At dawn, the sound of oars carries across the haor, broken now and then by birds chirping. Rahima Begum (pseudonym) stands at the ghat in Longkapatharia, a remote village in Dharmapasha upazila of Sunamganj.
In one hand, she carries a small pot of rice, mashed potato and dried chillies. Her eight-year-old son stands beside her, who she must feed before school. She will then wade into the water — sometimes to fish, sometimes to labour in other people’s fields.
Across the haor, hundreds of thousands of women like Rahima struggle each day to keep their families fed in the face of natural hazards, severe hardship and social barriers.
The women earn what they can from farming, fishing, domestic work and small-scale trading. When disasters sweep away homes, crops or livelihoods, they carry on, determined to secure a future for their children.
Haor communities remain submerged for much of the year. When the monsoon arrives, many villages are cut off completely and boats become the sole means of transport.
Women and children bear the brunt of such emergencies. Keeping children safe, finding food and arranging medical care when someone falls ill fall largely to mothers.
Local residents say many mothers eat less during floods so their children can eat more. In many households, men migrate to the cities in search of work, leaving women to manage the household on their own.
“We survive through hardship,” said Saleha Begum. “But I want my son not to suffer as I have. All year round we face toil and struggle. The men work in the haor, and I have to hold the whole family together. On top of that, I have to keep an eye on my son. I dream that he grows up to achieve something great.”
In South Bongshikunda, Dowarabazar upazila, Swapna Begum lives with her two daughters. Her husband drives a rickshaw in Dhaka.
“By Allah’s grace, both my daughters are doing well in their studies,” she said. “They dream of becoming a doctor and a lawyer. I don’t know whether I can fulfil their dreams, but their father and I will try to the very end.”
For women in the haor, limited access to education remains another major constraint. Many mothers never attended school themselves. They, however, refuse to compromise on their children’s education.
Several local teachers said that even during periods of financial hardship, mothers take on domestic work in other homes to keep their children in school.
“The mothers here are fighters. Even calling them just fighters would be an understatement,” said Dulal Mia, a college lecturer.
He added that fathers often show no interest, but the mothers insist on sending their children to school.
“These haor mothers may never receive an award, and no one will write about them at length. But behind almost every boy or girl from this region who has gone on to make something of themselves, there is the story of a determined mother,” the teacher said.