Of the Nation Born – The Bangladesh Papers

Part of a new series titled Sexual Violence and Impunity in South Asia, supported by the International Development Research Centre, Canada, Of the Nation Born takes Bangladesh as its focus, compiling some of the best writing and research to date on sexual violence and impunity.

The book brings together both new and established scholars to look at areas as wide-ranging as the law and its histories, nationalism, memory and sexuality, the status of minorities, religion and its directives, universities as sites of gender-contestation, and more. With an introduction by acclaimed scholar Meghna Guhathakurta, the book offers a comprehensive overview of the situation in Bangladesh from the 1971 war for liberation to the present.  Guhathakurta gives readers an excellent entry point for understanding the complex realities of how impunity for the perpetrators of sexual violence has become standard in Bangladesh in particular, and South Asia in general.

Of the Nation Born is a valuable cross-disciplinary study and the first of its kind.