From a philosophical perspective, human liberation can be viewed as human development. It has been observed that nature has done justice to humanity by maintaining its parity as this has been evidenced and expressed by nearly fifty-fifty women and men in the global population composition. In the course of social evolution, human society has been found to be biased to men and a male centric history has grown over time by the ever dominant men across all continents by violating natural justice of fifty-fifty in the composition of global population.

In the mirror of human development, it is now found that imbalanced human development has unfolded due to subordination of women by limiting their liberation compared to that of men. This gender discrimination has been prevalent in human past story everywhere, now more evident in the peripheral countries of the world, mostly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Of course, matriarch is still seen in some countries, mostly in Asia. In the not too distant past, these continents were colonized by the then emerged center, Europe.

Homo sapiens as the weakest species on earth has established a pattern of man-dominant society everywhere only with some exceptions since its remote past. History is replete with war, destruction and occupation by the emperors and kings. In the hunting and gathering stage of human evolution, the tribal form of society, women were in the mainstream to survive collectively through their everyday struggles with additional crucial biological role of reproduction to replenish and grow the tribe members. Earlier to this stage, the resilient women could not escape all the burden of reproduction.

The earliest Homo sapiens with inadequate cognitive capability survived due to resilience of women. They had to give birth to their babies, feed them and nurture them for longer time unlike other animal species. Men could not be compelled to do anything in this regard with the institutional bindings due to lack of institutional arrangements. It cannot be imagined how humanity had crossed all the odds in its long journey to survive till today without all the sacrifices of women. While men with their brawns were free to pursue any thing of their choices, women had to carry the baggage of reproduction for survival.

Yuval Noah Harari in his book Sapiens has said about three most significant revolutions in the long journey of humanity beginning seventy thousand years ago. First one was the cognitive revolution about thirty thousand years ago followed by the first agricultural revolution during 10,000 to 12,000 years ago and scientific revolution about 500 years ago. All these revolutions set free humanity to add mileage to their development as every revolution is viewed as a locomotive of history to liberate humanity from the bondage of prevailing society. But humanity's history fails to reveal any significant story of woman liberation.

In the socio-cultural realm, still there are some matriarchal societies on the planet earth due to earlier emergence in the past dictated by their environment. Although they are apparently freer compared with their counterparts in the patriarchic society, they are doubly burdened with their two most significant biological and socio-economic roles. If new tourists from patriarchic society like Bangladesh visit Phnom Penh, capital of Cambodia, they will be caught in surprise by seeing hundreds of woman motor-bikers plying 50 cc Hondas on the streets by the riverside of the Mekong river.

In 1992, I had the opportunity to stay in Phnom Penh for two months for my language and technical training there. So, after my training in the evening, I could go out to see the beauty of once jewel city of South-east Asia although ravaged by war then. I used to go to the riverside of the Mekong. I was surprised to see plethora of beautiful woman motor-bikers on the streets. I also often visited Phsar Thmei market. So, I could make friendly relations with a woman shopkeeper nick named Thari. Daughter of a school teacher, she was pretty and aged 17 or 18 years then. I could know that from the earnings of the shop she supported her family and also saved some money for her marriage to be mothered by babies in future.

Human development is only partial as women will need to go a long way for their liberation. When women are liberated equally like men, not only justice is meted out to them, but also there will be synergy in the economy as liberated energy in proper direction will add more wealth in the treasury of humanity. So, they must have necessary decision making power, decent income and livelihood, necessary education, health facilities, protective securities, political freedom and so on to make "herstory" a reality from suppressed long cherished dream.

Woman development for a balanced human liberation must be accelerated to compensate for their past deprivation and injustice and to create synergy in the global economy. A look into initial measures of women development in Bangladesh will speak in favor of woman liberation. After they came out of the traditional "purdah"(veil) practice due to the economic compulsion and efforts of NGOs, and many a socio-economic program of both government and non-government organizations, opening of economic opportunities by the private sector like garment industries and so on, Bangladesh stands out clearly in Indian Sub-continent, though women in Bangladesh have many miles to go to contribute to creation of "herstory"in the Sub-continent vis-à-vis global context.

The author is a columnist and vice-chairman of CDIP.