A Woman’s War: Bangladesh

Elizabeth D. Herman is a freelance photographer and researcher based in New York. Since 2010, she has been working on a photography and oral history project called ‘A Woman’s War‘ – which documents the lives of women engaged in recent conflicts worldwide, and their struggle for justice, rights, and identity as female fighters. As part of the project, she has travelled to five countries and documented stories of 116 women in Egypt, Vietnam, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, and Bangladesh. The project is a valuable contribution from a historical point of view, as well as to women’s studies.

Elizabeth worked in Bangladesh as a Fulbright Fellow to research on how politics influence the writing of national histories in textbooks. While there, she also continued working on ‘A Woman’s War’. She explored the experiences of Bangladeshi female combatants both during and after the war of 1971.

Women’s role and suffering in the Liberation War of Bangladesh are still largely unknown. The women who were raped during the war of 1971 were given the title ‘Birangona’ (heroine) by the then government. Some benefits were given to them, but they were meager and mostly indirect, like money and land rewards were offered to men who married the women. But in a country where rape is a severe stigma and considered women’s fault, the title ‘Birangona’ turned into a title of shame! Even though thousands of women were raped, tortured, handicapped, and suffered mental and physical abuse by the Pakistani Army, they failed to tell their stories because of social embarrassment.

On the other hand, many women actively participated in the war. Some worked as spies, some risked their lives to help and train ‘mukti-joddhas’ (freedom fighters). They want to tell the stories of their struggle honorably. Elizabeth Herman provided some of them with that opportunity.  Here are six Bangladeshi women’s stories:

I have lived with these wounds in both of my legs for my whole life. I got them while fighting with Sector 9 in the Liberation War. But the government does not pay me the Freedom Fighter stipend that they pay the men. I get no help from the government. Now, my family has nothing.

Kabon Bibi, Dhaka

I do not know why some are called mukti juddha, but we are called birangona…I used to care for and serve food to other freedom fighters when they would come to our house. Why are we not freedom fighters, too?

Hasina Begum, Sirajganj

I sang for the soldiers. Before they would take the field for battle, me and the others girls would gather together and sing to them songs of freedom. Then they would go and fight for our liberation.

Dalia Nausheen, Dhaka

During the war, I used to hide weapons underneath my sari and bring them to the Freedom Fighters. I would sometimes have to bury them in the middle of the night to hide them from the West Pakistani army.

Begum Gulferdous, Comilla

Both of my sons and my husband went off to fight during the war. One of my sons never came back. But I am proud. I am proud to be a war mother and a war wife.

Ameya Khatun, Bogra

As a woman Freedom Fighter, I feel proud, all women cannot do what I did; I was not just a housewife or passing my time in India as a refugee. I was fighting for my country.

Rounak Mohal Dilruba Begum, Bogra

Elizabeth D. Herman is currently working in the US on American female veterans of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Her work has been exhibited in several group shows at Tufts and a solo show at Shadhona Studios in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It has also been featured in The New York Times, NPR’s All Things Considered, GlobalPost, The Daily Beast/Newsweek, The Independent (Bangladesh), Warscapes, and FotoVisura.

Pictures copyrighted by Elizabeth D. Herman