Women, particularly students, were in the forefront of the national struggle of the Bengalees from the early fifties of the last century. They played an active role in all the struggles starting from for the Bengali language movement and all the later struggles for democracy and national rights during the Pakistani period, and were led by personalities like poet Sufia Kamal.

Women were also the worst victims of the Pakistani atrocities during the Liberation War. However, women were not only just rape victims of the Pakistani Army. Brave women through the length and breadth of the country, defying torture and death gave shelter to the freedom fighters, treated wounded freedom fighters as doctors and nurses and took arms training in the special "Gobra Camp" and fought on the war front. Some of these women have received gallantry awards for their heroism.