Life-altering 'Decisions': Cambridge filmmaker documents how $60 bank loans have changed Bangladeshi women's lives by Kathy Ehrich , Thursday, May 4, 2000

Paying a dowry to the family whose son married your daughter sounds like an antiquated concept. But not in Bangladesh. A $60 bank loan seems so small it's laughable. Not in Bangladesh. Sending your kids to elementary school is a no-brainer. Not in Bangladesh.

Women in Bangladesh play life by a different set of rules but, according to documentary filmmaker Gayle Ferraro, they still have much in common with American women. Ferraro captured their struggle for survival in her documentary ``Sixteen Decisions,'' premiering tonight at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Ferraro's film depicts a feminist revolution, albeit quite different from the bra-burning U.S. feminist revolution of a few decades ago. Instead, Ferraro documents how her sari-clad Bangladeshi subjects gain some control in their lives with the help of the Grameen Bank.

The bank was founded 20 years ago by Dr. Muhammad Yunus to grant microloans - usually for the equivalent of $60 - to impoverished Bangladeshi women. In return, the women are encouraged to follow a code of living called the Sixteen Decisions.

These ``decisions'' embody concepts that might seem elementary to most American females, but to women in a village 50 miles north of Dhaka, Bangladesh's capital, they are life-altering. Concepts such as ``No. 9: We shall build and use pit-latrines,'' or ``No. 8: We shall keep our children and the environment clean'' are foreign to women such as 18-year-old Selina, a mother of two and the newest loan recipient in her village.

Ferraro lets Selina's life tell the story of the Sixteen Decisions. ``I wanted to talk with more recent women borrowers because they have a rougher surface, more like what they're coming out of,'' said Ferraro. ``Selina was one of five choices, but I wasn't sure if she would work because she was so painfully shy at first.''

Selina's family sent her away to work at age 7, and she was married by arrangement at 12. Ferraro said her story is not unusual, and is perhaps less painful than that of many other Bangladeshi women.

``I read much harsher accounts - like women being sexually abused by their uncles and thrown out of the family,'' she said. ``That's so commonplace, but at least Selina's story had threads I could follow.''

Ferraro learned about the Grameen Bank from a friend in Florida who showed Ferraro an alumni newsletter featuring Yunus. Ferraro, anxious to get back into filmmaking after a five-year hiatus, thought his work could be an interesting documentary subject.

``I heard about Grameen Bank and thought they might give out a few thousand loans, but when I heard it was $2.5 million, I was floored,'' she said.

After a series of phone calls to the bank, Ferraro arranged an initial visit to Dhaka in July 1997. She found Selina during this three-week trip and returned three months later, with only a camera and an assistant, ready to shoot for the film. She stayed for a month, returned to her Cambridge editing room to log footage, and flew back to Bangladesh for final filming in December.

Ferraro said she worked on polishing and editing ``Sixteen Decisions'' for more than a year, taking time off to earn a master's degree in public administration from Harvard.

Although the film depicts women in circumstances very different than those American women face, Ferraro hopes viewers won't regard Bangladeshi women as oddities.

``I want (the audience) to get close and share, and go deep into self-reflection instead of patronizing and distancing themselves from these women,'' she said. ``I want people to feel curious about their interest rather than think they're curiosities.''

Selina and the filmmaker have not been in touch since Ferraro's last visit to Bangladesh in 1997; Selina has no phone and no mail service. But Ferraro hopes to return in five years to see how Selina's daughter is doing. The little girl will be about 11 in 2005, which means she could be married, or someone's domestic helper, or even still in school.

Ferraro said that although Selina comes from a different set of circumstances, women around the world share common bonds and are still struggling to define their identity.

``Although women here aren't paying a dowry, there's still this idea that women should try to be a good catch,'' she said. ``There are so many messages about what should happen to all-American girls. When I was 17, I didn't think I would be a filmmaker. I was just trying to figure out what was expected of me.''