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[[File:1971_Instrument_of_Surrender.jpg|thumbnail|250px|Surrender of Pakistani Army, Dhaka, December 16, 1971. Signing is Lieutenant General Niazi.]]

March 1971 marked the beginning of the Bangladesh Liberation War. By December of the same year, more than 25,000 women had been forcibly impregnated through a common tool of war; rape. These women, whose number represents only 10 percent of the reported rape victims, were given the name ''Birangonas''——war heroines.<ref>Bina D’Costa, ''Nationbuilding, Gender and War Crimes in South Asia'' (New York: Routledge, 2011), 77. These figures are considered low by those who were in Bangladesh at the time of liberation. Some have suggested the number is upwards of 400,000 rape victims. Due to the cultural stigmatism, it is proposed that numerous victims did not come forward at the time and have yet to do so since.</ref>The men who fought for a liberated Bangladesh were also considered war heroes. With visible scars of battle, they returned to the remains of their villages and were welcomed with sympathy and gratitude. Birangonas were not so fortunate. These victimized women, who had survived torture and continuous rape at the hands of enemy officers and soldiers, were rejected by their families and shunned by society due to unyielding cultural norms. They became imprisoned in both their own minds and newly created nation. Bangladeshi war heroines endured scorn and stigmatization in their homes due to a rigid and patriarchal culture. The origin of the plight of the birangonas, however, was brought on by religious hatred and a perverted notion of purification, which was sanctioned and carried out by the military government of West Pakistan.