Women in our Liberation War: The fight continues

The Bangladesh genocide in 1971 arguably contends with the Rwandan genocide, the annihilation of Soviet POW's and the Holocaust against the Jews as 'the most concentrated act of genocide in the twentieth century. 1 The West Pakistani military regime unleashed a systematic campaign of mass murder, aiming for the destruction of millions of Bengalis, attempting to crush the independence.
One of the greatest shortcomings in the perception of our fight for Independence is our consistent failure to recognize the role of women in our Liberation War. In fact, the role of women is largely ignored, denied and misconstrued in our mainstream history. This is because of our general tendency to think of war only in terms of physical fighting and exchange of gunshots.

We only stress on the victory in the Liberation War and the independence of the country. But, many factors, including genocides, rape, and inexplicable inhumanity on women which also contributed a lot for our independence have not received adequate prominence by different sections of the society. Along with the contribution of the freedom fighters, the victims of these incidences should get equal treatment as they have sacrificed their most important asset for the sake of independence of the country. There are thousands of stories of such victims whose news have not yet been explored fully by the researchers or by the government.

Women served as soldiers but were also abducted, tortured and raped in concentration camps by the Pakistani army who set up rape camps in all towns and villages they went to. It was part of a systematic plan to disempower and destroy the vertebrae of Bengali society-similar to the targeted killings of Bengali intellectuals. Many of the hundreds of thousands of girls and women were killed or later rejected by their families; their children borne out of the rape were forcibly taken and adopted by foreign nationals. Most of these women eventually died of neglect and without recognition.

These remarkably courageous women have waged a tough struggle to keep the family going on, raised their children and passed on the spirit of fighting to them. Whether they find room in the pages of history or not, it is an undeniable truth that it was their sacrifice and strength that helped us to win our freedom. For these poor, ordinary village women who had to fight simultaneous enemies on a personal, social and national level, the fight goes on.