Appeal:
|| Overview
Ameerjan is now known as Ameerjan Bewa. Bewa means "bidhoba"
or widow. Ameerjan is one of the thousands of women who made
supreme sacrifice in our liberation war but is now living
under extreme poverty. We know about the sacrifices of Jahanra
Imam but we don't know much about the Ameerjan Bewas.
Ameerjan's son Idris Ali died in 1971 while doing a guerilla
attack for our liberation war. Ameerjan also was one of many
million refugees trying to cross over to India. While she
was trying to cross the Bhogai river, the Pakistani soldiers
start to fire indiscriminately at these innocent refugees.
One bullet hit Ameerjan's husband head who died right away.
Her infant daughter was on the shoulder of her father. Bullet
pierced through her head as well. Her younger son was at the
lap of her elder daughter. Another killer bullet hit her chest
and brushed off the younger son. The elder daughter died after
a few minutes.
One would expect that people like Ameerjan, who made supreme
sacrifices for this war by loosing her three children and
her husband, would get full recognition and compensation by
the State. However, it is not the case. Ameerjan today struggles
to find two meals a day. When she returned from India after
the war, she found all her properties burnt down by the Pak
army. She had to sell off all her lands to raise the remaining
three children. As you read this email, Ameerjan most likely
haven't had a meal all day. There are thousands of Ameerjans
in Bangladesh today.
One
of the greatest shortcomings in the perception of our fight
for Independence is our consistent failure to recognize the
role of such women in our Liberation War. In fact, the role
of women is largely ignored, denied and misconstrued in our
mainstream history. Outside physical fighting and exchange
of gunshots, our liberation war has been a struggle through
which a united nation has asserted its aspiration for freedom.
Such wars are not fought only in the battlefields with guns.
War heroes include those women who have supported the valiant
freedom fighters with food, shelter, funds; who have nursed
the wounded and hid weapons risking their own lives. They
also include those who have willingly given their sons to
war, who have lost their loved ones and even worse been subjected
to sexual abuse and still survived to tell their stories.
Drishtipat,
with the help of Ain O Shalish Kendro, has identified seven
such women who made supreme sacrifices in the war of liberation
of Bangladesh, but are in desperate need of financial assistance
to live their lives with dignity. It is bad enough that they
never got justice for the barbaric crime against them. But
it is unacceptable to any conscientious human being to see
them lead a life of indignity and extreme poverty. Please
stop by at the website we have prepared after a lot of hard
work to honor these brave women (website
for women of 71). Listen to their
stories and make a difference to
the lives of Najma, Halima, Fatema, Rokeya, Jolekha, Ameerjaan
and Shohorbanu – our unsung heroes of the war. Your
donation will go to the liberation war museum which in turn
will give the money on a trust fund for a prosperous future
for these women.
You
can donate by credit card or you can
mail the check at
Drishtipat
c/o Lopa Tasneem
106 Haley House Lane
Cary NC 27519
For a more general backgroud, click here
The money collected by Drishtipat will be donated to the
trustees of liberation war museum who will oversee the project
in Bangladesh by setting up a trust fund for these women and
follow up with the results.
http://www.drishtipat.org/1971
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