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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.