Raju Bala Dey and Surjo Begum — two Birangonas raped by Pakistani soldiers during the Liberation War — yesterday narrated their horrifying experience and the humiliation thereafter.
The two Birangonas (war heroines) from Sirajganj are the first among nearly two lakh war rape victims to come in public to recount their torments.
Now aged, they trembled as they told their stories as to how some razakars (collaborators of Pakistani forces) handed them over to Pakistani soldiers.
“Freedom fighters sacrificed their blood to liberate the country and now enjoy many state facilities and get allowances,” said Raju Bala. “But nobody recognises the sacrifice we made…nobody would even look at us!”
She gave a pause and said, “We demand justice from the whole world.”
Raju Bala was speaking at a programme organised by Samajik Sahayata Udyog, a welfare organisation for the brave women abused during the 1971 war, at the Nabab Nawab Ali Senate Bhaban at Dhaka University in the capital.
“It was one Tuesday,” recalls Raju. “Most people had left the village. As we are Hindu, we had to remain in hiding most of the time.”
“The day before, three razakars came to us and said: ‘Don’t be afraid, you don’t have to go into hiding, nothing would happen to you’, and we felt reassured.”
The next day, she saw several uniformed Pakistani soldiers approaching their house. On coming, they took her husband away at gunpoint; and dragged her towards a nearby wood.
Two of them raped her, and left her to die.
“My husband later found me and took me to a doctor,” she said, covering her face with her sari.
“I survived. But the life I lived has been one of alienation and dejection.”
Surjo Begum, the other Birangona, was listening to the story with her eyes closed.
Then her turn came.
“We dug holes and used to hide our goats in there,” she said. “And we hid ourselves in the water in a nearby pond whenever the Pakistani soldiers passed by.”
“One day, some soldiers saw us in the water. A razakar named Badsha asked us to come out of the water,” said Surjo Begum.
Soaking wet from head to toe, a teenage Surjo followed her family out of the water.
“He told us that we would not have to hide any longer, and that nothing would happen to us,” she said, adding that she saw the razakar whispering to the Pakistani soldiers as she and her family returned home.
Six Pakistani soldiers from a nearby camp came to the house the next day. Two of them stood guard outside the house while four soldiers raped four of her family members inside.
“I was the last to be…,” she fell short, covering her face with her sari. She then gave a low, choking moan and began to tremble.
Surjo was married to a cousin a few weeks before the incident.
In Bangla, the word Birangona means brave woman. The government conferred the title on the women who were raped by the Pakistani army during the nine months of the war.
But the title has come to mean a “dishonoured” or “violated woman,” other speakers said, and the Birangonas, including Raju Bala and Surjo Begum, have been forced to live in seclusion rejected by their families and the society.
Raju Bala, a devout Hindu, said she is not allowed to enter a temple. And her grandchildren are mocked and teased for being the offspring of a woman “who was taken away by the military”.
“I’m speechless,” said Prof Mizanur Rahman, chairman of National Human Rights Commission, addressing the programme as chief guest.
“While many razakars go to mosques and even conduct prayers, this brave woman who had to sacrifice everything for the country can’t even enter a temple.”
He demanded that the sufferings and harassments of these women end now. He also promised to take their cases to the government.
Women rights activists, teachers and students at the programme demanded that the Birangonas should be recognised as freedom fighters and given all the facilities they get.
According to government statistics, around two lakh women were violated during the war of liberation. However, some independent sources put the number at four lakh.
-With The Daily Star input
