Depiction of '71 rape victims discriminatory

The rape victims of the 1971 Liberation War are presented in literature, movies, newspapers, and photographs in a discriminatory way, a book launch was told yesterday.

Women's contribution in the war is also underrepresented, the speakers said.

The book titled "The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories and the Bangladesh War of 1971" was launched at the capital's Drik Gallery.

It was written by Nayanika Mookherjee, a reader in the Department of Anthropology at Durham University, UK.

Mookherjee, who had worked on the book since 1997, demonstrated that the rape victims, also known as Birgangonas (brave women), existed in the public consciousness as a "spectral wound". Showing photos of some victims, she said the war heroines were dominantly represented as dehumanised victims with dishevelled hair and a vacant look.

In some pictures they are seen covering their face with scarves, she said, and these connoted rejection by the community which actually inflicted wounds upon them.

She added, "These flatten the diversity of their experiences through which Birangonas have lived with the violence of wartime rape."

Women's rights activist Taslima Akhter said through critically examining the pervasiveness of the Birangona construction, Mookherjee showed how raped women faced discriminations in their portrayal.

Photographer Shahidul Alam praised the book as a rare research work.

The book can be ordered online at www.combinedacademic.co.uk and availed at a 20 percent discount using the code CSF715SPEC.