Ethical Encounters: Transnational Feminism, Human Rights, and War Cinema in Bangladesh

242 Pages·2022·13.095 MB·English

by  Elora Halim Chowdhury

Ethical Encounters

Elora Halim Chowdhury
Ethical Encounters
Transnational Feminism, Human Rights,
and War Cinema in Bangladesh
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia • Rome • Tokyo
TEMPLE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122
tupress.temple.edu
Copyright © 2022 by Temple University—Of The Commonwealth System
of Higher Education
All rights reserved
Published 2022
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Chowdhury, Elora Halim, author.
Title: Ethical encounters : transnational feminism, human rights, and war
cinema in Bangladesh / Elora Halim Chowdhury.
Description: Philadelphia : Temple University Press, 2022. | Includes
bibliographical references and index. | Summary: “Reading national
cinema made by and centrally about women in Bangladesh, this book is an
exploration of the intersection of feminism, human rights, and memory”—
Provided by publisher.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021046377 (print) | LCCN 2021046378 (ebook) | ISBN
9781439922248 (cloth) | ISBN 9781439922255 (paperback) | ISBN
9781439922262 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Human rights in motion pictures. | National characteristics
in motion pictures. | Women in motion pictures. | Feminism and motion
pictures. | Feminist film criticism. | Bangladesh—History—Revolution,
1971—Motion pictures and the revolution. |
Bangladesh—History—Revolution, 1971—Women. |
Bangladesh—History—Revolution, 1971—Women—Personal narratives. |
Bangladesh—In motion pictures.
Classification: LCC PN1993.5.B3 C48 2022 (print) | LCC PN1993.5.B3
(ebook) | DDC 791.43082/095492—dc23/eng/20220111
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046377
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021046378
The paper used in this publication meets the requirements of the
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence
of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1992
Printed in the United States of America
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is dedicated to my parents,
Fazlul Halim Chowdhury (1930–1996) and
Shamsun Nahar Chowdhury,
for their unwavering and principled commitment to justice.
My mother’s art of storytelling about 1971
inspired the aesthetic and feminist imaginings
in this book.

Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Prologue 1
Introduction: National Cinema and Its Absences 25
1 When Love and Violence Meet: Women’s Agency and
Transformative Politics in Rubaiyat Hossain’s Meherjaan 52
2 Ethical Reckoning: Gender, Vulnerability, and Agency in
Nasiruddin Yousuff’s Guerilla 86
3 Ethical Encounters: Friendship and Healing in
Shameem Akhtar’s Itihaash Konna 101
4 Muktijuddho Film as Disruptive Archive, Filmmaker as Witness 117
5 Muktijuddho Cinema as Human Rights Cinema 148
Epilogue 178
Glossary 191
Notes 193
References 199
Index 213

Acknowledgments
This book has taken me on a decade-long exploration, leading me to
unexpected spaces, archives, collaborations, and conversations. An
incredible journey, it has taught me to see differently, look at marginal
narratives, and peel away at familiar and cherished truths. In so doing, this
research has opened up possibilities for more capacious imaginings of wom-
en’s agencies, desires, and survival, centering on justice and responsibility.
A book is always a collaborative undertaking, spanning multiple per-
sonal and professional trajectories of one’s life. My curiosity about Bangla-
desh’s Liberation War has its roots in my family’s experiences and encoun-
ters during that tumultuous time. I grew up hearing gendered stories of
anticolonial and national liberation struggles from my father, who was an
academic and an activist, and my mother, who endured many losses during
the war and was a passionate supporter of the freedom struggle. Their com-
munity of friends, colleagues, and various associates over the years shared
the inspiration and experience of the Liberation War, continuing to relive
the trauma of the birth of Bangladesh yet instilling in us—myself, my sib-
lings, and many others who were in our circle of kin, family, and nation—an
enduring sense of ethical citizenship. My heartfelt gratitude to this com-
munity of elders and multigenerational survivors for the hardship and wis-
dom borne of that experience that they have passed on to so many.
In the deeply intimate realm of women’s cinema about the liberation
struggle—Muktijuddho—I found powerful stories of compassion, healing,
and a sensibility for justice. Immense gratitude to all the filmmakers and