Nortoki: Women Dancers and Morality in Bangladesh
Dr. Munjulika Tarah, Williams College, USA
Nortoki: Woman Dancers and Morality in Bangladesh (paper)
In the Bengali language, the word nortoki means “woman dancer” but it is often used to refer to “available” women who dance for the pleasure of men, alluding to the assumed immorality of women who dance in public. This linguistic conflation points to negative societal perceptions of women who dance, a perception that was present within Bangladesh’s dominant Bengali-Muslim culture since before its independence in 1971. In its first decade as a sovereign nation, as Bangladesh was trying to construct a coherent national identity, more women were leaving the domestic sphere and entering professional fields. At this time Bangladesh also went through major political upheavals, such as the assassination of political leaders and establishment of military-backed regimes that promoted conservative political agendas with Islamic loyalties. The deep social and cultural anxieties of the period included those about the role of women, especially professional women and female performers. These apprehensions showed up in articles and features of popular magazines, newspapers, and television shows. This paper analyzes discourses about woman dancers in Bangladeshi popular media of the mid-seventies and early eighties, with a focus on morality and respectability of women. The issue of women was especially significant at this time since ideologies of the political groups vying for power differed vastly on their views about women’s socio-cultural position. Thus, discourse about Bangladeshi women dancers intersected with ideas about religion, class, and national identity, reflecting debates about global ideological trends that the new nation should espouse.
Dr. Munjulika Tarah is an Assistant Professor of Dance History and Theory at Williams College in Williamstown, MA. She received her doctorate from the Department of Performance Studies at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL and taught in Malaysia and Qatar prior to joining Williams College. Her research utilizes ethnographic and historical research methods to explore how national identity is constituted through the practice, performance, and pedagogy of dance in Bangladesh.