We easily forget the names of Kalpana Datta, Shanti Ghose, Shuniti Chowdhury, Beena Das, Leela Rai, Nanibala Devi, Du’Koribala Devi, Matangini Hajra and names of many other revolutionary women who played active roles in the fight for independence against the British. Even if the name of Ila Mitra, the legendary female leader of the Santal revolt at Nachol, comes up occasionally, we never recall the women of the then Muslim League who played active and important roles in the language movement of 1952.

For the Fiery Sisters
by Umme Raihana
[Combined from two translations by Tibra Ali & Zerin Rahman]

Shahbag experience 1:
The street theater was going on. My friend Saiful looked at the audience and began – “What is it that we demand? We want to hang Kader! What do we need to hang him? Don’t you have gamchas (a gamcha is cloth towel typically used to wipe off perspiration) on your shoulder? Or Chaddor (A large piece of cloth to cover the upper body)? Don’t the mother and sisters have their ornas (an orna is a long piece of cloth that is used to cover a woman’s bosom over their usual clothing)?”

He suddenly stopped as he was saying this, and as soon as he said “sorry”, another woman and I threw him our own ornas. From amongst the audience were then collected volunteers to play the labourers, that is, the extras for the background for the street play, who were to make the rope for the noose. I was one of these extras. As we stood there without our ornas rolling the rope, we chanted in chorus: “Roll, roll, roll the rope! The rope for the hangman! The rope to hang the Butcher Kader. Roll, roll, roll the rope!”

My point in sharing this spontaneous story at Shahbag is to illustrate the incredible environment of sisterhood created in Shahbag.  Whether one is fifteen or fifty-five, whether you wear a hijab or leggings, as a woman one will not find herself in harm’s way amongst the Shahbag masses. There is a strong spirit of recognition amongst those present that we too – us women – are warriors at Shahbag.

For two weeks now there have been non-stop protests going on at Shahbag square of Dhaka, Bangladesh, demanding appropriate punishments for the war-criminals of 1971. Taking part in these protests, from the city and beyond, are both women and men from all levels of society. Those who aren’t able to take part have expressed their identification with the aims of this movement. The movement is no longer limited to just demanding the death-penalty of one Kader Molla; It has gained a lot by expanding its demands to banning Jamaat-e-Islam (the extremist Islamic party that has harboured war-criminals) and Shibir (the militant student wing of the same party) from politics, and the closure of business interests owned by Jamaat. Events have resulted in the brutal murder of the blogger Rajib Haidar, affiliated with the movement. Despite his anti-Jamaat stance and his atheistic position, the rows upon rows of people who had gathered to attend his Janaja (the Islamic ritual prayer to honour the dead) extended from Shabag square to the the Arts Institute.

At one point in the movement, Chhatro Union member Lucky Akter and  a few other  female members from multiple student unions were tagged “Agni-Konna” or Firebrand Women by leading Bangladeshi media outlets. Their uninterrupted physical occupation of Shahbag, tirelessly creating and sustaining motivating slogans for the crowd was instrumental in calling more people to action at Shahbag – a turning point in making Shahbag a success. The Agni-Konna’s call notwithstanding, the particular female demographic at Shahbag masses defy any particular stereotype of age-gender-profession. From a strictly class perspective, most of those assembled women fall squarely in the middle class category, ranging in professions from students-teachers- white collar workers- and housewives. None of their presence can be trivialized.

The visible presence of women in this movement is not consistent with the usual place of women in this country. In a country where the patriarchal system routinely tries to minimize sexual assault on women by labeling it as “eve-teasing”, where on street-corners you see signs saying “no honking, no smoking and no eve-teasing” or where the mass-media routinely broadcasts news, dramas, movies or commercials loaded with male-dominated sexist content, all in the name of society, it is amazing to see so many women spontaneously turning up to take part in such a large rally!

The reason for women’s consistent presence Shahbag explored further brings to light some pertinent points. Shahbag has defied pundits as the movement  has survived and thrived without any mentionable incident of sexual harassment. Does that mean there are no rapists or sexual predators lurking amongst the assembled mass of humanity at Shahbag? Or are they staying away fearing the vocal wrath of the Agni-Konna’s? It should not be forgotten that rapists and sexual predators do not belong to any particular race or group, and as such they cannot disappear completely from the scene. The rapists and sexual predators still exist amongst the Agni-Konnas fathers, brothers, friends, lovers, and husbands. So what then is the reason for their passivity at Shahbag?

In the slogans that are being chanted frequently at Shahbag, in the songs that are being sung, the place of women is more prominent than the real women who are present there. Rape is a war-crime. Yet, rape is something that is rarely discussed in this country; “The freedom of Bangladesh has been achieved at the price of three million lives and the loss of the honour/ izzat  (an Urdu word meaning honour that has Islamic connotations)/ ultimate sacrifice/ self-sacrifice of three hundred thousand mothers and sisters” goes the usual narrative. We are even ready to make a flag out of the saree (the traditional long piece of cloth worn by the women of Bangladesh) of a raped sister. But in reality the raped woman can no longer be our sister. Rather, her place is at the lowest rung of our society. Yet we claimed to have “honoured” these same women who were raped in the war. The country is so frequently equated to the mother that it is a topic that doesn’t need to be mentioned. Yet, we don’t often discuss the topic of raped mothers as often as that of raped sisters- just as the topic of war children is almost never mentioned.

The relationship between the absence of sexual assaults on the women present and the presence of “sisters” and “mothers” in the slogans and the songs that are being uttered and sang frequently at Shahbag, is very clear. Historically these familial relationships have been used to create desexualized images of women. It becomes necessary to desexualize women because the main images of women in our society are sexual. From presenting women as commodities on bill-boards to presenting one’s own daughter (who is a woman after all) to the family of a prospective groom in the drawing room, the image of a woman that is active is a sexual one.

The need for a desexualized construct of women is easily understood from history. The first reason is the result of man’s worship of the ancient and original religious power (who was a goddess) long ago in this part of the world. Secondly, in the construction of the nation state, the idea of the “mother” is much more powerful than any other common factors (such as religion, race or language), and so there is much more continuity in the usage of this idea.

To sexualize/ desexualize women, or to make them into commodities/ objects/ activists/ sacred beings/ mothers/ sisters etc., to bring them out into the open or send them back into the home, to allow or deny them access to education, whenever the need arises, these are all long-established and often used tricks of the patriarchal society. Therefore, it is not entirely untrue to that the idea of “the motherland” is a convenient and expedient concept. The flag made out of the saree of a raped sister is similarly an overly emotive and deceptive piece of narrative. From the “restitution” of the raped women right after the war of 1971 to the usage of the term Birangana (which roughly translates to “war heroine”, which is yet another desexualized image) instead of “rape victims” today, are evidences of this fact. These labels and sentiments are in conflict with the idea of the woman as a whole.

But the mass-awakening of Shahbag gives us a reason to ally with these constructs, because as a result, it allows women to come out of the home and participate in the movement calling for the trial of the war-criminals. To a certain degree these desexualized constructs have been helpful in creating the female friendly atmosphere at Shahbag. Besides, the primary objectives of the movement are bringing to justice the war-criminals, the destruction of Jamaat-e-Islam, and bringing to justice the murders of Rajib. It is not the time to evaluate how much the idea of womanhood is being sacrificed in the construction of a national identity. However, at the same time we need to keep in mind that reinforcing the constructs which support these mother-earth-nation or mother-Mecca-Medina equivalences are ultimately misleading and destructive. On one hand, these ideas desexualize women by turning them into “mothers”, but by the same same token, by turing the country into “mother”, they reinforce the patriarchal narrative by transforming the invading plundering class into rapists.

However, it would be a mistake to think that the only factor protecting women amidst the mass-movement of Shahbag is this process of desexualization. These firebrand girls have always existed amongst us. Because we are so used to forgetting and minimizing the role that women have played in every revolution in every age, we struggle to remember the heroics of a Pritilata. We easily forget the names of Kalpana Datta, Shanti Ghose, Shuniti Chowdhury, Beena Das, Leela Rai, Nanibala Devi, Du’Koribala Devi, Matangini Hajra and names of many other revolutionary women who played active roles in the fight for independence against the British. We fail to keep in mind the contributions by the female labour leaders such as Dukhumot Bibi or Shantoshkumari Devi. Even if the name of Ila Mitra, the legendary female leader of the Santal (one of the non-Bengali ethnic indigenous people) revolt at Nachol, comes up occasionally, we never recall the women of the then Muslim League who played active and important roles in the language movement of 1952.

Still, in the traditional narrative of the war of liberation of 1971, the women remain “raped” mothers-sisters, someone to be pitied; In our minds they are stuck in the image of “victims”, carrying the label of Birangana. We never recall the names of those women who were active as freedom fighters or Muktijoddhas, women such as Rezina Ansaree, Alamtaz Begum, Nazia Osman Chowdhury, Shapna Datta Chowdhury, Sakhina Begum, Roshenara Begum, Asahlata Baidya, Zinnat Ara, Karuna Begum, Mirasi Begum, Amena Azaad, Joygun Bibi, Mohosena Begum – and many other female freedom fighters we neglect to recall. Amongst the women whose regular performance of patriotic songs and poetry on the Shadheen Bangla Betar (The radio of free Bengal was the radio station based in India that broadcast to the war-time Bangladesh of 1971) inspired the people of this country to dream of freedom are the names of Bulbul Mohalnobish, Nazneed Neena, Rupa Farhad, Flora Ahmed, Manjula Dasgupta, Ivy Rahman, Kulsum Asad, Dipti Lohani, Shaokat Ara Aziz, Bashona Gun, Parveen Akhtar, Ratna Ghoshal and others. Amongst those who formed the singing troops roaming the freedom-fighters’ camps during the war were Lubna Mariam, Nasheed Kamal and many, many others.

Post-the liberation war, during the mass uprisings of the nineties, during the anti-rape campaigns at Jahangir Nagar University in 1997, during the 2001 demonstration at the Shamshun Nahar Hall (One of the historical and famous dormitories for women who come to at Dhaka University from outside Dhaka) of Dhaka University – at each of these events women have played a vital and important role, and thus is can safely be concluded that the presence of women in revolutions in this country is not a new or isolated event.

Shahbag experience 2:

I myself don’t subscribe to any particular religion. But that doesn’t mean that I believe in attacking others’ religious beliefs. I tend to prefer the terms believer/non-believer over theist/atheist. This is a conscious choice on my part; Although the meanings of these words may be the same, their presentation is different. Instead of dwelling on whether it was correct to hold a janaza for blogger Rajib Haidar, or whether it was respectful to his memory or not, I turned up to attend his janaza. On my way there I was shooed by people at several places. Disregarding the “Don’t come here, there’s a janaza in progress!” admonishments (The janaza is traditionally attended only by men, unless a special and separate room is available for women), I managed to reach a group which consisted entirely of women.   This was explained by the fact that the group’s men have all gone to take part in the janaza. While the janaza was in progress, we all stood around in silence. Afterwards, however, Rebecca Neela told us of her bitter experience. There were aggressive men who wanted her to move because of the janaza and, although she didn’t get into an argument with them, she had stood her ground. Her logic was – “We have been here demonstrating here for all these weeks, we can’t just “vanish” now.”

If we look into history, we see that most of the early converts to a new religion were women. Everyone is familiar with the stories related to the first female converts to Islam and Buddhism. Women are more likely to show interest in converting to a new religion precisely because they are the most likely victims of the current dominant religion- this is a very plausible thesis. However, in most dominant religions women are also the ones who tend to adhere most strictly to all the rules and regulations. They are known to be more religious. On the other hand, women have always played a leading role in helping society advance by pushing traditional religious boundaries by putting forward new interpretations and analyses of religions. In resisting the subjugation of women in the name of religion, the women activists of the anti-Shibir movement of Jahangir Nagar University have held up this role.

The women activists of Shahbag are nothing different from them. I don’t think you can ever find a woman who supports marauding, murder or rape in the name of religion, whether she is a believer or a non-believer. Already, there are smear campaigns to besmirch the reputations of the women activists of Shahbag. There is absolutely no truth in the dirty and nasty rumours that are being spread by the forces of communalism, all using modern information technology. These religious bigots are simply using the ancient methods of insulting, attacking, slandering and smearing women. The constant presence of women at Shahbag therefore is proof of the fact that people who believe in intellectual openness and freedom are actively resisting this propaganda.

After the destructive rampage perpetrated by Jamaat and Shibir on Friday, Shabag has awakened again! Naturally, there is a significant female presence there. Braving the chaos, bullets, knives, rallies by the religious militia, the fearless and firebrand women of Bangladesh have come out again alongside their men. In times like these the safety of women is usually such a rare thing that the spectacle of Shahbag really amazes!

Inherent in the presence of the women who are activist there or who have come out to show their support for the Shahgab movement is the possibility to build a strong, country-wide anti-rape movement. Just as Shahbag has questioned the very existence of Jamaat by forcing the realization that the death-penalty of one Kader Molla is not a solution – in the same way, Shahbag has the potential to force the realization that it is not the trial of individual rapists that is the solution but that we must question the systems of our rape-obsessed state and society that seem to have become a factory of churning out rapists and sexual predators.

Let the journey begin. This path will be a hard one. To shun the imposition of the goddess idea, or to construct a “desexualized” image of the motherland. The demand for the death-penalty of the rapist will not cover up the bill-boards that parade the bodies of women. The mass media doesn’t work like that. For aeons the patriarchal system have pulled women out of homes when it saw the need, only to push them back once the need was over. Now that we have come out let us never go back.

For women, for the safely of the future generations, let the fight go on!

Umme Raihana: post-graduate student of the department of mass-communications and journalism.

http://bangla.bdnews24.com/opinion_bn/article594266.bdnews