Rape as a weapon in Bangladesh
How Bengali women suffered appalling sexual violence during the war of independence.
Witness History · BBC World Service
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Show Notes
During the war of independence in Bangladesh in 1971, Pakistani troops and their local collaborators used systematic rape as deliberate tactic. It's estimated that hundreds of thousands of Bengali women were victims of one of the worst instances in the 20th century of rape being used as a weapon of war. Farhana Haider speaks to one of the women, and to the Bengali playwright and filmmaker Leesa Gazi, who has documented their suffering in her work.
PHOTO: Filmmaker Leesa Gazi with a ‘Birangona', one of the women who was raped during Bangladesh’s war of independence (Leesa Gazi/ Shihab Khan)