Women’s role in Liberation War: Looking beyond the stereotypical constructs

'Ora Egaro Jon', the first film made on the glorious Liberation War of Bangladesh, was penned by Al Masood and directed by Chashi Nazrul Islam. This single film would suffice to delineate the kinds of struggles and hardships that people including freedom fighters went through during the tumultuous period in 1971 before snatching away the much-anticipated 'victory' from the despotic Pakistani regime. 

This film brings another very pertinent issue to the fore – the heart-wrenching agony that the women of our country endured, the sacrifices they made and the afflictions they were subjected to during the liberation war. 

In the initial part of the movie, it is seen that freedom fighter Abu got killed while fighting valiantly against Pakistani occupation forces. Abu left behind a letter addressed to his mother, played by veteran actress Rawshon Zamil, to be delivered by one of his compatriots. 

When the corpse along with the letter was delivered to his mother, Rawshon Zamil, with her voice stuck in her throat, says, "My son has embraced death, but the country has still not got independence. I have another son, take him as well along with you." 

On the other hand, in the final scene of the film, we see a group of Birangana women walk out of an abandoned building when the most striking song of this film 'Ek Sagor Rokter Binimoye' is being played in the background. These two scenes clarify and show so blatantly the kind of sacrifices women made during the liberation war.

Female perspectives of any war are always ignored and forgotten. As history is never an unmediated account of the events, but rather a human construct, that's why wars are rarely seen through the optics of women. 

Even in our case, we often act oblivious to the diversified roles, both overt and covert, played by the women during the liberation war. Today, on the 52nd Victory Day of Bangladesh, it would be befitting to put the limelight back on the contributions of women during the war.

The very first sacrifice that women in East Pakistan made is to let go of their sons and encourage them to take part in the war despite being completely aware of the tragic consequences. It's not that easy to sacrifice your son for the sake of the country. But women of this country, driven by an afflatus sourced from a divine source, let patriotic zeal reign over feelings or personal attachments. 

Sons went to the war and embraced martyrdom, but the spirit of these mothers did not peter out. Left without a shoulder to cry on, just like the mother portrayed in 'Ora Egaro Jon', women were ready to sacrifice even their own son for the war.        

Despite the popular construct that wars were fought in the fields only with guns, there is no denying that women fought their own battles, both psychologically and physically. Just imagine – how did the freedom fighters survive during the war? Was it possible to continue fighting in the same spirit if they were not provided food, shelter and mental support? 

During the war, women were equal partners with their male counterparts on many fronts. Women in the households cooked food for the freedom fighters, many took the risk of supplying food items to the freedom fighters' camps and even helped them in times of need with whatever savings they had. 

Thousands of women supported our valiant freedom fighters with every bit of help they could extend, especially during the times when freedom fighters had to take shelter in the remotest areas of the war zone. All this informal aid had its own snowball effect.

Meanwhile, many women even partook in the liberation war directly. Lots of women took part in the war and were part of different guerilla operations while some others acted as espionage in a furtive way to help the freedom fighters by providing information so that they could get an edge over their enemies. 

In fact, Cobra camp was set up in Kolkata in 1971 where first-hand training was given to 400 women freedom fighters. These undaunted women, unmoved by the intimidation and devoid of any feeling of trepidation, fought alongside male freedom fighters for independence.  

Apart from fighting shoulder to shoulder with the male freedom fighters, women also tended to the wounded freedom fighters. During the liberation war, a number of field hospitals were set up in different locations of the country. In these field hospitals, women worked as nurses and helped the sick and injured freedom fighters to recuperate. 

A 480-bed hospital, also known as Bangladesh Hospital, was set up in Agartala, Tripura to take care of wounded freedom fighters. Quite a few female doctors along with many other women extended help to run this temporary hospital. Dr Captain (Rtd.) Sitara Begum, who was honoured with the 'Bir Protik' award for her gallantry, was the commanding officer of this makeshift hospital. This kind of work was no less than fighting with guns on the battlefield.  

We also forget the fact that the most petrifying fallout of the liberation war, rape and other forms of sexual assault that were experienced by the women. 

It was the women who felt the chill wind of the war as they experienced the most harrowing accompaniment of war which is rape and the Pakistani army used this paraphilic behaviour as a tool to terrorise cross-sections of people and blow the wind out of the freedom fighters' sails. In a nation that was shedding buckets of blood in struggles for prestige in 1971, it was the war heroines who lost their honour. 

In spite of the gruesome atrocities inflicted on the women, they did not lose hope. Women were subjected to inhuman torture in the concentration camps and violated time and again as all hell broke loose on them. According to different independent estimates, around 2,00,000 to 4,00,000 innocent women were violated by the Pakistani occupation forces with the help of the local collaborators during the liberation war. 

Despite such gross violations against the women and all the sacrifices they made, the lack of a proper social response and a misconstrued war discourse has rubbed salt in their wounds in the post-liberation reality. Even after 52 years of our independence, the contributions of women are often ignored and systematically expunged from the dominant discourse. 

Just look at how many history books we have at our disposal that narrate the sacrifices of women or their roles vividly. Do the historical books or the literary oeuvre that have been written with liberation war as the setting portray the multi-dimensional roles of the women in the proper way? I think you got the answer. 

It's time we start paying due homage to the unsung contributions of women during the liberation war by documenting it properly. This Victory day, let's look beyond the stereotypical historical accounts to wrap our heads around the noxiousness that descended on women's lives during the war and the price they paid to shape the path to victory.         

Md Morshedul Alam Mohabat. Sketch: TBS

Md Morshedul Alam Mohabat is a columnist who likes to delve deeper into the human psyche and social incongruities with a view to exploring the factors that influence these.