Yasmin Saikia, Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971

When remembering the civil war between East and West Pakistan in 1971, most accounts are told from a nationalistic perspective, demonizing the Other and focusing on the strength, perseverance, and in the case of the Bengalis, glory and triumph over West Pakistan. In such accounts, women’s involvement in the war, as fighters, social workers, and civilian victims of tremendous violence, is often left out as it would disrupt the smooth surface of national history. As recorded by Saikia in one in...