Introduction: 'Turtles Can Fly': Vicarious Terror and the Child in South Asia

Post-election violence erupted in Bangladesh in late 2001, affecting minority communities living in the peripheries of the state. On 8 October, 11 alleged perpetrators gang-raped Purnima, a 12 year-old girl. A judicial probe commission in its report nearly a decade later found that Purnima was one of 200 women and girls from the minority Hindu community who were allegedly gang-raped by the party activists of the then ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP)-Jama’ati-Islami alliance over a period of 15 months. Purnima’s experience is far from exceptional, of the horrific encounters that children are forced to bear in South Asia. From sporadic sectarian violence to protracted conflict situations, children in South Asia and in the world experience violence. These occur in a range of settings including at home and in the family, in schools and educational settings, in care and justice systems, in workplaces and in communities.