Synopses & Reviews
Following the 1971 Bangladesh War, the Bangladesh government publicly designated the thousands of women raped by the Pakistani military and their local collaborators as birangonas, (andquot;brave womenandrdquo;). Nayanika Mookherjee demonstrates that while this celebration of birangonas as heroes keeps them in the public memory, they exist in the public consciousness as what Mookherjee calls a spectral wound. Dominant representations of birangonas as dehumanized victims with disheveled hair, a vacant look, and rejected by their communities create this wound, the effects of which flatten the diversity of their experiences through which birangonas have lived with the violence of wartime rape. In critically examining the pervasiveness of the birangona construction, Mookherjee opens the possibility for a more politico-economic, ethical, and nuanced inquiry into the sexuality of war.and#160;
Review
andquot;Nayanika Mookherjee has made visible a scene of gendered violence in the Bangladesh War of Liberation that travels beyond its specific context to historical, theoretical, and lived realities that are global in range and scope.andquot;and#160;
Review
andquot;Nayanika Mookherjee has produced a brilliant profile of a society grappling with the impact of war centered on rape and its memory. Dealing with rape in war is a political act and memories serve many causes, from the nationalist to the personal. Mookherjee looks at the issue through the lenses of class, culture, and politics, making it one of the most comprehensive and perceptive studies available, as she investigates from within what it means to become an outsider and the socio-political mechanisms that make it happen.andquot;and#160;
Review
andquot;What happens when a moment of personal violation becomes appropriated as part of the narrative of a new collectivity? In a subtle and multifaceted analysis, Nayanika Mookherjee tracks the consequences, both personal and political, of acts of sexual violence that refuse to be forgotten four decades on from the war of independence.andquot;and#160;
Synopsis
In this ethnography of sexual violence during the 1971 Bangladesh War for Independence, Nayanika Mookherjee shows how the public celebration of the hundreds of thousands of rape victimsandmdash;called andquot;birangonasandquot; by the stateandmdash;works to homogenize and silence the experiences of these women.
About the Author
Nayanika Mookherjee is Reader in Socio-Cultural Anthropology at Durham University.
Table of Contents
Forewordand#160; ix
Preface: andquot;A Lot of History, a Severe Historyandquot;and#160; xv
Acknowledgmentsand#160; xxi
Introduction: The andquot;Looking-Glass Borderandquot;and#160; 1
Part I
1. The Month of Mourning and the Languid Flood Waters: The Weave of National Historyand#160; 31
2. We Would Rather Have Shaak (Greens) Than Murgi (Chicken) Palao: The Archiving of the Birangonaand#160; 47
3. Bringing Out the Snake: Khota (Scorn) and the Public Secrecy of Sexual Violenceand#160; 67
4. A Mine of Thieves: Interrogting Local Politicsand#160; 91
5. My Own Imagination in My Own Body: Embodied Transgressions in the Everydayand#160; 107
Part II
6. Mingling in Society: Rehabilitation Program and Re-membering the Raped Womanand#160; 129
7. The Absent Piece of Skin: Gendered, Racialized, and Territorial Inscriptions of Sexual Violence during the Bangladesh Warand#160; 159
8. Imagining the War Heroine: Examination of State, Press, Literary, Visual, and Human Rights Accounts, 1971andndash;2001and#160; 177
9. Subjectivities of War Heroines: Victim, Agent, Traitor?and#160; 228
Part III
Conclusion. The Truth is Tough: Human Rights and the Politics of Transforming Experiences of Wartime Rape andquot;Traumaandquot; into Public Memoriesand#160; 251
Postscript: From 2001 until 2013and#160; 264
Notesand#160; 277
Glossaryand#160; 291
Referencesand#160; 293
Index