Gender War: The Intersectional Sexual Violence of the Bangladesh War (1971)

The author of the blog is Anureet Kaur, a second-year BA LLB (Hons.) student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, with an interest in International Law. Email ID: anureetkaur23266@rgnul.ac.in.

“How can a woman’s body instigate so much hatred and violence? If we need to shame a family, we go after their daughters. If we need to shame a country, we go after their daughters. It’s the same mindset.”

~Leesa Gazi

On December 16, 1971, Bangladesh got independence after a nine-month liberation war against West Pakistan. The war cost 3 million martyrs and the dignity of over 0.4 million women. Almost 1/3rd of the Bangladeshi population was affected by the unrecorded atrocities committed by the Pakistani army and the Razakars.

In the early 1980s, Bangladesh was not only fighting a war for its liberation, but there were a number of wars that broke out within the country itself, which resulted in changing the geopolitical landscape of the South Asian region. In this blog, I have identified and mentioned four wars that took place during that period in the Bangladeshi landscape:

1. An internal war between the Urdu and Bengali speaking population of Pakistan, which ultimately culminated in all other wars.

2. The war for Bangladesh’s liberation, popularly called the Liberation War of 1971.

3. The international war between India and Pakistan.

4. Gender war.

The term “Gender War”, a war against the women of East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh), was first mentioned by Yasmin Saikia in her book “Women, War, and the Making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971”. In this period of nine months, millions of women were raped and got impregnated. Though the official figures vary, the record points that the number of rapes committed by the Pakistani army and the Razakars crosses more than 400,000. 

In this struggle for freedom, various intersectional factors played a role in shaping the experiences and nature of atrocities committed against the women of Bangladesh. Through this blog, I have made an attempt to analyse the contribution of various intersectional identities, such as gender, race, ethnicity, linguistic and religious affiliations, in inflicting sexual violence against Bangladeshi women during the Liberation War of 1971. 

Gender War: Horrors of 1971

On March 25, 1971, Lt Gen Tikka Khan, commander of the Pakistan Army’s Eastern Command (infamously known as the “sobriquet of Butcher of Bangladesh”) started operation “Searchlight”, a military operation aimed at killing and butchering Bengalis in the name of saving Pakistan. The operation led to infliction of massacres, mass rapes and various forms of torture on the country’s populace.

Women were abducted from various corners of Bangladesh and locked up inside the cantonments by the Pakistani army and their local Bengali collaborators. As reported, Bengali captives inside the cantonment could hear the screams of the captured women, when they were being molested and raped. The condition of these rape camps, run by Pakistani forces and the Razakars, was horrendous. 

Not only were these women raped and abducted but they were starved, kept without clothes so that they couldn’t commit suicide, brutally beaten, molested and a large number of them got impregnated. After the end of the war, many corpuses and graves were found near these rape camps. Noor Jahan (14-year old survivor) was confined to one such rape camps which were spread across the entire country. 

“We lay there like corpses, side by side. There were 20, maybe 30, of us confined to one room. The only time we saw daylight was when the door creaked open and the soldiers marched in. Then the raping would begin.” 

~Noor Jahan

Women: Custodians of National Honour

Women are imagined as reproducers of a nation and symbol of honour for both the family and the country. Nira Yuval-Davis and Floya Anthias highlighted in their book “Woman-Nation-State”, the role of women in two crucial ways:

1. Women as a collective symbol of national culture and honour.

2. Women as biological producers.

Source: Springer

These two roles also played a significant role in aiding the brutal violation against Bangladeshi women in the Liberation War of 1971. Lt. Gen. Tikka Khan gave the orders to begin a campaign of mass rape against Bengali women and girls and impregnate them with “blood from the west”.

Nayanika Mookherjee, in her paper “The absent piece of skin: Gendered, racialised and territorial inscriptions of sexual violence during the Bangladesh war” highlighted and emphasised the role played by the ethical identity of Bengalis in the commencement of the 1971 war. The interviews conducted by her shed light on the verbatim used by the Pakistani army men:

“We [they] would leave behind a Pakistani in the womb of every Bengali woman.”

Rape was seen as medium by the Pakistani army to improve the genes of Bengali population. West Pakistan’s leadership and military commanders considered the Bengali men to be impure and weak. Thus, rape and forced impregnation was a deliberate strategy of Pakistani army to manipulate image of Bengali women as reproductive transmitters. 

Layers of Oppression: Intersectionality in Wartime

The sexual violence against Bangladeshi women brought together various intersectional factors, including nationality, religious identity, caste, ethnicity, sexuality and politics. Gender was seen as a trope for race and sexuality. Religion played a crucial role in the creation of Pakistan in 1947 as it was the sole principle that unified two different regions as one nation. However, both West and East Pakistan were separated by geography, language, culture, culinary and various other practices.

Moreover, Bengalis were considered as “half converts”, “Hinduised” and “impure or inferior Muslims”. Due to this reason, the political leadership in West Pakistan started a policy of “forcible cultural assimilation of Bengalis”. Rape was strategically used as a weapon to populate a new race of “Pure Muslims” in the region. 

The booty of war (maal-e-gonemat) was the notion used to justify the rape of women in Bangladesh. Bengali Muslim men were considered short, lazy, dark and weak, in comparison to tall, fair and brave men of the West. Furthermore, Hindus, being a minority religion in Bangladesh, were a more vulnerable group and thus faced a larger risk of sexual violence. Linguistic identity was another major intersectional factor as Urdu was seen as a superior language, in comparison to Bengali, and was the mother tongue of the majority of the population of West Pakistan.

Thus, the saga of sexual violence against women in the Bangladeshi Liberation War lies in the differences in Islamic and Bengali identity, along with racial, religious, cultural, historical, ethnic and linguistic variations between these two different regions.

Aftermath of War: Justice Denied

“During wars there is a tendency to take opportunity in the case of an attractive woman. A man would kill a man as the man could otherwise kill him. But women cannot kill a man and above all if a man killed a woman that would be cowardice. But these men could express their masculinity by raping her and rape is like killing a woman.” 

~ Mrs Fulrenu Guho

Almost 30% of Bangladeshi population has to suffer the repercussions of these mass rapes and massacres. These are just the reported cases, the actual number is much higher. Moreover, the data points that the number of spot rape cases were almost 70%, rest 12% occurred at other places and 18% in designated camps. 

The Bangladeshi government soon after the end of the war, gave the title of “birangonas” (war-heroines) to the raped women and shifted the focus to majorly three areas:

1. Rehabilitation: Various rehabilitation centres were set up for victims.

2. Abortion: Soon after independence, the government adopted the abortion programme, and international adoption was permitted.

3. Financial Assistance: Government provided financial assistance in various ways to the victims of war-time rape.

Moreover, the government allowed the destruction of all records of abortions and international adoptions. Thus, at present, there is no official documentation recording the number of these abortions and adoptions. However, Lessa Gazi’s commendable documentary allowed the preservation of testimony of some of the victims of war-time rape. 

The United States, the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention and Genocide Watch recognised the Genocide and atrocities committed during the Bangladeshi war. However, it has been more than fifty years since the war ended, and still, the Bangladeshi women have not received an official apology from Pakistan. 

“We still haven’t received an apology from Pakistan for the horrendous war crimes it committed against the Bengali people.”

~Saida Muna Tasneem

Non-recognition of these atrocities by Pakistan, the United Nations and the rest of the international community demonstrates that justice has not yet been delivered to the victims of these atrocities.

Way Forward: Lessons for the Future

During the War of 1971, the imagination of women as reproducers of a nation and symbols of honour has led to ignorance and violation of their bodily autonomy and integrity. As discussed above, the saga of sexual violence against women in the Bangladeshi Liberation War was infected by the differences in their Islamic and Bengali identity, along with racial, religious, cultural, historical and linguistic variations between these two different regions (East and West Pakistan). The intersectionality of sexual violence, along with other factors, needs to be recognised to better understand its impact on the victims and their families. The genocide of 1971 should be acknowledged to uphold international accountability and prevent future atrocities.

References:

• Saikia, Y. (2011). Women, war, and the making of Bangladesh: Remembering 1971. Duke University Press.

• Mookherjee, N. (2015). The Spectral Wound: Sexual Violence, Public Memories, and the Bangladesh War of 1971. United Kingdom: Duke University Press.

• Mookherjee, N. (2015). The raped woman as a horrific sublime and the Bangladesh war of 1971. Journal of Material Culture, 20(4), 379-395. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359183515603742.

• "Operation Searchlight and the University of Dhaka: Beginning of the Liberation War of Bangladesh", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.11, Issue 11, page no.d51-d66, November-2024, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2411309.pdf.

• Ranjan, Amit. “Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971: Narratives, Impacts and the Actors.” India Quarterly 72, no. 2 (2016): 132–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48505492.

• MOOKHERJEE N. The absent piece of skin: Gendered, racialized and territorial inscriptions of sexual violence during the Bangladesh war. Modern Asian Studies. 2012;46(6):1572-1601. doi:10.1017/S0026749X11000783.

• Chowdhury, E. H. (2016). War, Healing, and Trauma: Reading the Feminine Aesthetics and Politics in Rubaiyat Hossain’s Meherjaan. Feminist Formations, 28(3), 27–45. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26776835.

• Guhathakurta, M. (1986). Gender violence in Bangladesh: The role of the state. Inst. of Social Sciences.

• Ranjan, A. (2016). Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971: Narratives, Impacts and the Actors. India Quarterly, 72(2), 132–145. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48505492.

• Mookherjee N. The Birangonas (War Heroines) in Bangladesh: Generative Resilience of Sexual Violence in Conflict through Graphic Ethnography. In: Clark JN, Ungar M, eds. Resilience, Adaptive Peacebuilding and Transitional Justice: How Societies Recover after Collective Violence. Cambridge University Press; 2021:143-163.

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Is Marital Rape an Intersectional Issue?: Understanding the Crucial Role of Consent

The author of the blog is Anureet Kaur, a second-year BA LLB (Hons.) student at Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Punjab, with an interest in International Law. Email ID: anureetkaur23266@rgnul.ac.in.

Introduction

Marital Rape is one of the most contentious issues in the current Indian legal framework. On February 10, 2025, a recent blow came from the Chhattisgarh High Court in its recent judgement of  Gorakhnth Sharma v. State of Chhattisgarh where Justice Narendra Kumar Vyas overturned the conviction of a 40-year-old man for having unnatural sex and intercourse with his wife without her consent. The single-judge bench of Justice Narendra Kumar observed: 

“Thus, it is quite vivid, that if the age of wife is not below age of 15 years then any sexual intercourse or sexual act by the husband with her wife cannot be termed as rape under the circumstances, as such absence of consent of wife for unnatural act loses its importance, therefore, this Court is of the considered opinion that the offence under Section 376 and 377 of the IPC against the appellant is not made out.”

The judgement suffers backlash on another ground as well. It fails to recognise the landmark judgement of the Hon’ble Supreme Court in the case of Independent Thought v. Union of India & Anr. (2017) where Exception 2 to Section 375 of IPC was struck down in so far as it immunised a husband from prosecution for sexual intercourse or sexual acts with his own wife whose age was below 18 years.

The Supreme Court observed that:

“The provision is arbitrary, capricious, whimsical and violative of the rights of the girl child and not fair, just and reasonable and, therefore, violative of Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Constitution, apart from being inconsistent with the provisions of POCSO, which must prevail.” 

The ruling increased the age threshold from 15 years to 18 years by observing that:

“Sexual intercourse or sexual acts by a man with his own wife, the wife not being 18 years, is not rape.”

At present, the pleas challenging the exception to Section 375 of IPC and criminalising marital rape are pending before the Supreme Court of India for hearing. The stance of the Indian government regarding the criminalisation of marital rape has remained the same. The government has opposed petitions that seek criminalisation of marital rape, by labelling them as “excessively harsh”.

Marital rape affects countless Indian women. Thus, it becomes imperative to look at the question: Whether Marital Rape be considered an intersectional issue or not? While one section of society is of the opinion that it should be considered an intersectional issue, the other part fails to agree. After researching this issue, I believe that marital rape is  important, though overlooked,  intersectional factor contributing to the marginalisation and subjugation of the married women in the country. 

The Intersectionality of Marital Rape

Marital rape is an intersectional factor as its consequences and impact on women vary across caste, gender, nationality, religion, and various other factors. Marital Rape denies women their inherent right to bodily autonomy, where lower-caste, economically marginalised, less educated women are at more risk to suffer from the grave issue of marital rape. 

Almost every religion has normalised the patriarchal structure and the control of men over women. If we further look at the cases of disabled women, they are more vulnerable to facing sexual exploitation at the hands of their husbands due to physical constraints. In the Indian framework, the fight for the human rights of women will remain incomplete, without criminalisation of marital rape and adopting an intersectional approach. 

A Knot, Not a Noose: Why Marriage Doesn’t Erase Consent

Marital rape is forced sexual intercourse in marriage without the consent of the woman and has serious physical as well as emotional consequences. It takes on a complex nature through the social and legal fabric that makes up so many societies. There are very few countries, mostly Western, that have recognised marital rape as an offence and a violation of the legal rights of women. Australia. Denmark, Malaysia, Sweden, Canada, the United States and New Zealand have criminalised marital rape. In India, marital rape has not yet been criminalised. In 2005, India classified marital rape as domestic violence under the Protection of Women from Domestic Violence Act, 2005. Thus, it is quasi-civil law, which means a woman can go to court to seek a Protection Order and compensation from her husband against any sexual abuse, and if the husband violates court orders, a criminal case will be registered against him.

Let’s try seeking the answer to the question: “Does Marriage mean irrevocable implied consent?.” Before delving into the same, I would like to mention the legal principle validating marital rape for centuries in many countries. Justice Sir Mathew Hale, former Chief Justice in the English Court, observed and ruled that: 

“The husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife, for by their mutual matrimonial consent and contract the wife had given up herself in this kind unto her husband, which she cannot retract.”

Thus, according to this reasoning, her willingness or consent is considered irrelevant. It assumes that a woman has given implied consent to her husband in marriage. 

For centuries, this doctrine had prevailed over almost the entire world. It was only in 1922, the Soviet Union became the first country and recognised the need to punish marital rape. However, even 103 years later, this archaic doctrine continues to dangle over the necks of Indian women. 

Marriage implies that you have an emotional and physical or sexual companionship, but does that mean consent is inherent? In India, it is assumed that the minute the woman gets married, she consents to sex for all time immemorial. However, this goes against the very basic principle of enthusiastic consent. Consent has to be freely given, reversible, informed, enthusiastic and specific. According to data, in India, one in every 25 women was reportedly subjected to sexual violence by her husband, and these are just the reported cases. 

In 2012, the Justice Verma Committee recommended that the Exception to Section 375 of the IPC be removed. Furthermore, Justice M. Nagaprasanna in the case of Hrishikesh Sahoo pointed out that:  “no exception under law can be so absolute that it becomes a license for the commission of a crime against society.”

The then Congress government opposed the same, citing concerns about the sanctity of marriage. Over the last ten years, the NDA government has also maintained the same stance. Thus, the two parties are clearly divided by party lines; however, united in turning a blind eye to the sensitivity of women’s bodily autonomy.

The government points out that, in India, we are suffering from illiteracy, and poverty and are divided by religious beliefs, thus, it is very difficult to recognise marital rape as an offence. However, the question is: Don’t these factors themselves perpetuate the violation and exploitation of women's rights? By not criminalising marital rape, we are not just making them suffer from the socio-legal factors but also from the sexual violence at the hands of their own husbands. 

Moreover, I would like to point out that: Has poverty prevented the government from demonetising currency? Or did religious beliefs come in the way of announcing overnight lockdowns during COVID-19? The answer is “NO” then why married women but not Indian men have to worry about the sanctity of marriage when it comes to sexual consent, despite this entrenched resistance?

A family health survey has revealed that about 30% of Indian women have experienced some form of spousal violence, and 6% of women have experienced sexual violence from their husbands. That is a million women whose rights are curtailed by our country’s institutions. Moreover, these are just the reported cases. The gravity of the issue is much more serious than our imagination. 

Where India is clinging to its colonial-era laws, much of the world has already moved further. The United Kingdom has already criminalised marital rape in the year 1991; Nepal and Bhutan have already beaten us in 2004; and even Pakistan, our neighbouring country, has made certain progressive steps by criminalising certain forms of sexual violence in marital institutions through an amendment to Section 375 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) in 2021 though it needs to be noted that not every act of non-consensual sexual intercourse is criminalised in Pakistan.

The Counterargument: The #MarriageStrike Debate

In 2022, a curious hashtag “MarriageStrike” and a tweet by Ashraf Ansari (an active men's rights activist) were trending on Twitter (present-day ‘X’).

“Having sex with your wife is a crime but your wife having sex with someone else is not a crime.”

The quote itself was flawed:

1. Firstly, having non-consensual sex with your wife is not yet a crime in India. Let's suppose, India sees the light and takes the positive step to recognise marital rape as a crime. Here also, consensual sex with a wife will not be an offence; rather, indulging in non-consensual sex without her willingness will be considered against the law.

2. The second contention is also misleading as adultery has been decriminalised in India, and both husband/wife having sex with someone else is not an offence; rather, it is a ground for divorce under the current Indian legal framework.

While researching this topic, I came across a statement by The Print’s journalist, where she highlighted that “In India, women are safer outside a marriage than within one.” The journalist pointed out that “NDA is neither the first nor will it be the last government to fail Indian women.” This statement can further be proven if we look at our societal structure. 

The Central government’s stance that marital rape should not be criminalised is disappointing. In an affidavit to the Supreme Court, which is reviewing petitions challenging the constitutionality of marital rape, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs asserted that labelling marital rape a criminal offence was “excessively harsh” and “could destabilise the institution of marriage”. 

Furthermore, recognition of marital rape as an intersectional factor might be considered a concern by those who are against the criminalisation of marital rape and, further believes that this will result in the introduction of changes disrupting conjugal relationships and the institution of marriage.

However, these assertions can be negated on three basic grounds: 

1. The continuation of conjugal relations can never be more important than body integrity.

2. Marital Rape violates an individual’s basic human rights.

3. A married woman, along with everyone else, has a right to bodily autonomy.

Way Forward: A Fight for Rights

Marital rape has remained the least addressed form of sexual violence against women. It is also called Sexual Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Underreporting of sexual IPV is one of the major issues that India is suffering from. According to the available data, only about 10% of victims report sexual IPV.

Sexual intercourse by a husband without her wife’s consent amounts to a violation of the human rights to liberty and dignity. The Supreme Court itself in the case of Independent Thought v. Union of India, (2017) observed that “Married Woman cannot be treated as a chattel– needs care, protection and rehabilitation.” 

The author is of the opinion that India needs to take a bold step by criminalising marital rape. Women are one of the vulnerable groups, and not recognising their consent in activities involving their bodies is a non-recognition of their basic human right. This further makes them more vulnerable to exploitation in Indian patriarchal society. 

As we stride into 2025, I hope India will soon criminalise marital rape, as lack of comprehension of consent creates a hollow where half of our population is expected to leave the fundamental rights at the threshold of their marital homes, by telling the female population that the bodies are no longer their own choice because they are married. In any case, the constitutional rights of women should not be trampled for the sanctity of marriage.

References:

• Frieze, I. H. (1983). Investigating the Causes and Consequences of Marital Rape. Signs, 8(3), 532–553. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3173950 

• Supreme Court Observer. (2024, October 16). Challenge to the marital rape exception - Supreme Court observer. https://www.scobserver.in/cases/challenge-to-the-marital-rape-exception/#:~:text=The%20second%20exception%20states%2C%20%E2%80%9CSexual,Nagaprasanna%20rejected%20the%20petitioner's%20plea. 

• Singh, V. P. (2021). Judicial approaches to the criminalisation of marital rape. Indian Journal of Gender Studies, 29(1), 10–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/09715215211056791 

• Gangoli, G. (2011). Controlling women’s sexuality: rape law in India. In G. Gangoli & N. Westmarland (Eds.), International approaches to rape (1st ed., pp. 101–120). Bristol University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt9qgkd6.9 

• Banerjee, D., & Rao, T. S. S. (2022). The Dark Shadow of Marital rape: Need to change the narrative. Journal of Psychosexual Health, 4(1), 11–13. https://doi.org/10.1177/26318318221083709 

• Manupatra. (n.d.). Articles – Manupatra. https://articles.manupatra.com/article-details/Marital-Rape-and-Law 

• Sharma, R. (2023, December 14). Unveiling the Silent Suffering: A Comprehensive exploration of marital rape in Indian society. https://migrationletters.com/index.php/ml/article/view/9360 

• Deosthali, P.-B., Rege, S., & Arora, S. (2021). Women’s experiences of marital rape and sexual violence within marriage in India: evidence from service records. Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters, 29(2), 127–138. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48714652

• Makam, G. (2023). Marital Rape Laws in India: Bridging the Gap between Gender Equality and Criminal Justice. SSRN Electronic Journal. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4475468 

• BENNICE, J. A., & RESICK, P. A. (2003). MARITAL RAPE: History, Research, and Practice. Trauma, Violence & Abuse, 4(3), 228–246. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26636357 

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