Her colleagues proudly call her the ‘natural Change Maker’. Forty-year-old Sufia Begum, of Jatrapur has been elected every year as member of the Union Parishad for the past five years. She is also the founder and director of Shawnivor Nari Sangathan which teaches rural women livelihood skills such as sewing, embroidery, crafts etc, besides providing the women with low interest credit. The organisation also leases out 12 hand pulled trolleys as an income earning measure and offers a safe haven for the women to express themselves and share their stories.

Married at the age of 14, Sufia Begum was a victim of mental and physical torture, both by her husband and her mother-in-law, in addition to which she was forced to do all the house work. At that time she was not aware of it as violence. She had her first and only child at 16. Sufia Begum was not allowed to leave the house nor did she have the courage to ask her husband for anything, not even when her baby daughter was ill, “I was afraid to ask my husband to take the baby to the doctor.” Soon she was sent back to her father’s home with a demand of dowry. Her father said if he had to pay for his daughter to stay at her husband’s home then she had no need to return. Meanwhile her daughter’s condition got worse and soon her eight month old baby died due to lack of timely treatment.

Life it seemed was preparing her for even harder times. After her father’ death, her brother took away all the property and denied her any right to her father’s land or property. At that point Sufia Begum decided enough was enough. She sued her brother and won a share of the property. She broke her silence and fought for her rights.

Sufia Begum began social work in the early 1990s and was elected as union council member and she joined a campaign ally in 1996. She fought to end violence against women before the ‘We Can’ campaign had begun, “When I started resisting violence even then I did not know it was violence!” Sufia Begum has mediated at least 300 families and interacted with more than 1,000 individuals for the campaign.

Branded as immoral and evil because of her work and because she was a single woman she did not let it deter her. In fact she has managed to make her skeptics change their point of view. Sufia Begum’s wisdom and determination is apparent to all who interact with her, “We cannot challenge a man directly” she says, “We have to become their friends and then make them aware of the problem.”

To the women of the world Sufia Begum says, “I want to tell every woman in the world that they must break their silence and talk about it and stop it. Only we can stop violence in our lives and the life of others. Only I, Sufia Begum cannot stop it, we all have to work together to achieve peace.”