Gregory Travels: Women's Day Training

We attended a training for women of Kawra villages that was facilitated and organized by GoUF. It was a three day training with topics of discussion including the importance of education, human rights, discrimination, dowrys, legal issues and laws, early marriage, hygiene, etc. We talked with a woman afterward who said she was honored to be there, though it meant sacrifices for her family, because she was beginning to think about things in a new way she had never thought of before.

First a woman from the government spoke, which GoUF invited. She talked about how it is illegal to pay dowrys to have their daughters married off, that it's illegal for a girl to get married before 18, and that a woman has the right to a divorce. There are many laws these village women are ignorant about because they are so isolated and the government has not stepped forward to educate them prior to this intervention.

It was held at a local school. The school had no electricity, running water, or a blackboard to write on but hey it's Bangladesh, this is completely normal!