Interview and Photography by Mikki Brammer.
The ability to read, and the independence that it affords, is something that many of us in Western society take for granted. So is the ability to work to earn money, to wear shoes, to treat our children, to eat regularly and to voice our own opinion. For millions of women in Bangladesh, these are luxuries of which they can only dream. But one Bangladeshi woman is fighting to make these basic human rights a reality for her cultural sisters. As CEO of voluntary NGO TARANGO, Kohinoor Yeasmin is helping to equip women in developing countries with the skills to raise their voices, earn their own living and create their own joys.
The daughter of a doctor and a school teacher, Kohinoor Yeasmin had her first glimpse of true poverty as a young teenager growing up in Bangladesh. Her grandfather was the ‘chairman’ of a rural village and on weekends she would travel with her family to visit him. As she wandered through the village steeped in poverty, she was surrounded by young children, their eyes dull from hunger, their emaciated bodies clothed only in rags and their tiny feet blackened by the filthy earth they walked barefoot across everyday. Kohinoor’s heart ached as she asked herself why the world tolerated such poverty. Compelled to act in any way she could, she would visit her grandfather’s store and fill her pockets with handfuls of jute, wheat and rice, in a bid to give something to the starving children. While it was only a tiny gesture, it was all that Kohinoor could think to do.
Years later, after completing her studies in social science, her feelings of helplessness and desire to take action returned. Kohinoor answered a job advertisement in the newspaper for a voluntary organisation known as TARANGO (Training and Rural Advancement Non-Government Organisation), committed to establishing a poverty-free society by equipping disadvantaged local women with the skills and resources to become self-reliant entrepreneurs. Of all the applicants, and despite the fact that she was a female in a strongly male-dominated society, Kohinoor was chosen for the role and began work with TARANGO in 1994. In 2000, against all odds, she became CEO.
“Bangladesh is very much a male-dominated country and there is a very low percentage of women in high-profile positions,” Kohinoor explains of the challenge. “It’s not easy being a woman in a large organisation, much less to become CEO. But I wanted to compete with the men, because men always feel that women don’t know anything and that they don’t have competent skills. I completed my MBA by doing classes in the evenings after work.”
After 16 years working with TARANGO, Kohinoor is finally able to see a tangible difference being made from the organisation’s efforts. “We now have 12,000 women working with us, with another 3,800 women now in training who will join us fully after another year and a half,” she reveals proudly, eyes shining. “Most of these women are single mothers who are very poor and some of them were previously involved with prostitution.”
The premise behind TARANGO follows the ‘hand up, not a hand-out’ school of thought. Adhering to strict fairtrade principles, the organisation provides empoverished women with the skills and materials to create products such as bags and baskets, which TARANGO then purchases from them to sell internationally. “The women work with lots of natural raw materials such as jute,” Kohinoor explains. “We try to create more market-oriented products and everything is produced from natural fibres. We give all women training on entrepreneurship and how they can do costing and pricing. The women do the costing for each product and we also do an internal costing and we try to compare. Often it’s accurate and sometimes we give them more money than they’ve estimated, but other times the women will argue with us for a higher price. When they do this I am very serious with them and listen to what they have to say, but inside I am very proud that they are bargaining with me, because it means that they are empowered enough to do that with their customers and with their husbands.”
The income the women are now earning as a direct result of TARANGO’s efforts has not only helped many of them escape the clutches of poverty, but also to gain a valuable sense of independence. “In some parts women are now earning 70% more than their husbands,” Kohinoor reveals with satisfaction. “Through this income, the women now have the ability to raise their voices and make their own decisions rather than relying on their husbands. We also put a percentage of their wages towards a retirement fund, which the women can access when they’re older.”
In some cases, male members of the communities have not received this newfound empowerment of local women well. Kohinoor has repeatedly had to face criticism from high-profile community and religious leaders, as well as from some of the women’s husbands. But the resistance, backlash and threatening phone calls only make Kohinoor more determined. “I am a woman and I have now opened the door for the next generation,” she affirms defiantly. “I am very lucky that I can give so much support to the community. In Bangladesh, most women have children and they don’t have the opportunity or the time to do what I do. I wanted to show the men of Bangladesh what women can do – this is one of my passions.”
In addition to its handicrafts programs, TARANGO also runs another initiative to equip women with entrepreneurial skills to start their own business. “In Bangladesh, women do not have a lot of opportunities, particularly rural women, so we are developing special books for them that teach entrepreneurship,” Kohinoor explains. “These books are fully pictorial and the women can choose the particular business that they want to do, and they can create their own marketing strategy and business plan. We link this program with a bank and sometimes with an NGO so that they can access micro-loans.”
Unfortunately, Kohinoor reveals, women in many rural parts of Bangladesh are not eligible for micro-finance because they are too poor to qualify. Eager to ensure that these women are not denied the opportunity to help themselves, Kohinoor developed another, simpler finance program. “What we do is help them to start a ‘Village Savings Loan Association’,” she says. “A group of 25 women will have a box with three different locks. Each year, the leadership of the association rotates and three women carry keys and one carries the box. All 25 women save money into this box, and each has a small passbook to record their savings. From the combined money, the women can take out a loan, which is chosen bi-rotationally by the leaders based on the demand and priority. The loans might go towards things like buying fertiliser for a garden, or to buy a book for their children. This helps the women who are too poor to access micro-finance to learn leadership and how to sustain a business.”
TARANGO now operates training programs for illiterate rural women in several countries, including Pakistan, Rwanda and Afghanistan. But despite her far-reaching achievements on a business level, Kohinoor says that her greatest achievement comes from the women she works with everyday. “My greatest achievement is to be able to tell these women’s stories and that they are now empowered enough to bargain and argue,” she beams. “Before, whenever their husbands came home from the field, each woman would be waiting with a bowl of water and a towel to wash his feet. But now, they’re not waiting for their husbands and they tell them that they need to take care of themselves. They tell me that when they first got married, they were a little bit shy and even scared of their husbands, but now they are more confident and affectionate with them. I find peace when I visit the women and their families and see how their lives are changing.”
Looking to the future, Kohinoor dreams of the day that Bangladeshi women have the same level of equality that women in other countries have. But in order for this to happen, she says, we must first change our approach to eradicating poverty. “Without economic empowerment, women in developing countries cannot raise their voice,” she implores. “You can’t just give women charity – you need to help them stand on their own two feet and create their own joys.”
