Women to remain sloganists only?

Moving away from core issues of womens

rights and particularly violence against women
is going to have a negative impact on the
womens movement. Although womens rights
should incorporate all national issues but
national issues must not set aside womens
question at all. The new generation womens
leadership at this point may not have come from
womens movement only, but the new
leadership must remain active in asserting their
leadership roles keeping in mind that they have
to fight against patriarchy, writes Farida Akhter
WATCHING the live telecast of Shahbagh
Ganojagoron Mancha, over the past four weeks or
so, on news channels, the first thing one may notice
is the shouting of slogans by young women.
Presence and performance of these women are
impressive indeed. The Shahbagh gathering,
projected by the media as a movement, started from
February 5 after the international crimes tribunal had
sentenced Abdul Quader Molla to life imprisonment
earlier in the day. The reaction to the verdict came

as a surprise to many people without ever following

and scrutinising the prosecution and its relation to
the verdict. Although the trial of war crimes is a
national demand, the ongoing trial is only for crimes
against humanity, which includes arson, looting, rape
and mass killing. Quader Mollas verdict was the
second by the tribunals. Shahbagh has become a
place for protests and expression of dissatisfaction.
Projonmo Chattar (new generation square) is
expected to revive the spirit of the 1971 war of
liberation. The majority of the protesters were not
born in 1971 but they have a feeling for the liberation
movement and respect for the martyrs of the war
and women who were raped then. Its Ganojagoron
Mancha could have been an excellent space to
educate the youth to respect law and the principles
of human rights in relation to the functioning of
democracy and maintaining the delicate balance of
society.
Started as a spontaneous protest initiated by some
blogger and online activists, the space soon became
a roaring spot to demand death by hanging for
Quader Molla and all other accused war criminals
commonly known as razakars under trial. In a frantic

slogan demanding fashi chai, fashi chai, Shahbagh

became a surrealistic and paradoxical spot for the
youth who would not be satisfied until the accused
under trial for crime against humanity were
sentenced to death by hanging. Irrespective of the
merit of the case and performance of the
prosecution, it is demanded that the punishment
must be hanging to death, i.e. fashi. It is a unique
situation in Bangladeshs history that the protesters
are protected by the police and the Rapid Action
Battalion with CCTV camera and Projonmo Chattar
is active for 24 hours with participation of men and
women.
Women are seen in Shahbagh as sloganists and as
participants. The media inflated such participation in
its reporting. For example, a leading national daily
says: Along with men, a large number of women are
seen at the forefront of demonstration ... such
extraordinary participation of women in a
demonstration is first in Bangladesh (see the
caption of a picture in The Daily Star, February 21).
It is true that the Shahbagh event is the first of its
kind in Bangladesh. But it is also true that never in
Bangladesh have the police protected or has the

government permitted mass rally for more than four

weeks at a place where there are two hospitals and
which is a junction connecting many important parts
of the city creating unbearable traffic jam for the rest
of the city. However, it is too much of an
exaggeration that the participation of women is first
in demonstration.
Womens participation in any movement should not
be seen only as numbers, but should be seen in
terms of its context. For example, five women in
1952 in the forefront of the procession of hundreds
of male students are more significant than five
hundred women in any movement in 2013. Prior to
the war of liberation, women had been involved in all
movements against the Pakistani rulers since 1969.
These were all young women in their twenties.
Women also turned up in large numbers during the
anti-autocracy movement between 1987 and 1990.
In 1992 women participated in large numbers in the
movement against war criminals led by Jahanara
Imam.
So womens participation and active role in historical
movements is nothing new, but has been different in
different historical contexts. The nature of

participation has been different according to the

issues and occasions. The leadership among
women emerged from such participation. However, it
is also true that many women got lost after these
movements because their roles were not properly
recognized. Movements led by male leaders are not
free from patriarchal domination. Women leadership
should be asserted through more active participation
in decision making, to be in the forefront as
spokespersons and having control over the direction
of the movements. It is womens task to break such
patriarchal barriers in order create their own space
and constitute their agency. Now, lets look at
Shahbagh where women are chanting slogans: are
they asserting their leadership?
Lucky Akter, a student leader of Jagannath
University, has become an icon for her continuous
chanting of slogans from morning till night. She has
drawn attention of the media as she is seen to be
able to lead a crowd of thousands of people, mostly
youths, to demand capital punishment for the war
criminals. Her rhythmic slogans are many; the most
chanted ones are Ko te Quader Molla, tui razakar,
tui razakar, Ektai dabi, fashi fashi, tumi ke ami ke,

Bangalee Bangalee, Tomar amar thikana, Padma

Meghna Jamuna, etc. Although I am very much in
favour of the demand for trial of war criminals of the
1971 war of liberation, and also seek punishment for
the crime committed by individual accused persons,
I am absolutely against capital punishment (death
sentence). So chanting of such slogans shocks me
and poses a dilemma. I know many other people
may feel the same about some violent slogans such
as ekta ekta shibir dhoro, dhoira dhoira jobai koro
(which is about slaughtering of Shibir persons).
Lucky has become an icon in the movement, but is it
only because she is chanting slogans? Is she a
leader in the movement? It is not clear. Besides
Lucky, there are at least 5 or 6 other young women
who are regularly chanting slogans: Umme Habiba
Benajir of Jahangirnagar University, Tanjida Tuba of
Dhaka University, Samia Rahman, a Dhaka
University student and Student Federation president,
Afsana, a lawyer, and Pritilata, a student of Dhaka
University and leader of the Student Front (daily
Samakal, February 11). This clearly means that they
are not just sloganists; they are rather experienced
in organisational matters. They are already in

leadership positions in their respective

organisations. Nevertheless, their role in the
Gonojagoron Mancha is limited to slogans only.
There seems to be a distinction between those who
are in leadership and those who are shouting
slogans. It was quite disturbing to see no women in
a small group representing Gonojagoron Mancha
that went to hand over memorandum to the home
minister on February 26, demanding arrest of the
Amar Desh editor, although they were there up to
Matsya Bhaban in the procession. Women
sloganists including Lucky Akter were all there (see
the photograph front-paged in New Age on February
27). So far, in all the big rallies on Fridays, they have
not been seen as speakers although some of them
are on the stage.
Everyone knows slogans alone do not necessarily
mean leadership. Leaders shout slogans, too, but
usually every movement has selected slogans
approved by its leaders and shouted by designated
activists. It is needless to mention that slogans are a
very powerful way of mobilising a movement. So
sloganists have a very important role to play in
making a movement successful.

Now the question is whether women in Shahbagh

are merely sloganists or they are also part of the
collective leadership. One of the main positive
character of Shahbagh as projected in the media is
that it is leaderless, although eventually it became
clear that the Chhatra League is dictating and
controlling the movement. On the days of mass
rallies held on Fridays, the Ganojagoron Mancha is
full of male leaders as representatives of student
organisations or online bloggers as the initiators and
now only one person (male), Dr Imran Sarkar, has
become the spokesman. There is hardly any female
student leader to speak in the rallies, even though
there are many left-wing student fronts where
women are in leading positions. It is clear that
women are on the mancha only for slogans. They
are called slogan kanya or agni kanya (fiery girl).
We, as part of womens movement in Bangladesh,
believe strongly that the leadership of women can be
established if they are given the space. Women
were always part of national struggles, starting from
anti-colonial movement to language movement to
liberation war to anti- autocracy movement, but their
role has remained unrecognised in history. The

victims of women in the national liberation war is

recognised as biranganas, but women as freedom
fighters such as Taramon Bibi, Bir Protik, journalist
Selina Parvin, poet Meherunnesa and many others
remained unrecognised for long. We had to dig the
history to find out women freedom fighters from all
over the country. The female students of Dhaka
University and Eden Girls College played a
significant role in the language movement. They
were a few but very brave nonetheless, to be in the
forefront of the procession that broke Section 144
imposed by the police. With such history of our past
movements, we cannot just let the future leadership
of women to fade away and hide behind shouting of
slogans.
Several incidents happened in Shahbagh indicating
suppression of womens leadership roles. Shahbagh
was significant in the beginning because of its nonpartisan leadership. They did not allow political
leaders to speak in the rallies. Awami League
leaders (Sajeda Chowdhury and Mahbubul Alam
Hanif) were at the receiving end of water bottle
attacks. Afterwards, the Awami League expressed
solidarity with the Shahbagh movement in

parliament and Tofail Ahmed went there. Lucky

opposed to his speaking to the rally. But in return,
she was hit in the back of her head. She had to be
admitted to BIRDEM hospital. One TV channel
showed outraged women protesters demanding
action against the perpetrators. But it had to be
stopped. Lucky came back to the stage at midnight
and said she felt sick because of dehydration, now
she was OK, etc. She shouted a few slogans in
such condition and went back to hospital.
The later part of the story is even worse. Lucky was
invited in a TV talk show with Rashed Khan Menon,
a left political leader and member of parliament, as
another guest. In the talk show, Lucky said she was
hit by something hard. It could be an apple. It
happens in such mass gatherings. It was dark so
she could not identify who it was. There were
Chhatra League leaders on the stage and some
were with Tofail Ahmed. But she could not recognise
them. She laughed, others laughed too. That was
the tragic end of the episode of Luckys assertive
action to implement the decision of the organisers
not to let the political party leaders to politicise the
movement. She was denied the role to play as part

of the collective leadership. In this case it was the

failure of the Left political groups participating in
Shahbagh to assert the leadership of women.
There are other issues as well. Shahbagh is shown
as a women friendly or nari-bandhab space. It is
true that women of all ages, particularly young
women are there in large numbers day and night.
But this is not new in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh,
festivals are always open for all and women
participate in large numbers. Ekushey mid-night
programmes and early morning programmes have
large number of women. Pahela Baishakh and other
festivals including musical programmes such as
pala-gaan in rural areas, dol utshab and Lalon death
anniversary in Kushtia are attended by thousands of
women along with men. Perhaps our leaders are not
familiar with such occasions. A senior Left political
leader said in a TV talk show that Shahbagh is safe
for people and for women. Because there has not
been any incident of loss of any mobile phone,
money bag and nobody put their hands on meyeder
gaye (body of women). Are women objects like
mobile phones or money bags? Is it acceptable that
men should be putting their hands on womens

bodies? In the same way another university teacher

said no one tried to pull the orna (scarf) of women
in Shahbagh. What a credit that the progressive men
in Shahbagh should get! They did not pull the orna
of women or put their hands on womens bodies.
Was it expected there? If it was, then what kind of
awakening are we talking about?
The Daily Star on February 21 had a special news
report titled Women in Forefront. The report says
young women of today have refused to take a
backseat in the countrys renewed struggle to
redefine it. They engaged themselves in the
movement as organizers, planners, volunteers,
cultural activists, journalists and participants. Out of
all these roles the report focuses most on the
chanting of slogans and not at all in the delivery of
speeches at the stage to be the spokespersons for
their respective organisations or as Shahbagh
Ganojagoron as a whole. It shows that even the
media is not looking for womens leadership in a
defined way, it is only a performance!
The report also says that, in the Shahbag chattar,
women found a safe space for themselves, staying
all night on the street without having to face any

problem. I wish this could be true for all over

Bangladesh where there is no police protection and
protection by fellow colleagues in the movement.
Ridma Jahan, a protestor, says: I want to thank the
men who have been supportive and respectful
towards women at Shahbagh. But Ridma has the
other side of the story, too. She says, I want to
address the handful of men who insult the spirit of
Shahbagh by poking and staring at women and I tell
them to learn to respect women. This means
Shahbagh was not entirely free of men poking and
staring at women. Shahbagh cannot change the
patriarchal attitude towards women in a few weeks;
it is simply a particular situation which also exists in
other places where fellow men are respectful to
women.
Umme Raihana (bdnews24.com February 22) writes
that there were no cases of significant sexual
assault. She asks: Are there no rapists among
those gathered in Shahbagh? Were they afraid of
the Agni Kanyas (i.e. the slogan women)? The
rapists are not any other species of human being,
they are the father, brother, husband and friends of
the Agni Kanyas. Then why they are not active

(translated from Bangla Shahbag 2013: Jolonto

Agnir Shohodora). This is an interesting question
posed by a young woman writer.
We know for sure that violence against women
becomes an issue only when it is reported. Just
before Shahbagh, i.e. before February 5,
Bangladesh was seen as a country of rape
incidents. Since the incident of gang rape and
murder in Delhi, Bangladeshi newspapers were also
full of reports on rape, gang rape and murder from
all over Bangladesh between December 2012 and
January 2013. Among those, one incident was in
Manikganj, where a garment worker was raped in a
bus. Local and national womens groups protested
and could get the perpetrator arrested. Thats all.
After that there was no more news. The attention
has shifted to other more important issues. Does it
mean there are no more rape incidents in the
country? Or there is no violence against women in
this country? It cannot be true. What is true is that
there is no reporting in the media.
Moving away from core issues of womens rights
and particularly violence against women is going to
have a negative impact on the womens movement.

Although womens rights should incorporate all

national issues but national issues must not set
aside womens question at all. The new generation
womens leadership at this point may not have come
from womens movement only, but the new
leadership must remain active in asserting their
leadership roles keeping in mind that they have to
fight against patriarchy.
This is what I would like say on the occasion of
International Womens Day. This is a reality we are
now facing the question of womens leadership.
Farida Akhter is executive director, UBINIG