ABSTRACT
In this chapter I examine the complex relation between power, the female body, and disability in the context of the Bangladesh Liberation War (1971). During the war both East and West Pakistan witnessed a geopolitical dismemberment, resulting in the birth of Bangladesh. In the genocide and mass rape that the conflict perpetrated, women’s suffering was conditioned by gendered norms codified in operations of power. Women were categorised as either ‘normal’ or ‘pathological’ depending on their bodily experiences of rape. This chapter critiques those nationalist discourses, policies and ideologies and argues that the construction of raped bodies as ‘disabled’ was a way to mete out the power of warring nations. As Bangladesh celebrates more than 50 years of liberation, the violated women of 1971 continue to negotiate their place and space in society through their dismembered existence.
