“War baby” Should Be Called “Victory baby”

During the Liberation War, 1971 horrific atrocities were visited upon the Bengali civilians in the territory of Bangladesh by the Pakistani army and its local collaborators. The Pakistani forces along with their local collaborators adopted a strategy of rape and thereby forced pregnancy in Bangladesh. Between 200,000 and 400,000 Bengali women were raped while at least 25,000 were confronted with forced pregnancies.

It has also been established that approximately 80% of the rape victims were Bengali Muslim women, aged between 7 and 75. As a matter of crucial reality, such incidents of rape caused thousands of pregnancies, births of war babies, abortions, incidents of infanticide, and suicide of the victims. Immediately after the 1971 Liberation War, the Father of the Nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, recognized the role of all such women and declared them to be "Biranganas" (War Heroines). However, the raped women and the war babies were eventually ostracized from their own communities.

After almost 42 years of our Liberation War, when the judgment of The Chief Prosecutor vs. Syed Md. Qaiser [ICT BD 2, Case No. 04 of 2013] case was pronounced, Prosecutor Tureen Afroz, who conducted the said case, dedicated the judgment to the war babies and "Biranganas" of 1971. This particular case is regarded as the first case before this Tribunal in which a rape victim and a war baby testified to their tragic and traumatic experiences, about the horrors they were subjected to during and after the Liberation War. The question of awarding compensations to the rape victims arose to which the honourable Tribunal responded that in the absence of any express provision of law, they could not award such compensation [pp.294 at para.982]. However, the honourable Tribunal emphasized that the 'State cannot ignore designing programs removing the stigma of rape by honoring and compensating the victims for the supreme sacrifice they went through and also to provide long-term support to them, aiming at ensuring that the ripple effects do not continue to haunt our society and community in the days to come' [pp. 294 at para.982].

In this particular case, the rape victim Majeda Begum (P.W.5) from Sylhet appeared before the Tribunal as a heroic woman and testified about the trauma she went through during the period of war. She brought into the picture an account of how she survived with her trauma, which was worse than death. She gave birth to a daughter named Shamsunnahar (P.W. 10), a war baby and secondary victim of the beastly act of the Pakistani army and their local collaborators [pp.212 at para.715].

These two witnesses are glaring examples of the extent of horrific atrocities committed by the Pakistan army and its local collaborators during the Liberation War. Concerning the testimony of Shamsunnahar, the learned Prosecutor Tureen Afroz submitted before the tribunal that war baby Shamsunnahar has broken the silence for the first time in the history by claiming justice at the International Crimes Tribunal, Bangladesh, thus making the issue of war babies visible to the international humanity as she suffers social ostracism and isolation for being a war baby of 1971 ['War Crime Trial of Qaiser: Prosecution Seeks Death Penalty', The News Today, 8 August, 2014].

Further, addressing the issue of war rape, the learned Prosecutor Tureen Afroz argued before the honorable Tribunal as to how the helpless women were systematically captured, detained and sexually violated, particularly at the rape camps during the War of Liberation [pp.210 at para.706]. She further argued before the honorable Tribunal that 'the child Shamsunnahar, the war baby, is now 42 [At present 44] who is in a true sense another victim of the crime of rape' [pp.210 at para.707].

At this point, let me recall Sudhir Barman, another socially ostracized and unattended war baby of our society who was revealed in a documentary film titled "Jonmosathi (Born Together)". Sudhir Barman is a 44-year old man living in the Rajbangshi community at Dinajpur. His mother Tepri Barman was seized and taken to the Pakistan army camp during the Liberation War where she was raped by four Punjabi soldiers continuously. Tepri Barman returned home at the end of war an expecting mother. The villagers chastised her and forced her to abort the child. Nonetheless, she did not want her child be killed. Her father supported her and wished that the child would see the light of this world. Sudhir Barman does not look like a member of typical Rajbangshi community with Mongoloid looks. Instead he is tall, white complexioned with a sharp nose. He does not eat fish but loves meat, perhaps because of the Punjabi genes he carries. The villagers call him Punjabir Chhele (Son of the Punjabis). He is also isolated from his whole community, which makes him simply say that "life is all blank (!)."

The tales of war babies do not end here. Many of them were sent abroad so that they could lead safe lives there as they were unwanted and treated as possessing polluted blood, in the society of a newly emerged country. We do not know their stories, which may remain untold forever. By now, more than four decades have elapsed. Many of the victims have already died. Nevertheless, both the living war rape victims and the war babies have been suffering from the long-term psychological trauma of rape. Their normal livelihood is regularly affected by many types of inexplicable and traumatized disorders, including panic attacks, flashbacks, feelings of shame and dishonour, and a sense of insecurity. But have we ever questioned ourselves as to how these effects can have a lifelong effect on the victims and war babies if they do not get honour and care from society and from the State as a whole?

In this regard, the learned Prosecutor Tureen Afroz has pointed out that 'the war babies and the Biranganas are considered as bastard children and raped women respectively in our society' ['The War Babies Should Be Called Victory Babies: Tureen Afroz', banglamail24.com, 28 April, 2016]. To bring about a change in such perceptions, she demanded that the war babies be called 'Victory Babies'. In supporting her demand, I would say that the war babies are our pride as well as an integral part of our Liberation War. Further, this country became independent through the sufferings of their mothers. Hence, we should never make them feel ostracized. We should rather call each of them a Victory Baby.

Md. Pizuar Hossain is a researcher in International Criminal Law and a faculty member of the Department of Law, East West University, Bangladesh.