LEESA GAZI GIVES A VOICE TO BANGLADESH WAR’S RAPE SURVIVORS
by MITA MISTRY
BIRANGONA meaning ‘brave woman’ was a term created as a mark of respect for the over 200,000 women and girls reportedly raped and tortured by the Pakistani army during Bangladesh’s 1971 Liberation War. After the country gained independence, the many women were silenced by their communities and their stories were hidden from the world. As time has gone by, many have passed away and their stories forgotten.
Leesa Gazi was 17-year-old when she came to know about these stories from her father and then later in 2010 she encountered these stories after a friend took her to meet 21 Birangona women in Sirajganj, Bangladesh.
She didn’t go with the intention of documenting their accounts, but after hearing their emotional encounters she thought others would want to know about their stories. Those first steps led the British documentary maker towards acclaimed film Rising Silence, which has brought the Birangonas’ wartime experiences to the world stage and highlighted the injustices survivors of the sexual violence faced in the post-war newly independent
country.
Eastern Eye caught up with Leesa Gazi to talk about her documentary, the long emotional journey she took and the importance of keeping stories of sexual violence alive.
Tell us about those initial steps towards bringing the Birangona women’s story to the world?
Since that initial meeting, I was holding on to their precious accounts. A year or so passed before I heard the inevitable – one of the women I met died. That hit me hard. I kept watching the video I recorded. I didn’t want to forget her face. Her name was Bahaton. That compelled me to return to Bangladesh with our theatre company Komola Collective to develop a theatrical piece based on their stories. After watching their own stories on stage, they said, ‘go, tell the world’.
What happened next?
During touring of the play in 2014, the Birangona women we met and knew were leaving us one by one. I felt the urgency to save their stories as a more permanent record. With each day, the Birangona women of Bangladesh were dying out, and with them their stories, which we, as part of an international community striving to end sexual violence in conflict, cannot afford to ignore.
What was the experience of making the documentary film?
I began this journey to make a film about some of the extraordinary Birangona women I met. At the end of the journey, I realised that them sharing their lives and how they had tried to heal showed me how to find myself and what I am capable of as a woman. Their stories have given me a sense of humanity and pride I have never experienced before. The human capacity to endure and thrive is innate. We don’t know our full potential in terms of strength, resilience, compassion and our power to love until we are tested. Their stories are living proof of that.
Can you share a memorable moment from this extraordinary journey you took?
Meeting Mr Zikir Ali was a serendipity moment. After filming Rajubala’s (one of the survivors in the film) accounts in her village, we were leaving the area. Suddenly Rajubala’di stopped and pointed to an older man approaching us. “Look, it’s Zikir Ali brother. He saved me and took me home after the Pakistan army left”. Rajubala’di had not seen him for many years and for him to emerge right there out of the horizon was an amazing coincidence. Throughout the making, there had been other chance meetings like this, which propelled the film.
What was the biggest challenge of making the documentary?
During the first stage of the filming, we were on the road for 37 days, travelling through Bangladesh. It was quite a frightening time in November/ December 2015 when we started shooting. Our morale had been deflated by the horror of blogger killings by religious extremists. The killings of some foreign nationals also happened around that time. We were very concerned about safety. So to continue the filming across cities and villages was one of the biggest challenges we had faced. Bangladesh police helped us tremendously. They ensured our safety by arranging and ensuring police security for us throughout our journey. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to continue.
Did the experience have an emotional impact on you?
It has profoundly changed my perspective on life. But that’s another story to tell.
What were the most surprising things you learned?
One thing that struck me was how they looked out for fellow survivors, which I thought was unique to them. But meeting other survivors across the globe made me realise it’s quite common. One of the women said, “We open our hearts to each other. That is how we pass our days.” They would also seek refuge in nature, songs and singing. Music has been their coping mechanism. Tell us more about the film. I hope this film will make the world see ordinary South Asian women in a different light in a way it has never cared to before. Their resilience, bravery, openness, tremendous sense of love and compassion have shone through their deeply inspiring stories, along with their appreciation of beauty, nature, and music.
How important is it to highlight stories like this from history?
Rising Silence documents the lives of Bangladeshi women who, among thousands of others, suffered brutal sexual violence in the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971. That conflict remains one of the first recorded cases of rape used as a weapon of war in the 20th century. It is vital to address and listen to survivors’ stories from the past. If we ignore or dismiss sexual violence perpetrated in the past, then the pattern of using rape as a weapon of war will not stop. So the relevance of this documentary is apparent as women continue to bear the brunt of sexual violence in armed conflicts to this day.
How important is the issue of women’s rights in countries like Bangladesh, India and Pakistan?
It’s crucial as with any other country. You will continue to tell stories about women and/or from their perspectives, but what according to you makes for a good documentary film?
Films that reflect humanity or the lack of it to provoke change.
What inspires you?
Extraordinary deeds of ordinary people inspire me.
Eli Lilly had announced a steep price rise of up to 170% for Mounjaro.
A new discount deal with UK suppliers will limit the increase for patients.
Pharmacies will still apply a mark-up, but consumer costs are expected to rise less than initially feared.
NHS pricing remains unaffected due to separate arrangements.
Eli Lilly has agreed a discounted supply deal for its weight-loss drug Mounjaro, easing fears of a sharp rise in costs for UK patients. The new arrangement means that, from September, pharmacies and private services will face smaller wholesale increases than first expected, limiting the impact on consumers.
Why the price rise was announced
Earlier this month, Eli Lilly said it would raise Mounjaro’s list price by as much as 170%, which could have pushed the highest monthly dose from £122 to £330. The company argued that UK pricing needed to align more closely with higher costs in Europe and the United States.
Discount deal for UK suppliers
The revised agreement will see the top-dose price set at £247.50 for suppliers. While pharmacies and private providers will still add their own margins, the increase for patients is now likely to remain under 50% for higher doses, and even lower for smaller doses.
Eli Lilly confirmed:
“We are working with private providers on commercial arrangements to maintain affordability and expect these to be passed onto patients when the change is effective on 1 September.”
Impact on consumers
Around 1.5 million people in the UK are currently on weight-loss drugs, with more than half using Mounjaro. Most of these patients—around 90%—pay privately through online services or high street pharmacies.
Prices vary between providers, depending on the level of lifestyle and dietary support offered alongside the injections.
Olivier Picard of the National Pharmacy Association said:
“This rebate will mitigate some of the impact of the increase, but patients should still anticipate seeing a rise in prices from 1 September.”
NHS pricing unchanged
The deal does not affect the NHS, which has secured its own heavily-discounted price for patients prescribed the weekly injection.
Mounjaro works by helping patients feel fuller for longer, reducing food intake and supporting weight loss of up to 20% of body weight.
By clicking the 'Subscribe’, you agree to receive our newsletter, marketing communications and industry
partners/sponsors sharing promotional product information via email and print communication from Garavi Gujarat
Publications Ltd and subsidiaries. You have the right to withdraw your consent at any time by clicking the
unsubscribe link in our emails. We will use your email address to personalize our communications and send you
relevant offers. Your data will be stored up to 30 days after unsubscribing.
Contact us at data@amg.biz to see how we manage and store your data.
The Department of Health said the rollout would reduce missed days at nursery and school, cut time parents take off work, and save the NHS about £15 million a year. (Representational image: iStock)
CHILDREN in England will be offered a free chickenpox vaccine for the first time from January 2026, the government has announced.
GP practices will give eligible children a combined vaccine for measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) as part of the routine childhood vaccination schedule. Around half a million children each year are expected to be protected.
The Department of Health said the rollout would reduce missed days at nursery and school, cut time parents take off work, and save the NHS about £15 million a year. Research estimates chickenpox in childhood leads to £24 million in lost income and productivity annually.
Minister of State for Care, Stephen Kinnock, said: “We’re giving parents the power to protect their children from chickenpox and its serious complications, while keeping them in nursery or the classroom where they belong and preventing parents from scrambling for childcare or having to miss work. This vaccine puts children’s health first and gives working families the support they deserve. As part of our Plan for Change, we want to give every child the best possible start in life, and this rollout will help to do exactly that.”
Dr Gayatri Amirthalingam, Deputy Director of Immunisation at the UK Health Security Agency, said: “Most parents probably consider chickenpox to be a common and mild illness, but for some babies, young children and even adults, chickenpox can be very serious, leading to hospital admission and tragically, while rare, it can be fatal. It is excellent news that from next January we will be introducing a vaccine to protect against chickenpox into the NHS routine childhood vaccination programme – helping prevent what is for most a nasty illness and for those who develop severe symptoms, it could be a life saver.”
Amanda Doyle, National Director for Primary Care and Community Services at NHS England, said: “This is a hugely positive moment for families as the NHS gets ready to roll out a vaccine to protect children against chickenpox for the first time, adding to the arsenal of other routine jabs that safeguard against serious illness.”
The eligibility criteria will be set out in clinical guidance, and parents will be contacted by their GP surgery if their child is eligible.
WHEN broadcaster and journalist Naga Munchetty began speaking openly about her experiences with adenomyosis and debilitating menstrual pain, the response was overwhelming.
Emails and messages poured in from women who had endured years of dismissal, silence and shame when it came to their health. That outpouring became the driving force behind her new book, It’s Probably Nothing, which calls for women to be heard and to advocate for themselves in a medical system that has too often ignored them.
“For so long, so many women haven’t been listened to by the world of medicine,” Munchetty said. “I knew this from my own experience of not being given adequate pain relief, or waiting years for a diagnosis. My motivation was to help women and people who love women to advocate better for women’s health.”
The book blends Munchetty’s personal journey with the voices of other women who have faced similar struggles, alongside expert insights from medical professionals. Its purpose, she said, is clear: to empower people to fight for their health.
“We need to be unafraid of saying how we have been weakened by our symptoms,” the BBC presenter said.
“Too often, we try to keep afloat, keep our head above water, but we don’t want to seem weak. That needs to change.”
Munchetty’s candour is striking. She describes the shame of being told her excruciating periods were “just normal,” leaving her to feel weak and whiny for struggling.
“You might as well have told me people have heart attacks while I’m having a heart attack,” she said. “Debilitating pain is serious — it may not be lifelimiting, but it is life-impacting.”
Her determination to challenge that culture led to her giving evidence in parliament, contributing to what became a Women and Equalities Committee report, published in December 2024.
The report made headlines for its stark conclusion: medical misogyny exists.
For Munchetty, seeing that phrase in black and white was transformative. “It was almost self-affirming,” she said. “We now know it’s there, so we can challenge it. Women can say: I know my body, I know there’s not enough research, and I am entitled to push for answers.”
The parliamentary report went further than acknowledgement. It called for ring-fenced funding for women’s health hubs, better training for GPs, and greater investment in research into reproductive conditions like adenomyosis and endometriosis.
It highlighted how symptoms are routinely dismissed as “normal,” delaying diagnosis and disrupting women’s careers, education and daily lives. Munchetty wrote in her book — referencing the report — that medical misogyny is not about blaming individual doctors, but about challenging a system built on insufficient research into women’s bodies.
“It gives women the language and the confidence to not just be heard, but to insist on being taken seriously,” she wrote.
Her book also tackles the additional barriers faced by women from minority communities, who may be discouraged by stigma or embarrassment from speaking about menstruation or menopause. To them, Munchetty has a clear message: “You are so much more valuable than you realise. If you don’t prioritise your health, you are lessening your ability to hold up everyone around you.”
Those featured in the book are friends, colleagues, charities and everyday women who contributed their stories, many for the first time. “I was surprised at how many friends are in that book with such powerful experiences,” Munchetty said.
“It told me all the more that we’re not speaking about it, and that it is sadly so very common.”
At a launch event for the book, contributors, family and experts filled the room with what Munchetty describes as an “electric and inspiring atmosphere.”
She said, “It was full of joy, of women who felt safe to speak up and be heard. This is not a whiny book — it’s a positive book. People felt they were part of making things better, part of this women’s health revolution.”
For Munchetty, writing the book was exhausting, but transformative, she said.
“I never thought I’d be an author. I’m a journalist. But this is journalism — facilitating people’s stories to be told powerfully and truthfully. People trusted me, and I’m proud of that.”
And Munchetty’s aim is for the book to be a tool for change: arming women with the language, confidence and strategies to advocate for their health.
“It’s not easy to admit you need help, and it’s not instinctive for women to prioritise themselves,” she said. “But this book will help you do that. It’s the silent friend who has your back and gives you strength.”
It’s Probably Nothing - Critical Conversations on the Women’s Health Crisis is now available in all good bookshops
The Shree Kunj Bihari Vrindavan (UK) Temple has officially launched its project to establish a grand home for Shree Banke Bihari in London.
The inaugural event, held in Harrow from 4 pm, featured devotional chants, the Deep Pragtya ceremony, and a presentation outlining the temple’s vision. Speaking at the gathering, Shalini Bhargava described the planned temple as “a spiritual home promoting bhakti, unity and seva for generations to come.”
Several dignitaries were honoured at the ceremony, including Cllr Anjana Patel, Mayor of Harrow; Anuradha Pandey, Hindi and Cultural Attaché at the High Commission of India; Kamakshi Jani of the Royal Navy; Councillors Janet Mote, Nitin Parikh and Mina Parmar; Krishnaben Pujara, Chairperson of ALL UK; and Truptiben Patel, President of the Hindu Forum of Britain.
Organisers said the launch marks the beginning of a new spiritual and cultural hub for London’s Hindu community, offering a centre for devotion, learning and community service.
Martin Dickie has announced his departure from BrewDog and the alcohol industry.
He co-founded the Ellon-based brewer with James Watt in 2007.
Dickie cited family time and personal reasons for his exit.
His departure follows recent bar closures as part of a company restructuring.
BrewDog confirmed no further leadership changes will follow.
BrewDog co-founder Martin Dickie has announced he is leaving the Scottish brewer and the wider alcohol industry for “personal reasons.” Dickie, who founded the Ellon-based business with James Watt in 2007, said he wanted to spend more time with his family after more than two decades in brewing and distilling.
Early beginnings
Dickie and Watt launched BrewDog at the age of 24, starting from a garage in Fraserburgh and selling hand-filled bottles from a van at local markets. The company grew rapidly to become one of the UK’s best-known craft brewers.
Leadership changes
James Watt stepped down as chief executive last year after 17 years in the role, moving into a non-executive position as “captain and co-founder.” Dickie’s exit marks another major shift in the company’s founding leadership.
Dickie’s statement
“Leaving BrewDog isn’t easy, but I’m ready to spend less time travelling and spend some more time at home with my young family,” Dickie said. He added: “It has been an honour to have worked with incredible, like-minded colleagues who live in a world of flavour and experimentation. In James Taylor and Lauren Carrol, BrewDog is in very strong hands and I will always remain a massive fan.”
Company response
BrewDog chief executive James Taylor praised Dickie’s contribution, highlighting his focus on product quality, workplace safety, sustainable supplier relationships, and new product development. “Martin’s contributions to BrewDog have been immeasurable,” Taylor said. “His creativity, passion, and relentless drive have shaped our company over the years and inspired countless others in the industry.”
Recent challenges
The announcement comes a month after BrewDog closed ten of its bars, including its flagship Aberdeen Gallowgate site and a Dundee outlet, citing commercial unviability. The company stressed that Dickie’s departure will not result in further leadership changes.