The Dress Dilemma of Bengali Middle Class Women: A Song of Ice (Violence) and Fire (Resistance)

This thesis explores how the bodies of urban middle-class Bangladeshi Muslim women function as sites of agency and resistance amid pervasive patriarchal controls. Grounded in McKinzie and Richards’ (2021) social constraints on agency framework, it examines how clothing practices shape the post-colonial identity of women in Bangladesh. The study illuminates the intersection of gender, class, religion, and culture, emphasizing purdah and respectability norms that both constrain and catalyze resistance. Drawing on qualitative methods and interviews with 25 urban middle-class women (Islamists, Moderate Muslims, and Secular/Liberals), it reveals multifaceted constraints—ideological, interactional, institutional, internalized, and geographical—and strategies of direct resistance, strategic balancing, avoidance, and conformity. It also addresses whether modest attire protects women from harassment in public spaces, finding that it neither mitigates, nor eradicates, sexual harassment. Overall, this thesis contributes to understanding how urban middle-class Muslim women negotiate identities and assert rights within a rapidly changing post-colonial context.