In almost every corner of Dhaka, "To-let, family only" signs hang from balconies, are scribbled on walls or pasted onto electric poles.
On the surface, it looks like renting a home should not be a problem. There is no shortage of flats.
But for women, especially single mothers, the reality is different.
Thirty-four-year-old Touhida Alam, a dentist and the mother of a five-year-old son, spent months searching for a flat in Mirpur.
Almost every landlord asked for a legal guardian's information.
"But I am the guardian," she said. "I raise my child alone. The father does not provide financially. Yet society still thinks I need a man's approval to rent a house."
What frustrates her most is the assumption that single women carry moral danger.
Landlords frequently justify rejection by citing "past experiences" involving single tenants.
"They immediately think singles are frauds, immoral, or involved in sex work," she said.
Mashuda Khatun Shefali, executive director of Nari Uddag Kendra, who ran women's hostels in Dhaka and Mymensingh for 18 years, said landlords' reluctance is the biggest challenge women face while renting.
"Even when we offered suitable rent for a hostel for university students and medical staff, a Dhaka University teacher refused to rent his house," she said. "Landlords have a prejudice that if single women live there, men will gather outside the house to see them."
"Many women prefer the privacy of their own apartment over a dormitory system. However, finding a landlord willing to rent to them remains the barrier," she said, adding that most women eventually find accommodation through referrals from friends or relatives.
While hostels or shared accommodation can be an option, single mothers face another set of problems.
Afia Rahman, a mother of two living in Shahzadpur, gave up shared accommodation after constant tension with a housemate who became irritated by the sound of her child crying.
"She made me feel guilty for my own children existing," Afia said.
She eventually rented a separate house where she was charged more than the usual rent.
According to a 2025 study by the Research and Scientific Innovation Society (RSIS), nearly 68 percent of Dhaka residents live in rented housing.
But renting can become a nightmare for single or unmarried women, who make up around 21.7 percent of the country's female population, according to government data.
Sharika Saiyara, 29, a journalist in Dhaka, struggled for months to find a home despite having a stable income.
Landlords either rejected her outright or kept asking invasive questions.
"Are you married?", "Will you have male visitors?" and "Why do you want to live alone?"
Sharika came up with a plan. She pretended to be a student at a university near Savar. The new identity helped her avoid most of the questions and eventually secure a house.
Sharika's alibi is shared by many women trying to rent a home. Often, it means living far from the city centre, where most offices are located.
Her morning begins before sunrise as she fights through Dhaka's traffic to reach the office by 9am. By the time she returns home, the day is over.
"It feels like I run a marathon every day simply to survive in this city," she said.
According to the Labour Force Survey 2024, the number of women in the labour force has surged to 23.69 million from 19.1 million a decade ago.
Female unemployment has fallen to 6.8 percent over the same period.
The garments sector, the country's largest source of foreign exchange earnings, employs about four million women, who make up around 65 percent of the RMG workforce.
Yet, as millions of women power the country's economy, Dhaka's landlords remain reluctant to rent to them.
Bangladesh already has laws that theoretically protect tenants.
Under the House Rent Control Act, 1991, landlords cannot arbitrarily increase rent before two years in many circumstances.
Advance deposits beyond one month's rent require written permission from a rent controller.
The law also says tenants cannot be evicted without notice if rent is regularly paid and tenancy terms are maintained.
But implementation remains weak.
Most tenants are unaware the law exists.
Landlords routinely increase rent every year without oversight, demand advance payments beyond legal limits, avoid written agreements and operate without monitoring.
The women interviewed for this story said they fear protesting because moving homes requires significant upfront costs, including advance rent, transport, brokerage fees and utility arrangements.
Landlords, meanwhile, insist they also have reasons for caution.
Ikhtiyar Rasul, a landlord from Puran Dhaka, said he does not oppose renting to single women but prioritises security and verification.
"Single women absolutely have the right to rent flats," he said. "But we need proper documents and family contacts. Many tenants disappear without paying rent."
He added that his own sister, a single mother living in the UK, faces none of these problems abroad.
Another landlord, Arif Raaj from Khilgaon, was more direct.
"I simply don't trust single women anymore," he said.
He recalled renting to a married woman whose husband lived abroad.
According to him, she gradually brought multiple foreign-breed dogs into the apartment, disturbing neighbours.
Later, he discovered drug-related problems and unhygienic conditions inside the flat.
"After that experience, I decided not to rent to single women again," he said.
In India, all tenancies must have a written contract registered with a Rent Authority, preventing verbal evictions common in Dhaka.
The Model Tenancy Act caps residential security deposits at a maximum of two months' rent, reducing the upfront financial burden on tenants.
It also requires landlords to give 24 hours' notice before entering a property, protecting tenants from intrusive monitoring.
Sri Lanka offers a lesson in long-term support rather than temporary shelter.
The Ministry of Women and Child Affairs has made the empowerment of women-headed households a policy priority, treating them as primary economic contributors rather than dependants.
Bangladesh still has no dedicated government housing system for single working women or single mothers seeking long-term accommodation in Dhaka.
The government's social protection framework recognises single women, particularly those raising children alone, as one of the country's vulnerable groups.
Government-run working women's hostels exist in Dhaka, including the Nilkhet Karmajibi Mohila Hostel.
But there are complaints about limited seats, strict regulations, political influence, poor maintenance and inadequate living conditions.
Most women said they are not asking for sympathy or charity. They are asking for recognition, protection and dignity.
They want proper rental agreements, protection from arbitrary eviction, reasonable advance deposits, functioning ward-level rent controllers and enforcement of the House Rent Control Act.
They also want landlords and neighbours to stop treating single women as suspicious by default.
"At the end of the day, a woman wants to come back to her own home, cook what she likes, and live freely," Afia said.
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