Jahanara Imam (1929-1994) was the mother of a freedom fighter, and her diary became the defining account of a country’s arduous and entangled birth.
Jahanara Imam (1929-1994) was the mother of a freedom fighter, and her diary became the defining account of a country’s arduous and entangled birth.
While motherhood can take many forms, to mother is to usher forth new generations through care, work and imagination. For the entire month of December, we’re celebrating mothers — including those who raised children who went on to lead the civil rights movement and school desegregation efforts, such as Alberta King and Louise Little, as well as mothers of movements like Lorena Borjas who started the Latinx trans movement. All of the women featured this month were dedicated to the survival of children in their work and to imagining better futures for the next generation.
History classes can get a bad rap, and sometimes for good reason. When we were students, we couldn’t help wondering... where were all the ladies at? Why were so many incredible stories missing from the typical curriculum? Enter, Womanica. On this Wonder Media Network podcast we explore the lives of inspiring women in history you may not know about, but definitely should.
Every weekday, listeners explore the trials, tragedies, and triumphs of groundbreaking women throughout history who have dramatically shaped the world around us. In each 5 minute episode, we’ll dive into the story behind one woman listeners may or may not know–but definitely should. These diverse women from across space and time are grouped into easily accessible and engaging monthly themes like Educators, Villains, Indigenous Storytellers, Activists, and many more. Womanica is hosted by WMN co-founder and award-winning journalist Jenny Kaplan. The bite-sized episodes pack painstakingly researched content into fun, entertaining, and addictive daily adventures.
Womanica was created by Liz Kaplan and Jenny Kaplan, executive produced by Jenny Kaplan, and produced by Liz Smith, Grace Lynch, Maddy Foley, Brittany Martinez, Edie Allard, Lindsey Kratochwill, Adesuwa Agbonile, Carmen Borca-Carrillo, Taylor Williamson, Ale Tejeda, Sara Schleede, Abbey Delk, and Alex Jhamb Burns. Special thanks to Shira Atkins.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I'm Anna Malaika Tubbs, the author of The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of MLK, Malcom X and James Baldwin Shaped A Nation. My work focuses on motherhood, through the lens of feminism, intersectionality, and inclusivity, and I’ll be your guest host for this month of Womanica.
This month, we’re talking about mothers: women who ushered forth new generations and new futures through their care, work, and imagination.
Today, we’re talking about a woman whose diary became the defining account of a country’s arduous and entangled birth. The mother of a freedom fighter, she became a symbol of independence and a new national identity.
Please welcome Jahanara Imam.
Jahanara was born during a peaceful lull in a turbulent time. Her story comes from the country we know today as Bangladesh, a small nation just east of present-day India. But when Jahanara was growing up, she knew the land by a multitude of names.
British India, as the subcontinent was called during colonization, was an incredibly diverse state. It was full of religious and ethnic groups with no clear geographic boundaries. Colonial authorities repeatedly attempted to partition provinces along religious lines, but communities were so intermingled that these efforts were fruitless – and, more often than not, it stoked animosity between groups.
Such was the case in the far east province of Bengal, where Jahanara was born on May 3, 1929.
Jahanara’s family was Muslim and liberal. They wanted her to be prepared for whatever lay ahead as she came of age in volatile Bengal. At a time when few women pursued education, Jahanara’s mother prioritized it for her daughter, and Jahanara thrived academically.
For a time, Jahanara lived a peaceful life as her homeland underwent change after change. She became a teacher, and married Shariful Alam Imam Ahmed, an engineer. The couple moved to Dhaka, where Jahanara became headmistress of a girl’s school. They had two sons: Rumi and Jami. Jahanara transformed her school into one of the most successful schools in Dhaka; founded and edited a monthly women’s magazine; and even found time to complete a Fulbright scholarship in the US.
But trouble was brewing. When she was just eighteen, Jahanara witnessed the first of a series of changes that would mark her life’s story.
In 1947, the partition of India put an end to more than a hundred years of colonization by the British. It created two independent nations for the country’s two main religious groups: Muslim-majority Pakistan, and Hindu-majority India.
The partition fissured Bengal down the center: The western part of Bengal was majority Hindu, and therefore absorbed by India. But the Muslim majority East Bengal became East Pakistan. Even though it was separated from mainland Pakistan by 1,000 miles of Indian territory.
As a result, serious movement for an independent Bangladesh began almost as soon as Pakistan became its own country. The Bangladesh People’s League, or Awami League, was the main political driver for Bengali independence – And in 1970, the League won in Pakistan’s elections. But the Pakistani military junta refused to transfer power to them.
On March 25th, 1971, the powder keg exploded. After months of failed negotiations, the Pakistani army deployed to East Pakistan. So began the Bangladesh Liberation War– and its gruesome consequence: the Bangladesh Genocide. By the Pakistani government’s count, casualties numbered around 26,000 dead from the conflict. According to Bangladesh, the number nears 3 million. By all accounts, the next nine months saw the Pakistani army and collaborators killing the mostly civilian Bengali population.
Jahanara’s house became a hub for rebellion. The green-and-red flag of the Bengali Homeland flew above her home. Her son, Rumi, joined the independence front as a fighter. Though Jahanara was a staunch supporter of the fight, she was worried about the danger that lay ahead of her son. She realized the price her family may pay for their politics. So, Jahanara channeled her anxieties as best she knew how: she wrote a diary.
Jahanara journaled everything from the mundane – trying to get her rebellious teenage son to take a family photo – to the astonishing.
In one of the book’s last entries, Pakistani soldiers took Jahanara’s husband and two sons in for questioning. Over the course of the night, they were subject to beatings and interrogations. The next morning, her husband and son, Jami, were released. Rumi never returned home.
Shortly thereafter, Jahanara’s husband died of a heart attack. Days later, on December 16, 1971, the war came to an end.
Jahanara, though a rebel herself, had never been at the forefront of politics. Yet, the people she had cooked for and clothed throughout the war knew the sacrifices she’d made. They gave her an honorary title: Shaheed Janani– Mother of Martyrs. In 1986, she published the diary she’d kept during the war. She called it Ekattorer Dinguli, or, Days of ‘71.
The book was an instant hit. Jahanara became a household name and a symbol of a continued Bengali resistance. In 1981, she was diagnosed with mouth cancer, but she never slowed her quest for justice, even when the disease made it difficult for her to speak.
In the years following the war, Jahanara saw war criminals rise to power in Bangladeshi politics. In 1992, she organized the Committee to Exterminate Traitors and Collaborators, which sought to bring those criminals to justice. She also helped create the Gono Adalat, or the People’s Court. Though the Court had no real judicial power, it gained popular support in calling out the war crimes politicians attempted to sweep under the rug.
Jahanara died on June 26, 1994 – but her actions continued to shape the state of Bangladesh for decades to come. Trials for war crimes committed during the Bangladesh Liberation fight began in 2011. And the official record has only begun to unearth the deep conflict at the heart of the country’s birth.
All month, we’re talking about mothers. For more information, find us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to co-creators Jenny and Liz Kaplan, for having me as a guest host.
Talk to you tomorrow!