The Participation of women in the Liberation War in 1971: A Historical Analysis

ABSTRACT: “If blood is the price of independence,Bangladesh has paid the highest price in the history” ——-(London Times 1971)This paper quests to know the sacrifices of women in the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. Whenever weconceive the participation of women in the liberation war we only envision the women who were censured andraped. But women also participated in the war as fighters, helping hands, cookers, messengers, Diplomats,Inspiration, medical assistants and also as mothers. Most of the woman in Bangladesh participated in the warsometimes directly and sometimes indirectly. Some of our heroines also joined in the front war, among themtwo women had been awarded as “Bir Pratik”. We know our Liberation war was not an abrupt matter, so theparticipation of women in liberation war was also not an astonishing thing. If we see the mounting of liberationwar, we can see women had participated all the movements as like- Language movement in 1952, TheEducation Movement in 1962, The six points movement in 1966, The Mass Upsurge in 1969, The PakistaniGeneral Election in 1970, 7th March speech in 1971 at the Race Course Ground. So it was a general matter forwomen to participate the liberation war. But they had not been recognized according to their sacrifices. They areonly Recognized as a ravished woman. The women who forsaken their lives and were raped by the PakistaniArmy and their collaborators, we could never recognize them what they deserve. About 4 lakhs and 50thousand women were abused by the Pakistani Army and their collaborators. So it must be said that women hada great contributions in our liberation war as like as men. So women who participated in our liberation war inany ways, should be given due respect and recognition imitating to their devotion. This paper has endeavouredto present the sacrifices and devotion of women in the liberation war of Bangladesh..

Keywords: Independence, Liberation War, Recognition, Respect,Sacrifice