Bulbul Siddiqi

Exploring the context in which different close-to-community sexual and reproductive health service providers operate in Bangladesh: a qualitative study.

BackgroundA range of formal and informal close-to-community (CTC) health service providers operate in an increasingly urbanized Bangladesh. Informal CTC health service providers play a key role in Bangladesh’s pluralistic health system, yet the reasons for their popularity and their interactions with formal providers and the community are poorly understood. This paper aims to understand the factors shaping poor urban and rural women’s choice of service provider for their sexual and reproductive health (SRH)-related problems and the interrelationships between these providers and communities. Building this evidence base is important, as the number and range of CTC providers continue to expand in both urban slums and rural communities in Bangladesh. This has implications for policy and future programme interventions addressing the poor women’s SRH needs.MethodsData was generated through 24 in-depth interviews with menstrual regulation clients, 12 focus group discussions with married men and women in communities and 24 semi-structured interviews with formal and informal CTC SRH service providers. Data was collected between July and September 2013 from three urban slums and one rural site in Dhaka and Sylhet, Bangladesh. Atlas.ti software was used to manage data analysis and coding, and a thematic analysis was undertaken.ResultsPoor women living in urban slums and rural areas visit a diverse range of CTC providers for SRH-related problems. Key factors influencing their choice of provider include the following: availability, accessibility, expenses and perceived quality of care, the latter being shaped by notions of trust, respect and familiarity. Informal providers are usually the first point of contact even for those clients who subsequently access SRH services from formal providers. Despite existing informal interactions between both types of providers and a shared understanding that this can be beneficial for clients, there is no effective link or partnership between these providers for referral, coordination and communication regarding SRH services.ConclusionTraining informal CTC providers and developing strategies to enable better links and coordination between this community-embedded cadre and the formal health sector has the potential to reduce service cost and improve availability of quality SRH (and other) care at the community level.

Islamic Reforms in Bangladesh

This chapter provides a detailed background to the research, focusing on the historical context of Islamisation in Bengal. It then discusses the context of the Islamic revival in the end of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century in Bengal. The Tablighi Jamaat was part of this process of Islamic revival and evolved from the reform efforts of Moulana Ilyas in the early twentieth century in India. Later on, this chapter discusses the background of Islam in Bangladesh, where Tablighi Jamaat has become a significant vehicle of the Islamic revival.

Searching for a Global Identity

This chapter discusses the question of Tablighi and Muslim identity among British Muslims. Over the period, Muslims in Britain have developed a community with a combination of diasporic culture and various forms of religious observances.

Spiritual Journey Within the Tablighi Jamaat

This chapter discusses the effects of the Tablighi Jamaat on the lives of its followers. It shows how participation in Tablighi dawah acts as a force of transformation.

Tablighi Jamaat in the UK

The presence of the Tablighi Jamaat in the UK goes back several decades. The initial success of the Tablighi Jamaat in Mewat motivated its early leaders to expand the activities of the Tablighi Jamaat in other parts of the Indian subcontinent.

Reconfiguring Gender Relations

The gender aspects of the Tablighi Jamaat have received some attention from Barbara Metcalf, who studied the movement mainly in Pakistan (Metcalf in Stanford Electron Hum Rev 5(1), 1996; Metcalf in Appropriating gender: women’s activism and politicized religion in South Asia, 1998; Metcalf in Travellers in faith: studies of the Tablīghī Jamā‘at as a transnational Islamic movement for faith renewal, 2000), and more recently from Marloes Janson, who looked at the movement in Gambia (Janson in J Islamic Stud 28:9–36, 2008, Janson in Islam, youth and modernity in the Gambia: the Tablighi Jamaat, CUP, Cambridge, 2014), Agnes de Feo, working mainly in Southeast Asia (Feo in World Religion Watch, 2009), and Jan Ali, working in Australia (Ali in Contemp Islam 5(3):225–247, 2011).

Undertaking a Chilla: Becoming a Tablighi Follower

In this chapter, the first of four chapters in which the context of the Tablighi Jamaat in Bangladesh is contextualized describing my experience with the Tablighi Jamaat where I look at a defining process in becoming a Tablighi follower. This is undertaking a chilla or a 40-day preaching journey. This is a key context for learning about and performing dawah, and coming to understand whatever being a follower of the Tablighi Jamaat involves.

Weekly Gasht: The Backbone of Tablighi Dawah

In this chapter, I give an ethnographic account of my participation in weekly dawah activities in a Cardiff mosque. I started my fieldwork in the UK when I met a Malaysian Tablighi Jamaat group who came in the UK to preach among the Malaysian Students. As part of their preaching journey, they stayed for three days in a mosque near Cardiff University.

Accessing the Tablighi Jamaat

In this chapter, I discuss the methodology that I applied in the research. The chapter provides an overview of the situation I went through in the field. My fieldwork involved participation in multiple sites. The chapter also provides a detailed account of the idea of multi-sited ethnography and its implication in my research. Since the Tablighi Jamaat is a transnational religious movement, a multi-sited ethnographic method was essential in order to get a comprehensive understanding of the Tablighi Jamaat movement both in various parts in Bangladesh and in the UK. The tools used were participant observation, informal discussion, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions (FGD).

Bishwa Ijtema as a New Form of Islamic Pilgrimage

Bishwa Ijtema at Tongi, an annual three days congregation of the Tablighi Jamaat attracts millions of people every year from all over the world.