Zahir Raihan's 'Stop Genocide' and the work of public health witnessing

Public health has long relied on quantitative indicators to document suffering and guide action. In contexts of mass violence, however, statistical approaches alone may be insufficient to capture the full scope of population-level harm.

This reflective essay engages Zahir Raihan's 1971 short documentary film 'Stop Genocide', produced during the Bangladesh Liberation War, as a case study in visual testimony. The film is examined as a form of public health witnessing that documents harm through proximity, narrative, and moral insistence rather than epidemiologic measurement.

'Stop Genocide' depicts civilian targeting, forced displacement, and collective trauma in ways that anticipate contemporary public health concepts, including structural violence and health system collapse. The film foregrounds patterns of harm that are recognizable at the population level, even in the absence of formal surveillance data.

Revisiting 'Stop Genocide' raises critical questions about what forms of evidence public health recognizes as legitimate, particularly when data systems are disrupted or politically constrained. Situating epidemiologic data within a broader epistemic framework that includes art, testimony, and witnessing may strengthen ethical public health practice in times of mass violence.