She decided to do it anyway, and is now the only female easy bike rider in her northwestern town of Sunamganj.
“Initially, most people discouraged me from working as a driver,” she said. “Now that they know me, they support my work.”
For Sharmind Nilormi, an expert on climate and gender at Jahangirnagar University, the problem starts at the top, as the government is yet to grasp the importance of involving more women in curbing global warming.
Climate experts have long said that the effects of climate change disproportionately affect women, who are more vulnerable during extreme weather events because of their social and economic status and how to avoid and adapt. becomes difficult.
Nearly 60 percent of women in Bangladesh are engaged in agriculture, according to a report published in August by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and UN Women, making their livelihoods highly vulnerable to floods, droughts and storms.
Nilormi, a lead author of the IUCN report, said Bangladesh’s latest climate action plan recognizes that meeting women’s needs is critical to the success of adaptation measures, such as subsidizing crop insurance or protecting farms from flooding. to create barriers to.
But, she said, the government is not doing enough to look at how measures to reduce planet-heating emissions – particularly the expansion of clean power – can provide livelihoods for women.