TITLE:
A Sociological Perspective in Woman Role on Liberation War of Bangladesh
AUTHORS:
Mahfuza Khatun, Rasheda Irshad Nasir, Kollol Arif
KEYWORDS:
Conflict, Victim, Biological Trait, Gender, Freedom Fighter, Liberation War
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.11 No.7,
July
17,
2023
ABSTRACT: People of all ages spontaneously took part in
Bangladesh’s freedom fight. Along with males, women volunteered to fight the
Pakistani junta and were equally important in the conflict. But in the history,
they are not properly described rather portrayed as victim of war. The
contribution of woman had enormous but for the man headed society did not
reflect its original achievements. The study has tried to pinpoint the
fundamental causes that have undermined the role that women played in
Bangladesh’s struggle for independence. Additionally, the study discusses the
various development roles that women played during the conflict, including
guerilla fighters, informants, volunteers, social workers, organizers, and
motivators. The study has used the content analysis methods/tools to identify
and explore the role of woman in the history of Bangladeshi liberation war in
sociological perspective. In this approach, the authors critically reviewed
different sorts of content belongs to the pre and post liberations documents,
media, papers and books which supports in the development of a mental model of
the behavioral patterns. 87 kinds of documents from the mass media like TV,
Newspaper, Online Journal/history were analyzed, relevant 16 books from the
library and liberation museum were collected and analyzed, completed 8 in depth
interview of the famous freedom fighters who were directly/indirectly involved
in liberation war. Through the study, we have also reviewed nearly 5 important
books which were written by woman freedom fighters. It was revealed that women
freedom fighters did not get the full page to be discussed and did not remind
of their full contribution. Rather, they are primarily portrayed as combat
victims. After liberation, woman had earned and achieved progressive woman
empowerment in different perspective in the society including leadership
shifting at the male dominating society. Over the past few centuries, there
have been numerous significant changes to the position of women in Bangladesh.
Since Bangladesh gained its independence in 1971, women there have made
considerable strides, benefiting from measures implemented by Bangladesh over
the past four decades that have improved job possibilities, enhanced
educational opportunities, and political empowerment for women. Nevertheless,
due to cultural norms that enforce rigid gender roles as well as inadequate
execution of laws that were designed to protect women, women in Bangladesh
still struggle to attain equality with males (Wikimedia Foundation, 2022).