Gender, nationalism, and genocide in Bangladesh: Naristhan/Ladyland

The 1971 genocide in Bangladesh took place as a result of the region's long history of colonization, the 1947 partition of the Indian subcontinent into largely Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India, and the continuation of ethnic and religious politics in Pakistan, specifically the political suppression of the Bengali people of East Pakistan.

The violence endured by women during the 1971 genocide is repeated in the writing of national history.

The secondary position that women occupy within nationalism is mirrored in the nationalist narratives of history.

This book engages with the existing feminist scholarship on gender, nationalism and genocide to investigate the dominant representations of gender in the 1971 genocide in Bangladesh and juxtaposes the testimonies of survivors and national memory of that war to create a shift of perspective that demands a breaking of silence.