How women changed the July Revolution

Take any picture from the July Revolution, and you are bound to find fiery girls protesting, demanding justice, and calling for the resignation of the dictator. Our girls and women have been at the forefront, in the thick of the brutal repression, and have persevered. 

The video of the girl trying to stop a prison van with her bare hands, shouting, "I won't let you take away my brother; you have to go over my dead body!," is reminiscent of the man standing in front of the column of Chinese tanks in Tiananmen Square. 

Or the girls who snatched her fellow fighter from the police in Chattogram after a gruelling fight, will remind you of the Irish revolutionary who was covering fire to save her comrade. 

We have seen the face of this revolution, and women had their significant share in it. We saw girls who have made peace with the prospect of death, driven by a cause greater than themselves, for freedom. 

On the first hours of 15 July, when the movement began taking a more intense turn, the first wave of protesters who came out on Dhaka University campus were from the Ruqaiyyah Hall. Other halls followed them. On the next day, the first hall to banish the Chhatra League cadres was also the Ruqaiyyah Hall. Thus, they set the precedent. 

We spoke with some of the women involved in the movement to get first-hand account about their journey: from organising the protests to leading from the front and navigating various risks, as well as using online platforms to disseminate crucial information and inspire others with their courage.

Mahbuba Islam Suzana, a student of journalism at the Bangladesh University of Professionals (BUP), was one of the active participants of the revolution from the beginning. It all started as a quota reform movement at first, but for her, it was more than that. 

When Chhatra League attacked the protesters at Dhaka University on 15 July, Suzana was moved by the atrocity. She had not been a part of the movement before. But since then, she demanded justice. "I was driven by our collective longing for freedom." 

The protest in Mirpur was not intense before. But, on 18 July, when they first heard about the attacks on the private university students, Mirpur-10 became a literal battlefield. There, they were attacked by the police. But, the situation turned worse the next day. 

There were thousands of protesters in Mirpur-10. There was no internet, yet, communication was on through phone calls and text messages. 

Suzana was there when the police were firing from the helicopters in Mirpur. She saw many wounded people. She herself was injured by teargas, and escaped to a building's roof. From there, she saw the attack unfold.

"From thereafter, I decided that Sheikh Hasina had to go. It was no longer about quota reform or justice. It was about the resignation of Sheikh Hasina, as she had lost the right to stay in power," Suzana said. 

They organised themselves on Facebook and Messenger, and decided to band together. In Mirpur, the police and the Awami League cadres put up a strong fight. So, they had to prepare themselves.  

She did not join the protest alone, she even took her younger brother with her, "On 4 August, my brother was shot in the head. At that moment, it felt as if the world was ending for me. We could not take him to hospital at first as the Awami League cadres were guarding the streets, and they were attacking anyone who was present there." 

There was carnage everywhere. She had to spend the night in the hospital. 

"Even today, I feel scared. My brother still has a bullet fragment in his forehead which will be operated on soon. But in the end, we won. That's all that matters now," she said.  

The female protesters were not just on the streets, they were spreading information and updates on social media as well. A group of female protesters regularly gave updates on Facebook. They were collectively called 'Shadhin Bangla Betar Kendro'. 

One of them is Nihta Binte Zaman, who had been providing information about movement from the very first day. "When the protests began, we felt that we needed to fight not just in the field, but in cyberspace as well. We wanted to spread information as much as we could. Before the internet blackout, and after it, the scarcity of information was felt dearly." 

They also supported the protesters by providing medical support. They were mostly helping from the logistics side, as the streets had become too violent for them. 

However, when the death count began to rise and the police started to keep their eyes on the hospitals, they had to back down as it was getting too risky.

She later went to Cumilla. There, the students had brought out a march on 3 August. They started from Cumilla Zilla School. When the march reached the Racecourse area, the Awami League and Jubo League cadres attacked them from behind. 

About 20 students were shot. Then, the students tried to regroup near the Police Lines. There, they were attacked again, and the students were scattered. 

"We were under a lot of pressure. But it was our duty. So we had to fight," she said. "If needed, we will resume our duty again." 

The risks surrounding the female protesters were manyfold. There were constant threats of sexual abuse and rape. Many public university teachers openly hinted at probable sexual assault on female protesters by the Chhatra League cadres in order to intimidate the protesters and make them leave the halls. 

Marzia Mahazabin Prity, a student at Jahangirnagar University, was an active protester who had doggedly stayed on campus for days. She recalled, "All of our marches and protests had equal numbers of male and female students. We were at the front lines. And our male comrades have done everything to ensure our safety." 

She was in the campus when the VC residence was surrounded by Chhatra League cadres. And the police were attacking them. "It was straight out of a horror movie," she said, "One of our comrades was streaming the attack live. It allowed the others to witness the brutality first-hand." 

Then there was news of sexual assaults by the goons. The Chhatra League cadres tried to scare the protesters with such threats. But, it did not work. 

"For a woman, the perception of threat is different. We were worried to death when the outsider cadres attacked us. We were surrounded. The vulnerability we felt, knowing that we might get raped or sexually assaulted, cannot be expressed in words. But, we were ready to face anything," Prity said.  

For days, they had to endure live bullets from the police. She recalled one such incident, "One day, the police attacked our halls. We had to flee to the jungle. Two Chhatra League members showed the police the way inside."

"Then the police began to shoot live rounds at us," she shuddered to recall the horrifying incident, "we were scared to death. One of the policemen asked his officer — Sir, there are female students also. What should we do? 'Just fire at will' was the answer. The police then opened fire on us. Luckily, none of us were injured."  

There were many female students, even housewives, who provided food and water to the protesters. In Jahangirnagar University, some female students would cook meals for the protesters at their halls. Then, the meals were distributed across the campus. 

The female teachers, too, joined this movement, supporting the students with their words and actions. They stood as guardians, their iron will shielding their students from the storm that raged around them.