Key Points
Sushmita Banerjee secretly married Afghan businessman Janbaz Khan and later found herself trapped under Taliban rule in Afghanistan.
After escaping to India in 1995, she wrote the bestselling memoir Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou, which inspired the film Escape From Taliban.
In 2013, despite repeated warnings, she returned to Afghanistan and was abducted and shot dead by suspected Taliban militants in Paktika Province.
AS A LITTLE GIRL, Sushmita Banerjee was fascinated by Rabindranath Tagore’s short story Kabuliwala. Born and brought up in a traditional Bengali household, Sushmita, like many, grew up reading Tagore’s writings, and was taken with the version of Afghanistan that the writer presented in Kabuliwala. Her initial fascination with the country led her to fall in love with an Afghan businessman Janbaz Khan, whom she secretly married in 1988 against her family’s wishes. A year later, she went to her new marital house in Afghanistan, only to discover that Janbaz already had a wife, Gulguti.
In 1995, after repeated attempts to flee from Taliban-occupied Afghanistan, she finally came back to her hometown in Kolkata. Eventually, Sushmita settled into her new life, wrote a book titled Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou (A Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife) detailing her life and marriage, and penned other books that revealed Taliban’s atrocities. Everything was well, until she decided to reunite with her husband. Despite repeated warnings from friends and families, Sushmita went back to Afghanistan.
In 2013, Sushmita was shot by Taliban militants. Her corpse was found riddled with 20 bullets.
Who was Sushmita Banerjee, and how did her marriage to an Afghan man lead to her becoming a prominent writer, and then eventually resulting in her death?
Born on December 2, 1959 in Calcutta (present-day Kolkata), West Bengal, Sushmita Banerjee was the only sister to her three brothers. Her father was an official working under the civil defense department, while her mother was a homemaker. She met her future husband at a theatre performance in Calcutta in 1988, and the two fell in love. Going against her parents' wishes, Sushmita married Janbaz in a secret ceremony on July 2, 1988.
The news of their match wasn't well-received, and fearing that her parents would try to get them divorced, Sushmita moved to her husband’s home country Afghanistan. But her new life wasn't at all what she hoped to be. Her initial fascination with Afghanistan, which she envisioned to be like ‘Rehmat’s Afghanistan’ (the name of the main character in Tagore’s Kabuliwala is Rehmat) turned into despair as she saw the political and social instability that was happening in the country.
See also: Our Generation Will Continue Resisting the Taliban’s Restrictions on Women and Girls
Coming to her husband’s home in Afghanistan’s Paktika Province, Sushmita discovered that he already had a wife named Gulguti. Moreover, Janbaz went back to Calcutta to tend to his business, but Sushmita couldn't accompany him because of Taliban’s restrictions, leaving her deserted in a new country.
However, Sushmita made the best out of the life that she was given, eventually settling into a peaceful co-existence with her husband’s first wife, her brother-in-laws, and other relatives.
That was the time when the political and social situation in Afghanistan were at their worst. The country was still recovering from the decade-long Soviet-Afghan war that had weakened it, and the Taliban was making major social changes in Afghan society. Islam was misinterpreted and wrongly imposed on many. Books, television, and radio were banned. Men were required to have a beard and go to the mosque five times a day. Women weren't allowed to go out of their house without a male relative accompanying them. Moreover, as it was prohibited for them to be touched by men who weren't their relatives, women couldn't avail basic healthcare in the country.
It was at that time when Sushmita decided to operate a small dispensary out of her house. Even though she did not possess specialized knowledge about health, she educated herself on basic medication and treatments via textbooks and began providing cheap healthcare and medicines. When the Taliban got to know about Sushmita’s medicine business, they shut down her business and beat her ruthlessly.
That was when Sushmita knew she had to leave Afghanistan and escape from the Taliban.
Her first attempt to flee from Afghanistan was unsuccessful, as she sought the help of the Indian Embassy in Pakistan’s Islamabad, who handed her back to the Taliban. Her second escape attempt too was unsuccessful and a fatwa (Islamic religious order) was issued against her, which sentenced her to death. Eventually, a village head helped in her third attempt, and Sushmita returned back to Calcutta in 1995.
In 1997, Sushmita decided to write about her life and her daring escape from the Taliban and Afghanistan, and published a book called Kabuliwalar Bangali Bou (A Kabuliwala’s Bengali Wife). Sushmita had maintained a diary back in Afghanistan, which she expanded upon to write a full-length book based on her experiences. The book was adapted into a movie in 2003, titled Escape From Taliban starring Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala.
Sushmita went on to pen many more books that criticized Taliban’s atrocities, including 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), and Sabhyatar Sesh Punyabani (The Swansong of Civilisation).
In 2013, Sushmita made up her mind to reunite with her husband Janbaz, and was planning to move back to Afghanistan despite fearing for her life. Upon returning to Paktika Province, Sushmita barely had the time to spend with her husband when on September 4, 2013, suspected Taliban militants broke into her house, tied her husband, and then abducted her. Sushmita was executed hours later, with her body found the next morning riddled with 20 bullets.
Later, a renegade group called The Suicide Group of the Islamic Movement of Afghanistan too responsibility for Sushmita’s killing, and proudly announced it. “We killed Sushmita Banerjee because she is an Indian spy…We are against everyone who is engaged against the Afghans, the jihad and works with the American attackers.”
Sushmita Banerjee lived a brave but tragic life. Fascinated by Afghanistan through Tagore’s story, she married an Afghan man and moved there. She faced Taliban cruelty, helped women with healthcare, and escaped to India. There, she wrote books about her experiences and became a strong voice for women’s rights. Sadly, when she returned to Afghanistan in 2013 to reunite with her husband, the Taliban killed her. Her story remains an inspiring example of courage against oppression.
(Edited by Harsh Pandey)
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