Selima Quader Chowdhury

In the mainstream Bengali culture, the image of the indigenous women is exoticised. Often shown dressed in colorful attires and traditional jewellery, frolicking in the hills—they are the embodiment of a “primitive” culture, with their ties to nature and their “simple” ways of living.

Reflections on rural life have always been intrinsic to the music, art and literature of Bangladesh. Peasant women have remained a subject of interest for many artists. The first generation of modern Bangladeshi artists—SM Sultan (1923-1994), Zainul Abedin (1914-1976) and Quamrul Hassan (1921-1988)—endeavoured to depict the lives of Bangladesh's working-class rural women in their own distinct ways. While Abedin and Hassan portray peasant

The depiction of the mother and her martyred son represents a religious iconography dating back to the crucifixion of Christ. Many