EUGENE, Ore. -- (April 26, 2011) - A new book by Lamia Karim, the associate director of the University of Oregon's Center for the Study of Women in Society, offers a critical analysis of Bangladesh's controversial Grameen Bank and its once-acclaimed microfinance program.
"Women - poor women in particular - are getting deeper and deeper in debt," Karim says. "And this is largely because, similar to the banking industry in the U.S., microfinance for a very long time has been an unregulated industry. So people could go out and extend loans to people without any kind of oversight."
Karim, an associate professor of anthropology at the UO, grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She was a founding member of the Center for the Study of Women in Society's Women of Color Project, and became the CSWS associate director last September.
In her book, "Microfinance and its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh," she presents a feminist commentary on the microcredit programs of her native country. Prior to its release by the University of Minnesota Press a month ago, the book made Huffington Post's list of the most anticipated books of 2011.
Since the central bank of Bangladesh removed 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus a month and a half ago from his post as managing director of Grameen Bank, Karim has been interviewed by reporters from National Public Radio and the Wall Street Journal for her expertise on the bank and microfinance issues.
In a synopsis by its publisher, Karim's new book is described as "a compelling critique of the relationship between powerful NGOs and the financially strapped women beholden to them for capital."
About the University of Oregon
The University of Oregon is among the 108 institutions chosen from 4,633 U.S. universities for top-tier designation of "Very High Research Activity" in the 2010 Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education. The UO also is one of two Pacific Northwest members of the Association of American Universities.
MEDIA CONTACT: Joe Mosley, UO media relations, 541-346-3606, jmosley@uoregon.edu
SOURCE: Lamia Karim, associate director, Center for the Study of Women in Society, 541-346-5095, lamia@uoregon.edu