On the occasion of International Women's Day, here is a story of
a courageous Bangladeshi woman who fought tradition
to establish a successful career and become a role model for all women.
A Dhaka Friend I Admire
Nargis Jafar demonstrated courage in decision-making long before the 1971 Liberation War. While a student in Calcutta, she met and fell in love with a bohemian Muslim writer, married him and moved to Old Dacca, East Pakistan. She was a Hindu. She not only changed her identity from her childhood family name and country but she also was highly educated and found a job at a time when a Muslim newlywed was expected to stay home and devote herself to her mother-in-law.
Nargis’ start as a librarian came almost by accident. Her husband was away from home during the days and Nargis was lonely. She wanted to explore the confines of her neighbourhood, without a burkha! As she walked past the USIS office one morning, she realized that here was a library where she could come to read in English. One day the American librarian approached her and inquired, “Are you here to apply for the position?” “What position?” Nargis innocently responded. “I don’t think I am looking for a job.” “Never mind,” said he said, “please fill out this application form. You can start to work this week.”
Thus began Nargis’ work at USIS that resulted in a career as librarian at the American School in 1977-1980, Asia Foundation, and establishing the Bangladesh Parliamentary Library in the 1980s.
In March 1971 East Pakistan was in the midst of an upheaval that would change Nargis’ life. The Jafars remained in their Dhanmondi home during the conflict. After the massacre of many close friends and intellectuals, Mr. Jafar chose to write secretly released anti-Pakistani pamphlets and was eventually named for extinction. One day he simply disappeared. A friend had come to his office to tell him that they were on the list for extinction. They fled Dacca across the border to Calcutta to continue their underground news. Nargis was left alone in the big house with a few brave servants.
After her husband’s disappearance, the Pakistani army interrogated Nargis and searched her home. Fortunately, they did not look in her bedroom where several of her husband’s guns were hidden. Finding these revolvers would have meant death as an insurgent. She later took them with her and stored them under her desk at USIS for the duration of the war.
One day Nargis was to hold an examination necessary for students seeking to study in the USA. Her office was inside the examination room. Ironically the exams had not arrived from the Consulate’s office and the students angrily left the room. Nargis, upset and feeling guilty about not being prepared, also departed for home early. As soon as they had left, an explosion rocked the room behind her. When she raced back into USIS she met her frantic supervisor who was sure that he was seeing a ghost. “Nargis,” he wept, “I thought you were blown up!”
In the final months of the war, Nargis moved into the nearly complete women’s hostel established by Nargis’ club and waited out the final days of Indian Air Force bombing and the surrender of the Pakistanis. Her husband returned after the war but died broken hearted by the poverty and famine facing his new, young country.
After the war, the women’s club offered typing and office training to young, widowed and raped women. Many of those women are now retiring from important jobs.
Nargis obtained a scholarship to study in New York City while working as a Public Library assistant. Next, she became a cataloguer at American University. In 1978-80 we worked together to restore order to the American School Library, Dhaka. Books had been boxed up and stored in a variety of Gulshan homes during the war. Twenty professional but unemployed spouses of foreigners volunteered to do the first inventory, type out shelf lists, and solicit new books from departing foreigners. Many of our volunteers were hired as teachers by the school or by UN agencies so we laughingly called ourselves a jobs placement agency. A small State Department grant was used to build up a reference collection. Nargis and I had to go to New Market to repurchase several orders of UK books stolen out of the local mail. We travelled to Calcutta to purchase wholesale books – what fun to ride the book-laden rickshaws through two feet of monsoon water! We opened the AISD library to community readers who donated many of their books. In the mid 1980s I returned to occasionally travel with Nargis on her Asia Foundation book-donation trips to Universities and NGOs in Bangladesh. In 2000 we visited the expanded Parliamentary Library on the day the new computerized system was inaugurated.
Now retired, Nargis remains a respected leader in academic and professional women’s associations and international organizations. We meet each month for some city adventure and share stories about the past and our hopes for the future. Please join us sometime!