Sushmita Banerjee

Sushmita Banerjee, also known as Sushmita Bandhopadhya and Sayeda Kamala (d. August 4 or 5, 2013) was a Kolkata-born Bengali writer. She wrote the memoir Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou ("A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife", 1997) based on her experience of marrying an Afghan, and staying in Afghanistan during Taliban rule. This story was used as the basis for the Bollywood film Escape from Taliban. At the age of 49, she was killed by suspected Taliban militants on the evening of the 4th or early morning 5th, September 2013, outside her home in Paktika province, Afghanistan.

Life

Sushmita Banerjee was born in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta), West Bengal, India in a Hindu Brahmin family. She married Janbaaz Khan, an Afghan businessman on 2 July 1988. The marriage took place in Kolkata under secrecy, as she feared her parents would object to the inter-religious marriage. When her parents tried to get them divorced, she fled to Afghanistan with Khan. Later, Khan returned to Kolkata to continue his business, but Banerjee could not return. She continued to live in Khan's ancestral house in Patiya village, with her three brothers-in-law, their wives, and Gulgutti, the first wife of her husband.

With the burgeoning Taliban power in Afghanistan, Banerjee witnessed fundamentalist changes occuring in the country. In a 2003 interview, Banerjee told that the plight of women there particularly got worse. Women were banned from talking with men other than family members, they were not allowed outside home. Schools, colleges, and hospitals were shut down. Banerjee, a trained nurse in gynaecology, opened a clinic to help the women of village. Taliban men discovered the clinic and beat her severely in May 1995.

Banerje made two abortive attempts to flee Afghanistan. She was caught and kept in house arrest in the village. A fatwa was issued against her and she was scheduled to die on 22 July 1995. With the help of the village headman, she finally fled from the village, in the process killing three Taliban men with an AK-47 rifle. She reached Kabul, and took a flight back to Kolkata on 12 August 1995.

She lived in India until 2013, and published several books. After returning to Afghanistan, she worked as a health worker in Paktika Province in southeastern Afghanistan, and also started to film the lives of local women.

Death

According to Afghan police, suspected Taliban terrorists forced into Banerjee's house in Paktika Province on the night of 4 September 2013. They tied her husband, and absconded with her. Her corpse was found early next day beside a madrasa in the outskirts of the provincial capital Sharana. The corpse had 20 bullet holes. The police told that Banerjee could have been targeted for several reasons, including her book, her social work in the region, or merely the fact that she was an Indian woman. The Taliban has said they did not carry out this attack.

Books

Banerjee wrote Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou ("A Kabuliwala's Bengali Wife") in 1995. It recounted the tale of her love marriage to the Afghan businessman Janbaz Khan, her moving to Afghanistan in 1989, the adversities she faced in Talibani Afghanistan and her eventual escape back to Kolkata, India. In 2003, Escape from Taliban, a Bollywood film was made based on the book.

She also authored Talibani Atyachar—Deshe o Bideshe (Taliban atrocities in Afghanistan and Abroad), Mullah Omar, Taliban O Ami(Mullah Omar, Taliban and I) (2000), Ek Borno Mithya Noi (Not a Word is a Lie) (2001) and Sabhyatar Sesh Punyabani (The Swansong of Civilisation).