Comments for ANUSHAY'S POINT

Comment on BIO by আরিফুর রহমান

আরিফুর রহমান — Fri, 25 May 2012 10:48:24 +0000

আপনার লেখা সরল এবং বোধগম্য।
বাংলাদেশে ইন্টারন্যাশনাল ক্রাইমস্ ট্রাইব্যুনাল বর্তমানে এর বিচার কার্যক্রম সম্পন্ন করছে।

ইন্টারন্যাশনাল ক্রাইমস্ স্ট্র্যাটেজি ফোরাম (ICSF) http://icsforum.org এই ট্রাইব্যুনাল ও সংশ্লিষ্ট ঘটনাবলী পর্যবেক্ষণ করছে।

নিয়মিত এ সংক্রান্ত খবরের জন্য এর মিডিয়া আর্কাইভ নেড়ে দেখতে পারেন। http://icsforum.org/mediarchive/

Comment on 1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide History by Nakib

Nakib — Thu, 24 May 2012 20:06:12 +0000

The thing is, in an extremely conservative culture like that of South Asia, rape-victims can hardly reintegrate themselves back into the society. If their secret leaks out, they are subjected to all those pointings & whispers. So the best way most of these victims can get back into the society is by keeping it a secret. This makes it easy for all those rapists to escape. And if the women does demand justice, it is all so easy to label her off as an adulteress & condemn her for everything. The lack of scientific evidence in rape cases is definitely a problem since villages aren’t equipped to attempt scientific investigations. There have been rape cases in the Middle-East, where due to the loopholes & lack of evidences, rape-victims were labeled off as adulteress and beheaded according to their laws and customs for adultery. Another interesting case is Morocco, where, weirdly, rape-victims are forced to marry their rapists in order to prevent their ‘honor’.
But war-rapes are a different issue altogether. In WW2 the Japanese Army shipped off thousands of poor Korean women and forced them to work in brothels in army camps. During the last US invasion of Iraq, Abeer al-Janabi, a 14-year old Iraqi was raped incessantly by 5 US soldiers in front of her family before the soldiers shot all of them and disposed off their bodies. Hers is one of the few stories that garnered attention because the insurgents in Iraq started slaying all those officers from the unit after that rape. But in Bangladesh, the honors of all those who were raped are a subject stigmatised and not talked about by the elders;even those who actually knew many women who were victims of this brutality shun away the subject. This is one of those curses of the war that the society will have to bear as long as history books exist.

Comment on 1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide History by Fia

Fia — Thu, 24 May 2012 06:19:20 +0000

Thankyou so much for posting about this – all i see in dhaka these days are how people have turned this day into a big party noone ever bothers talking about these incidents , if you didn’t write about this I would have never EVER KNOWN.

Comment on 1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide History by anushayspoint

anushayspoint — Wed, 23 May 2012 21:12:59 +0000

Thank you so much for your support, and for reading my work. I could not tell when I found the interview if I should write about it or not, but at the end I decided that the truth must be exposed and the next generation of Bangladeshis must know everything about this war, our history. These women must get justice after 40 years. They deserve nothing less.

Comment on 1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide History by Sanjid Parvez

Sanjid Parvez — Wed, 23 May 2012 20:19:30 +0000

As a reader & being a Bangladeshi, I understand & respect your point & reasons about this article but still like you in the middle, the same question haunts me…”What’s the point or how can we NOW reconcile those pains & horror that happened with our mothers & sisters back at the liberation war?”
The thing is massive destructions, merciless killings & RAPES are the common casualties of a war. I don’t take the bullshits of a country’s defense force or the army people are only made of patriotic soldiers. In every defense force or military group around the world there are hyenas in army uniform waiting to rape the defenseless women in a war or war like situation (and the system that they goes through to become an army personnel is mostly responsible for that). Therefore, rape is one of the undeniable & horrifying casualties that’s very natural or common thing to face on in an army invasion anywhere. I think if we go through the history & impact of wars around the world we’ll find plenty of examples where the the major or at least some part of attacking troops eventually get involved in this crime by themselves or as an order from their seniors. Moreover, a war creates such unthinkable scenarios where it gets the best as well as the worst of a man & made him think of “what to do” when there’s a captured, helpless young woman in front of him.
Now, let me make one thing clear that I’m not here for making any point to support this horrendous crimes or making any sense to what happened with thousands of Bangladeshi women back at the war.
Rape is one of those ghastly crimes that demands punishment & justice sooner than any other crimes…even a brutal murder, IMO. Cause as long the society or the system takes the time or fails to deliver the justice, the sufferings of the victim(s) grows more & more. Particularly, in a country like Bangladesh it actually somewhat impossible to come back to the society or to your known neighbouhood or sometimes even to your own family, in an acceptable scenario or place if you become a rape victim.
In the term, you said “hide”….demands some clarification, IMO. Cause, the people of after war generation I think just knows the fact that thousands of Bangladeshi women got raped in the war but what actually the state did hide from them were mostly the identities of those women & the detail stories of how they got raped and I think most of the post-war Bangladeshi civilians (born in late 70′s, 80′s, 90′s or 00′s) doesn’t intend or interested to know those information. Cause…what’s the point as we already failed to protect, shelter or support them after the liberation; as we already failed to deliver the justice to them at the right time when it actually mattered, demanded and they needed?
Do you think Bangladesh as a country is now in a position or after all these years its justice & judiciary system as well as social scenario & political structure is now capable to bring those war criminals down & punish them properly? The truth is a very late initiative or beginning of the judiciary process for a past crime after all these years in a country like Bangladesh can’t able to generate the expected or proper justice. The government & the system is already started to baffle with the process to punish the well known Rajakars like Golam Azam or SAKA CHOWDHURY.
I don’t know how many of those ‘War Heroines’ actually or whether or not got any recognition from any government so far. Yeah…they should have honored & demands from the country more than anyone else for the sacrifices they made. But feeling very helpless, shameful & sorry to say, according to our current social scenario & “values”, I’m not sure what good it’d bring to them now if we started to dig those horror of war now?

Comment on 1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide History by Aneeqa

Aneeqa — Tue, 22 May 2012 21:31:55 +0000

There is no way that today’s generation would get to know what really went on in 1971 except for the stories passed on to us by our elders. However, the recounts of the Bangladeshi women are rare due to the ‘shame’ factor. Like you mentioned, the untold stories do not do justice and shed light on these war heroines at all. Their sacrifice, pain and suffering are going unnoticed and has for decades. Thank you for bringing this topic to the spotlight. There is no better piece to read for me than one that tells the history of my people and of our women! I adulate you for spreading the TRUTH through this brilliant piece.

Comment on 1971 Rapes: Bangladesh Cannot Hide History by Nakib

Nakib — Tue, 22 May 2012 07:51:19 +0000

This is a great piece, first of all
We all hear how proudly all those freedom fighters fought till their deaths to give Bangladesh independence. But the fact that while those men were fighting, countless women were being raped & murdered off has been shrouded by history in the guise of ‘shame’. The term ‘war heroine’ got no real acknowledgement.

“I am certain that troops have thrown babies into the air and caught them on their bayonets”
“I am certain that troops have raped girls repeatedly, then killed them by pushing their bayonets up between their legs.”
—John Hastings, A Methodist missionary who worked in Bangladesh
“Gen Tikka in turn briefed his Army Senior Commanders and picked up a staff who would understand why a Muslim Massacre by a Muslim Army, Hindu slaughter, why all intellectuals were to be killed in cold blood, why all young Bengali Muslim girls were to be raped, not to satisfy lust but as a religious duty to produce a new generation of blue-blooded true Muslims.” (muktadhara.net)

Taslima Nasreen, an eminent Bengali writer, later on wrote how one of her aunts were taken to one of those Pakistani camps to be gang-raped. After the war, her aunt returned; bringing home ‘shame’ to her family. Unable to bear all the whispers & suffocation, the woman hanged herself a year after Bangladesh regained independence during the month of victory(Here is the exact translation I wrote of what Nasreen said: http://www.umnotablogger.com/misc/content/1311-thoughts-on-march-26-from-1971-to-2012.html )

Comment on The Pinterest Gap: Is Pinning Only For Women? by Manu

Manu — Tue, 08 May 2012 01:04:28 +0000

This is a great ad for pinterest; It sounds addictive, completely up my alley — and bad for ones eyes – do it on the iPad at least. Love your writing.

Comment on The Pinterest Gap: Is Pinning Only For Women? by Siobhan

Siobhan — Mon, 07 May 2012 17:19:58 +0000

Hi Anushay, great post! I agree, Pinterest is for everybody! I love Pinterest and admittedly, most of my male friends do not. However, I think it’s interesting that the UK has a more gender balanced user ratio than the US (mentioned in the article you linked to), and I wonder if the gender charged atmosphere around Pinterest says more about gender stereotyping behaviors in the US than anywhere else. After all, isn’t launching “male” versions of Pinterest simply encouraging and reinforcing the idea that Pinterest isn’t for guys, and discouraging guys from joining? Just the idea that there are male versions of Pinterest (to me, anyway) clearly shows that the idea of an online pin-board is not an exclusively female concept or female behavior.

Comment on 41 Years Later: Women’s Rights in Bangladesh by online earning training

online earning training — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 05:03:34 +0000

Nice post & also counter post by Nakib. Thanks for it. I am also working for Women’s right at our local area. Your post will encourage me much.