Reconstructing the Identity of the Birangana as Hero

Abstract

Sexual violence against women in wartime has been a prominent scenario of war narratives throughout history, and the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh is no different. According to narratives focused on 1971, 200,000-400,000 women were raped during the nine-month battle. On 22nd December 1971, the then president of Bangladesh, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, designated the rape survivors as Birangana (or war heroines) to restore their honor and facilitate their rehabilitation, which is an act historically and internationally unprecedented. However, though these women were called war heroines, they were, unfortunately, seen as fallen women by their communities. This paper aims to inspect why the Birangana`s identity has been shaped as victim, and not as hero. A close textual analysis would be used to study Rizia Rahman`s Letters of Blood, Shaheen Akhtar`s The Search, and Dilruba Z. Ara`s Blame using Peter L. Berger and Thomas Luckmann`s theory of “social constructionism” to reconstruct the Biranganas` identity as heroes. The study also includes Judith Butler`s theory of “gender performativity” to reconstruct the gender roles and women`s identity as victors, not victims. A few additional theoretical concepts by Franco, Kramer, and others regarding “heroism” are used to show how the Biranganas can be defined as heroic figures. The Biranganas such as Yasmin, Mariam, Laila, and many others from Letters of Blood, The Search and Blame are denied any identity other than that of the fallen woman, but their resistance and willpower to liberate themselves from this stigmatized identity is what makes them heroes.