Aditi Sharif:
Nowadays, an unfortunate debate on sexual violence against women in 1971 has arisen, where the realities of such incidents have been questioned. It has been claimed that the number of female victims of such violence is fabricated. Even some people deny the fact that Bangladeshi females suffered from such heinous crimes. Now, how can the claims be contested? There indeed exist different public archives, elements of popular culture, that manifest the horrors of this wartime rape. However, the legitimacy of such accounts is often questioned, as they are seen as outcomes of political bias. In this regard, Nayanika Mookherjee’s ethnographic account of the wartime rape in 1971 can be highly insightful as it is an academic work conducted by a foreign scholar.
In her book “The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971”(2015), Nayanika Mookherjee illustrated how public memories of 1971 represent the women who were raped in the liberation war, the relationship between public memory and the lived experiences of the rape survivors, while challenging the orientalized portrayal of the survivors of sexual violence, which depicts them as “dehumanized victims” who were abandoned by their family members. Her ethnographic analysis also examines the processes by which their stories and experiences became a characteristic of “a broader set of national discourses and debates” (Mookherjee 2015). Rather than only emphasizing their suffering, it highlighted the varied experiences of wartime rape during 1971 to avoid a homogenized nature of wartime rape and gendered victimhood (Mookherjee 2015).
Mookherjee’s ethnographic work indicates that, unlike many wartime rapes, the wartime rape in Bangladesh during 1971 is consistently present in the public conversation. The effort of the Bangladeshi government in 1972 to dignify the rape-survivors as “War Heroines” was unique too. Even when the Bangladeshi press (1973-1990) remained silent on War heroines, stereotypical images of war heroines depicted them with some characteristics, such as disheveled hair, loud laughter, quietness, and ‘deadened eyes’. Another image, which is closely associated with the war heroines, is the image of the Razakar, Pakistani collaborators, who often helped the Pakistani army to rape the Bangladeshi women. By analyzing such images, Mookherjee tries to understand the physical and social injuries of these women, which can be found in the public memories of wartime rapes. It also connects ethnographic social relations among the war heroines to the local and state-level political discourses and representations (Mookherjee 2015).
Interestingly, her analysis also reveals that while public authorities at the state level remember the contributions of war heroines in an elaborate manner, people at the community level are reluctant to discuss these historical assaults. In other words, there exists both public memory and secrecy in the history of wartime rape during 1971. It also pays attention to the fragmented experiences of men, demasculinization, and silence about the violence against men. Additionally, it highlights how war heroines can be portrayed as traitors. Exploring men’s relationship to sexual violence and the link between sexualities and nations, it adds an important dimension to the gendered narratives (Mookherjee 2015).
This book focuses on both the stereotypical representations of war heroines and the connection between discourses and institutions at several levels. It also highlights its ambiguities and tensions with everyday lives and imaginaries associated with wartime rape during 1971 (Mookherjee 2015).
I consider this book a valuable source to understand the experiences of rape survivors in our liberation war, and contest the nonsense claims of some people who deny the sacrifices and sufferings of Bangladeshi women. The positionality of the researcher strengthens the stances of the book. As an Indian scholar based in the UK, Mookherjee doesn’t have any gain in Bangladeshi political power dynamics. So, just read the book to understand the historical wound in the survivor’s everyday and social lives of the rape survivors before making it a nonsensical political issue.
References:
Mookherjee, Nayanika. 2015. The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971 . Durham: Duke University Press.
Author’s Biography:
Aditi Sharif is a Social Researcher, currently doing PhD in Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Reno. Her research interests include gender, Feminism, Migration, and Religion. She is also a Volunteer Writer of the Women Chapter, English.