Book review: Women and Girls: Vulnerable or Resilient?

Bangladesh is often cited as a disaster prone country in South Asia. The northern districts of the country was seriously affected by a flash-water floods in 2017. This disaster compelled the local populations to be homeless and, thus, they were entirely reliant on humanitarian relief from development partners (development NGOs and foreign donors) and groups of philanthropists (e.g., students, voluntary organisations and clubs). Such consequences in the post-flood are, of course, not a new phenomenon. The 2017 flood has remarkably broken all of the previous records of floods that have occurred during 1988, 1991, 2003, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2016. The intensification of this flood, its economic and non-economic loss and damages are higher than any previous flood. We had little knowledge about the coping mechanisms of various groups, such as aged women and adolescent girls in the inundated villages. However, an attempt has been taken to fill up this gap by Mahbuba Nasreen, a leading scholar in gender and disaster studies in a book entitled Women and Girls: Vulnerable and resilient? The book has emerged from the author's doctoral thesis and a subsequent study conducted after the 2007 flood. It primarily addresses how women and girls cope with 'vulnerabilities', during and after floods, and then resume their normal lives after their severe displacement. Mahbuba Nasreen, Women and Girls: Vulnerable or Resilient? Published by Institute of Disaster Management and Vulnerability Studies, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, 2012. Pages XX + 121, Price: Tk. 300, ISBN: 978-984-33-5649-9.