Laila Nur first stood up against the Pakistan government as a schoolgirl of only 15, just about to sit for her SSC exams in 1948.

“A nation that does not respect its mothers is destined for destruction.”

When Rowshon Ara Bachchu was studying at Dhaka University, female students could not even talk to their male counterparts without the proctor’s permission.

Jobeda Khanam Chowdhury was a prominent figure in the language movement in Sylhet. She is one of the first Muslim women in Bangladesh who joined politics overcoming social barriers.

Sofia Khan showed a keenness in politics and patriotism from a very early age. She was initiated into politics by the revolutionary Santosh Chatterjee.

“On February 20, the government invoked Section 144. During the meeting organised by us university students the next day, there were some disagreements on the next steps.

It was March, 1948. A 13-year-old girl in a remote village in Cox’s Bazar would often hear her seniors at school talk about the extent of discrimination the people of East Pakistan faced everywhere.

The Language Movement is an indelible incident in the history of the Bengali nation and Bangla language. It took decades of effort, sacrifice and endurance of our forefathers to bring Bangla to the doorstep of 1952.

Throughout history, women have been written out or else largely ignored—even in revolutions.