Ten women martyred, first death was Naima’s

Naima Sultana was always so excited about birthday gifts. In her diary, she had written how her elder sister would surprise her every year on her birthday. Many more of Naima’s thoughts came up in the recollections of her mother, Ainun Nahar. At one point, the grieving mother said, “This month marks both the birth and the death of my daughter.”

Naima Sultana was the first woman martyr of the July mass uprising. She was fatally shot while retrieving laundry from the balcony at her home in Dhaka’s Uttara around 5:00 pm on 19 July 2024. Her 15th birthday was on 25 July, just six days away.

Naima was the second of three children, two daughters and a son, of homeopathy physician Golam Mostafa and Ainun Nahar from Matlab Uttar upazila in Chandpur. She was a student at Milestone School and College.

While speaking to Ainun Nahar on 5 July, she said that her children were enrolled in schools and colleges in Dhaka for better education. Her husband stayed in their village, while she lives with her children on the fourth floor of a five-storey building in Sector 9 of Uttara.

Ainun Nahar said, “Our entire family has been mentally shattered after losing Naima. If only I hadn’t let her go to the balcony that day she would still be alive!”

So far, the government has officially gazetted the names of 844 martyrs. Among them are the names of 10 women aged between 6 and 60. These same 10 names are also listed as martyrs in a separate list prepared by the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs. Notably, four of them were under the age of 18.

Apart from Naima, the other nine women martyred in the July uprising are: Maya Islam, 60, Shahinur Begum, 55, Nasima Akhter, 24, Meherun Nesa, 22, Liza Akhter, 21, Sumaiya Akhter, 20, Nafisa Hossain Marwa, 17, Rita Akhter, 17, and Riya Gope, 6. Of them, five were students, two were working women, two were housewives, and one was not engaged in formal education or employment.

Among these 10 martyred women, seven were shot in Dhaka, two in Narayanganj, and one in Savar. Seven of them were shot on the balconies or rooftops of their own homes while the remaining three were shot on the streets.

The first of theme to be shot was domestic worker Liza Akhter, who died three days later. The first death was that of student Naima, on 19 July. Maya Islam, Riya Gopa, and Nasima Akhter were also shot on the same day.

Meanwhile, Meherun Nesa was fatally shot in the evening of 5 August. Two other students, Rita Akhter and Nafisa Hossain Marwa, were also killed that same day in the afternoon. The last death was Shahinur Begum’s, who was shot on 22 July and died in hospital on 1 September.

Prothom Alo spoke to the families of these 10 women to mark the anniversary of the July mass uprising. To mark the anniversary of the mass uprising, the interim government is observing a 36-day programme from 1 July to 5 August (with intermittent breaks). As part of the ‘July Remembrance’ programme,” Monday, 14 July was observed as ‘July Women’s Day’ across the country with the slogan ‘Mora Jhonjhar Moto Uddam’ (We are as intense as the storm).

Alike Abu Sayeed and Mir Mahfuzur Rahman Mugdho, Riya Gopa is also one of the symbols of the July movement. The death of this six-year-old child shook the nation to its core. Riya Gope was the only child of Deepak Kumar Gope and Beauty Ghosh. On 19 July, she had gone up to the rooftop of their four-storey building in the Noyamati area of Narayanganj Sadar to play.

When clashes broke out on the street below, her father Deepak Kumar went to the rooftop to bring her down. It was then that Riya was shot while in her father’s arms. She died five days later on 24 July, while undergoing treatment in the ICU of Dhaka Medical College Hospital.

The couple remains inconsolable after the loss of their only child. They find it difficult to speak to the media about Riya. “You’ve already written so much! What more can I say about my daughter?” said father Deepak Gope. Riya’s mother, Beauty Ghosh, said, “We go about our day, but the pain never leaves. It’s unbearable, and I couldn’t possibly explain it to anyone.”

Mustafizur Rahman lost his mother in the July movement. His only child was also severely injured. For the past year, Mustafizur has been living out of hospitals with his son.

The family lived in a rented flat on the sixth-floor of a seven-storey building in Meradia Haat area of Rampura in Dhaka. Mustafizur recalled that on 19 July, when the situation outside calmed down a little, his 7-year-old son Basit Khan Musa went downstairs with his grandmother Maya Islam, 60, to buy ice cream.

As they descended, they found both the collapsible gate and the main entrance closed. At that very moment, a bullet entered the left side of little Musa’s head and exited through the other side. The same bullet also struck Maya Islam in the lower abdomen and then hit the wall behind her. Maya Islam died the following day.

“Being a son, I couldn’t even attend my mother’s Janaza,” Mustafizur said. “I had to rush in and out of the hospital trying to save my critically injured son, Musa.”

After Prothom Alo published a report on Musa’s condition, the government arranged for him to be taken to Singapore for treatment. TV channel, ‘Channel i’ bore the cost of the air ambulance used for his transport. After five and a half months of treatment in Singapore, Musa is now under care at the Combined Military Hospital (CMH) in Dhaka.

Mustafizur said, “Ammu (his mother) is gone. One side of my son’s body is paralysed. Our lives have been turned upside down. Whichever government comes to power next, I hope they will remember the families of the martyrs and take responsibility for the medical expenses of the injured victims like Musa.”

Just like Maya Islam and Musa, Nasima Akhter, 24, and her nephew Ayman Uddin, 21, were also shot together on the rooftop of a 10-storey building on Road no. 1 in Dhanmondi of Dhaka. The family lived in a rented apartment on the seventh floor of that building. Nasima was the youngest of seven children, four daughters and three sons, of Yusuf Ali and Saleha Begum.

She had come from Noakhali to Dhaka to visit her elder brother Helal Uddin’s home in Dhanmondi, who lives in Spain. Nasima had not pursued much formal education. She was about to get married in December last year.

On 19 July, Nasima went up to the rooftop with two of her nephews. There, she was shot and died the next day while undergoing treatment in the ICU of a private hospital in Dhaka. Her nephew Ayman, who was also shot by the bullet, was treated in the same hospital for 15 days.

Ayman is now a first-year student at the Department of Computer Science and Engineering of East West University. He recalled that a helicopter was flying in and out from the direction of Science Lab, while a white drone kept hovering above their heads.

Suddenly, a bullet pierced his chest from the right side, passed through his spine, and exited to strike Nasima, who was standing behind him. The bullet hit her in the jaw and lodged in her throat. Despite his critical injuries, his name has still not been included in the official list of the wounded, said Ayman.

Clashes were unfolding outside. A RAB helicopter hovered in the sky. After putting her two-and-a-half-month-old baby to sleep, Sumaiya Akter, 20, stepped out onto the balcony of their sixth-floor flat to catch a glimpse of the helicopter. At that moment, a bullet hit her in the head. She died right there on the spot.

The tragic incident took place in Painadi area of Siddhirganj upazila in Narayanganj around 5:45 pm on 20 July. Sumaiya’s husband, Zahid Hossain, worked as an operator at a garment factory in Kanchpur area. Sumaiya had come to her mother’s house in Painadi to give birth.

Sumaiya’s daughter, Soaiba has already turned one. She still doesn’t understand what losing ones mother means. Sumaiya’s mother, Asma Begum, says they no longer have contact with Sumaiya’s husband Zahid. Soaiba lives with Asma now. She has started to babble and can say ‘Maa’.

Asma Begum says she and her other children try their best to fill the void of a mother for Soaiba. Sumaiya was the third among Asma’s five children. Asma lost her husband of COVID-19 and now she had to watch her daughter die right in front of her eyes, inside her own home.

Liza Akter, 19, worked as a domestic help at a flat in Shantinagar area of Dhaka. She lived on the 7th floor of the 12-storey building. Around 3:00 pm on 18 July, a bullet hit her in the abdomen just as she had stepped out onto the balcony.

Liza’s brother, Md Rakib, a construction worker in Dhaka, said the family she worked for initially admitted her to Aurora Specialised Hospital. Then she was transferred to Popular Medical College Hospital on 21 July. She died the next day on 22 July, at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital.

Liza was the fifth among seven children of Joynal Joynal Shikder and Ianur Begum. They are residents of Borhanuddin Upazila in Bhola. They own no property except from their house. Due to extreme poverty, they had sent Liza to Dhaka about five years ago to work as a domestic help.

On the morning of 22 July, Shahinur Begum, 50, a working woman, was shot while out for a walk in the Kajla area of Jatrabari, Dhaka. She was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of Dhaka Medical College Hospital, where she passed away on 1 September.

Shahinur had three sons and two daughters. The eldest, Mosammat Hafeza, 30, cried nonstop while talking about her mother. Hafeza said their family is originally from Meghna Upazila in Cumilla. Her mother was the second wife of of their father, Md Habib Mia, who did not provide for the family. So Shahinur with her children moved to Shanir Akhra area near Jatrabari.

Every day from 6:00 am to 8:00 am, she sold fish at a local wholesale market. As she had diabetes, she regularly went on walk after finishing her work. On the day of the incident, she was shot during one of these walks. “Our mother was everything for us. She went through so much hardship for our sake,” said Hafeza.

Nafisa Hossain Marwa, 19, had been actively participating in the movement alongside Jahangirnagar University coordinators since 3 August. She left her uncle’s home in Savar area in the morning on 5 Aufgust to join the movement. That afternoon she was shot near the Savar Model Mosque and died after being taken to the hospital.

One month and ten days after her death, the results of the Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) exams were published on 15 October. Nafisa passed the exam with a GPA of 4.25. She had taken the exams in the science stream from Sahajuddin Sarker Model Higher Secondary School in Tongi of Gazipur.

Her mother, Kulsum Begum, 44, works as a cleaner in Kuwait. Nafisa was her second child. Her first child, a son, died shortly after birth. Nafisa’s younger sister, Safa Hossain Raisa, is in class seven now.

While speaking to Kulsum Begum over WhatsApp on 1 July, she said that she and Nafisa’s father, Abul Hossain, 54, were separated. Abul Hossain lives in Tongi with his other wife and child. While her younger daughter Safa lives with her maternal uncle, Nafisa used to move in between her uncle’s and father’s homes.

As she spoke about her daughter, Kulsum broke down in tears. “Every morning I used to wake up and find messages from my daughter and then she would call me in the afternoon. Now I feel so empty during those hours. My daughter used to say, ‘Maa, when I’ll grow up I’ll take away all your sufferings’.”

Rita Akter, 17, was the second of three children of Ashraf Ali and Rehena Bibi from Kalai Upazila in Joypurhat. When faced with the pressure of child marriage in class eight, she told her parents, “I would become a physician and won’t marry until I can feed my parents with my own earnings.” Seeing her dedication to studies, the family moved to Mirpur area in Dhaka.

Rita’s elder brother, Md Rashedul Islam, said they had lived in Dhaka once before, but returned again in March last year just for Rita’s education. Her parents and he found work in the city. Then Rita joined them in June and she was admitted to Duaripara Government College.

Around 1:30 pm on 5 August, the family received news that Rita had been shot in the head during a protest near the foot overbridge at Mirpur-10. After rushing in to four different hospitals, they found her body in the morgue of Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College and Hospital. Their mother, Rehena Bibi identified the body by recognising her daughter’s feet.

After the fall of the Sheikh Hasina government on 5 August, both siblings had joined a victory rally. Their father, Mosharraf Hossain, waited anxiously on the street in front of their home while the sounds of sporadic gunfire by the police still echoed nearby.

He was on the phone, urging his children, “Come home quickly.” On the other end, his daughter Meherun Nesa replied, “Abbu, I’m coming in a bit.” Meherun returned home while her brother was still outside. About 20 minutes later, Mosharraf Hossain heard that his daughter has been shot inside her own room. A bullet flew through the open window, piercing her in jaw and the side of the chest.

During a visit to the family’s residence in Mirpur-13 under Kafrul Police Station area on this 2 July, her mother, Asma Akter, pointed to the window from where it happened. She said, “It was around 7:30 in the evening. Meherun had just returned and was calling her brother on the cellphone standing right here. I was nearby. Suddenly, while still on the phone, she collapsed.”

The bloodstain on the wall to the side Meherun fell is still faintly visible. The mother has kept the clothes Meherun wore that day preserved just the way it was. The daughter had returned home that day carrying flowers for her mother that remains too, dried up at the bottom of a vase.

Meherun Nesa was the elder of Mosharraf Hossain and Asma Akhter’s two children. Her nickname was Tanha. She was a third-year accounting student at Hajrat Shah Ali Mohila Collefge in Mirpur.

Meherun’s mother along with her siblings built a six-storied building on a piece of land owned by their father. Each family of their siblings lived in separate flats on the same building. Meherun’s family lived on the third floor.

Meherun’s eldest maternal uncle, Faruk Khan, lived with his family on the fourth floor. Faruk’s son Akram Khan Rabbi was martyred earlier on 19 July. Meherun with a placard had taken to the street demanding justice for her cousin’s death. After the fall of the Hasina government on 5 August, she had said, “Now I’ve got justice for my brother.”

Meherun’s younger brother, Abdur Rahman Tarif, said he had been on the phone with Meherun just after she returned home. She was shot while he was still on the call and had heard his sister scream.

Her father, Mosharraf Hossain, who works as a driver, said he rushed home to find his daughter covered in blood. After Meherun was taken to a clinic nearby, the physicians declared her dead.

Like Meherun’s family, every family of the ten martyred women longs to see justice for their loved ones. Though the families have received financial assistance from the government, none of them can forget the agony of their loss. They hope that the people of the country will remember the sacrifices of these women and whichever government comes next they should honour the martyrs appropriately.

Shireen Parveen Huq, head of the women’s affairs reform commission told Prothom Alo, “Women played a courageous role in the July mass uprising. They were one of the core strengths of the movement. Their widespread participation inspired everyone and gave the movement a momentum.”