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UO professor’s book looks at problems of microfinance
The dark side of microfinance is explored in a new book by Lamia Karim, the associate director of the University of Oregon’s Center for the Study of Women in Society.
“Microfinance and Its Discontents: Women in Debt in Bangladesh” offers a critical analysis of controversial Grameen Bank and its once-acclaimed microfinance program in Bangladesh.
“Women — poor women in particular — are getting deeper and deeper in debt,” Karim says. “Similar to the banking industry in the U.S., microfinance … has been an unregulated industry. So people could go out and extend loans to people without any kind of oversight.”
Karim, an associate anthropology professor at UO, is from Bangladesh.
