Four Birangana Muktijoddhas (female freedom fighters of the Liberation War of 1971) were honoured on Monday at an event which focused on the sufferings of women who were raped during the war.

Each was given Tk20,000 and an honorary certificate.

The women were raped by the Pakistani army in 1971. For 31 years, they remained in oblivion. And, yet they had to endure humiliation every day.

The event was organised by Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, an organisation dedicated to trying war criminals.

The women who were honoured were Nazma Begum, Halima Pervin, Fatema Begum and Rokeya Khatun - all living in extreme poverty.

Rokeya could not attend the event because of her illness. Nazma said the Pakistani army killed all her family members and dragged her to a camp. The rest of her story is about rape and torture.
Her sufferings did not end there. She did not get any shelter even after independence.

Married to a freedom fighter, Nazma is now living in a slum in the capital with their children who are deprived of education.

Halima Pervin told almost the same story - that "no government in Bangladesh even 30 years after independence rehabilitated us, although we tried to draw the attention of the ruling administration".

She fought against the Pakistani army in five places before she was caught and taken to an army camp. Her family became a social outcast, when her parents took her back home, she said.

Pressured by the unbearable situation, her mother tried to poison her. She left home to eke out a living in Jessore town.

Mosharraf Sheikh, a freedom fighter, married Halima, now a mother of four. Her daughter Sonia, a student of Class 10, said she is proud of her mother.