In 1971, during Bangladesh’s war of independence, when Pakistani troops had laid siege on the city of Dhaka, one man allegedly gunned down 344 people and raped a young girl. He was Abdul Qader Molla, the man who was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal on February 5 this year. Thousands of women and men have gathered to protest against the government’s decision in Shahbag in Dhaka and many more protest demonstrations are being organized abroad by non-resident Bangladeshis in a movement that may just redefine Bangladesh’s identity as a nation.

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“Living in the country I live in, especially when you want to be ‘yourself’ as a woman, especially when you choose for yourself, when you become the God of your own life and when you try controlling your own body, can be difficult”. Women Talk Online reader from Pakistan, Rukhsana Shama pleads her case.

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Who is a feminist? Are feminists groups of women fighting to change the world order, organizing a coup d’état to overthrow the “regime” of men? Are feminists women who organize rallies and scream slogans around the street?

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I remember Fatema Begum very well. A little girl from the small town of Kishoregonj in the Dhaka district in Bangladesh. She was in my peer group. I played Bouchhi, Gollachhut and so many local games with her. And some times we played with the dolls and arranged their marriages.

Fatema got married while she was studying in class eight. At that time she was just 15. Though my friends and I did not understand what the real meaning of marriage was, we nonetheless enjoyed the colorful lighting and the huge program of Fatema’s marriage.

One or two years later Fatema’s younger sister, Nasima, also got married. She was only14 or 15.

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A 16-year-old girl and her 17-year-old lover committed suicide in southern Bangladesh on Valentine’s Day after the girl was forced to marry another man.

According to the police, the bodies of Mitu Molla and Soud Sheikh were found with “each of their hands tied together with a scarf” after they jumped from a mobile phone tower in Gopalganj district. Police inspector Sarojit Biswas said, “They died on the way to a clinic. It appears that the teenagers, who are from two neighbouring villages, had a love affair and they chose Valentine’s Day to kill themselves.”

He said Molla’s family took her to a town 200 kilometres  away from her village two months ago and married her off to a man twice her age against her will after the affair with Sheikh became public.

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