Village Ties: Women, NGOs, and Informal Institutions in Rural Bangladesh

"Drawing on sustained and in-depth engagement with Polli Somaj, a program associated with the NGO BRAC, Qayum argues among other things that NGOs can play a critical role in development: in linking marginalized citizens with state services and societal resources, and in shifting cultural practices through offering alternative or competing 'logics of appropriateness.' Written in carefully crafted, evocative prose, Village Ties is a welcome addition to the field."

Dina M. Siddiqi, Clinical Associate Professor, New York University

"Village Ties does something new and valuable by telling a more complicated story about NGOs and rural Bangladeshi women. Nayma Qayum shows how these activists tackle the informal institutions that keep rural women poor and powerless, and in so doing, help build the necessary foundations for women's power. Scholars of civil society and NGOs, of Bangladesh's development, and of women's empowerment will find this fascinating, full of stories and substantive arguments about the deep roots of social change."

Naomi Hossain, co-editor of The Politics of Education in Developing Countries: From Schooling to Learning

"Confronting Social Norms is Critical for Women's Empowerment in Bangladesh, a New Book by Political Science Alumna Shows" - an interview with Nayma Qayum

CUNY.edu

"Contributes to scholarship that attends to ordinary people's lived experiences to understand how marginalised communities solve political and social problems."

LSE Review of Books

"Village Ties: Women, NGOs, and Informal Institutions in Rural Bangladesh" interview with Nayma Qayum

New Books Network: New Books in Gender Studies

"?Changing the Rules of the Game," by Aleta Mayne

College Magazine