–1090.

Aziz, M. S. B., N.A. Hasan, M.M.R. Mondol, M.M. Alam, M.M. Haque. 2021. “Decline in Fish Species Diversity Due to Climatic and Anthropogenic Factors in Hakaluki Haor, an Ecologically Critical Wetland in Northeast Bangladesh.” Heliyon 7(1).

Bamforth, T. 2017. “While the world’s attention is elsewhere, Bangladesh faces a humanitarian crisis.” The Guardian 16 December. https://www.theguardian.com/voluntary-sector-network/2017/sep/12/bangladesh severe-disaster-flooding.

BBS, Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. 2022. Population and Housing Census 2022: Preliminary Report. Dhaka: Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. https://sid.portal.gov.bd/sites/default/files/files/sid.portal.gov.bd/publications/01ad1ffe_cfef_4811_af97_594b6c64d7c3/PHC_Preliminary_Report_(English)_August_2022.pdf

Barbour, E. J., M.S.G Adnan, E. Borgomeo, K. Paprocki, M.S.A Khan, M. Salehin, J. W. Hall. 2022. “The Unequal Distribution of Water risks and Adaptation Benefits in Coastal Bangladesh.” Nature Sustainability 5(4): 294–302. doi.org/10.1038/s41893-021-00846-9

Bird Life International. 2004. Important Bird Areas in Asia: Key Sites for Conservation. Bird Life International, Cambridge UK.

Chapola, J. 2022. A Racialized Settler Woman’s Transformative Journey in Canada: Building Relational Accountabilities. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Saskatchewan).

Choudhury, M. U. I., C.E. Haque, S. Habib. 2018. “Participatory Exclusion of Women in atural Resource Management: Silent Voices from Wetland Communities in Bangladesh.” Community Development Journal 53(1): 42–60.

Chowdhury, R. 2021. “Self-Representation of Marginalized Groups: A New Way of Thinking through W. E. B. Du Bois.” Business Ethics Quarterly 31(4): 524-548. doi:10.1017/beq.2021.5

Cohen, D. A., J. Cha, N. Graetz, A. Singhal, R. Sen. 2022. “Securing Climate Justice Federally: A Political Economy approach to targeted Investments.” Environmental Justice 16(5): 351–359. doi.org/10.1089/env.2022.0047

Crosweller, M., and P. Tschakert. 2020. “Disaster Management Leadership and Policy Making: A Critical Examination of Communitarian and Individualistic Understandings of Resilience and Vulnerability.” Climate Policy 21(2): 203–221. doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2020.1833825

Datta, R. 2018 “Traditional Storytelling: An Effective Indigenous Research Methodology and its Implications for Environmental Research.” AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 14(1): 35–44. doi.org/10.1177/1177180117741351

_____. 2024. Decolonization in Practice: A Cross-Cultural Perspective. ON: Canada Scholar Press

Datta, R., B. Kairy, M. Hurlbert. 2024. Addressing Wetland Flood Disasters through Community-led Strategies in Bangladesh. Asia-Pacific Journal of Rural Development 34(1): 98–112. doi.org/10.1177/10185291241296587

Dewan, C. 2021. Misreading the Bengal Delta: Climate Change, Development, and Livelihoods in Coastal Bangladesh. https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/50931

Dewan, C., M. Buisson, A. Mukherji. 2014. The Imposition of Participation? The case of Participatory Water Management in Coastal Bangladesh. DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals). https://doaj.org/article/7d63e6b1427f4a74a401fb8369c98da3

Dewan, C., and K.G. Nustad. 2023. “‘Fluid Dispossessions’: Contested Waters in Capitalist Natures.” Ethnos 89(3): 389–400. doi.org/10.1080/00141844.2023.2214340

Deb, A. K., and C.E. Haque. 2011. “‘Sufferings Start from the Mothers’ Womb’: Vulnerabilities and Livelihood War of the Small-scale Fishers of Bangladesh.” Sustainability 3(12): 2500-2527.

Enarson, E., and P.G.D. Chakrabarti. 2009. Women, Gender and Disaster. SAGE Publications India.

Gokhale, V. 2008. Role of Women in Disaster Management: An Analytical Study with Reference to Indian society. In The 14th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering October. 12-17.

Haque, C. E. 2016. “‘We are more scared of the power elites than the floods’: Adaptive Capacity and Resilience of Wetland Community to Flash Flood Disasters in Bangladesh.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 19:145-158.

Kamal, A. M., M. Shamsudduha, B. Ahmed, S.K. Hassan, M. S. Islam, I. Kelman, M. Fordham. 2018. “Resilience to Flash Floods in Wetland Communities of Northeastern Bangladesh.” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 31: 478–488. doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.06.011

Karistie, J. F., A. Ridho, F. A Pangestika, M. B. F. Bisri. 2023. Women Participation in Disaster Risk Management Practices in Indonesia: A Systematic Review. Easychair. Org.

Khalil, M. B., B. C. Jacobs, K. McKenna, N. Kuruppu. 2020. “Female Contribution to Grassroots Innovation for Climate Change Adaptation in Bangladesh.” Climate and Development 12(7): 664-676.

Khan, S. M. M. H., and C. E. Haque. 2010. “Wetland Resource Management in Bangladesh: Implications for Marginalization and Vulnerability of Local Harvesters.” Environmental Hazards 9(1): 54-73.

Newaz, M. W., and S. Rahman. 2019. “Wetland Resource Governance in Bangladesh: An Analysis of Community-based Co-management pproach.” Environmental Development 32: 100446.

Paprocki, K., and J. Cons. 2014. “Life in a Shrimp Zone: Aqua- and Other Cultures of Bangladesh’s Coastal Landscape.” The Journal of Peasant Studies 41(6): 1109–1130. doi.org/10.1080/03066150.2014.937709

Parekh, L. 2023. From Crisis to Community: Exploring Informal Leadership and Rural Women in Community Resilience and Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change, Master’s Thesis, University of Guelph.

Resurrección, B. P., B. A. Bee, I. Dankelman, C.M.Y. Park, M. Haldar, C.P. McMullen. 2019. “Gender-Transformative Climate Change Adaptation: Advancing Social Equity.” Paper commissioned by the Global Commission on Adaptation (GCA).

Rodríguez, H., Quarantelli, E. L., Dynes, R. R., Enarson, E., Fothergill, A., and Peek, L. 2007. Gender and Disaster: Foundations and Directions. Handbook of Disaster Research, 130-146. Springer Nature.

Sharmin, Z., and M. Islam. 2013. “Consequences of Climate Change and Gender Vulnerability: Bangladesh Perspective.” SSRN Electronic Journal, January. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2200116.

Shefer, T., and V. Bozalek. 2022. “Wild Swimming Mmmmmmmmethodologies for Decolonial Feminist Justice-to-Come Scholarship.” Feminist Review 130(1): 26-43.

Shi, L. 2020. “Beyond Flood Risk Reduction: How Can Green Infrastructure Advance both Social justice and Regional Impact?” Socio-Ecological Practice Research 2(4): 311-320.

Van Koppen, B. 2017. “Rural Women’s Rights to Water for Health, Food, and Income.” Expert paper EGM/RWG/EP, 7, 20-22.

Väyrynen, T., S. Parashar, É. Féron, C. C. Confortini (eds). 2021. Routledge Handbook of Feminist Peace Research. Routledge.

Wahid, A., M.S. Ahmad, N.B. Abu Talib, I. A. Shah, M. Tahir, F. A Jan, M. Q Saleem. 2017. “Barriers to Empowerment: Assessment of Community-led Local Development Organizations in Pakistan.” Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 74: 1361–1370. doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.163

Wijsman, K., and M. Feagan. 2019. “Rethinking Knowledge Systems for Urban Resilience: Feminist and Decolonial Contributions to Just Transformations.” Environmental Science and Policy 98: 70-76.

Wilson, S. 2008. Research is Ceremony: Indigenous Research Methods. Halifax: Fernwood.

Yadav, S. S., and R. Lal. 2018. “Vulnerability of Wwwwwwomen to Climate Change in Arid and Semi-arid Regions: The Case of India and South Asia.” Journal of Arid Environments 149: 4-17.

Downloads

Published

2025-06-13

Issue

Vol. 46 (2025): Early View: Gender and Climate Justice

Section

Original Research

License

Copyright (c) 2025 Margot Hurlbert, Barsha Kairy, Ranjan Datta

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:

1. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.

2. Authors are aware that articles published in Atlantis are indexed and made available through various scholarly and professional search tools, including but not limited to Erudit.

3. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.

4. Authors are permitted and encouraged to preprint their work, that is, post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process. This can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. Read more on preprints here.