She opened the door limping badly, but the welcoming smile did not falter.

Assaulted by police boots and fists just four days ago for protesting the sexual assault on women during Pahela Baishakh celebrations, Ismat Jahan looked anything but beat down. 

Below her right eye was a mark that bore witness to the police horror that came down upon her on April 10 – it was too near her eyes.

"I cannot see properly with my right eye now…everything is blurred," she said, smiling.

Wincing silently every two steps, she managed to get back to her bed and sit up for the interview. The red anklet that that had been pulled up to her calf on the left leg poked out from beneath her clothes.

In a one-to-one conversation with The Daily Star, Bangladesh Chhatra Union activist Ismat Jahan Joe told of her account of the day when students were thrashed away by cops while trying to lay a siege to Dhaka police headquarters protesting the April 14 sexual assault on women.

Far from shying away, she showed her utmost interest to participate in future agitation programmes over the issue of sexual assault.

"If you want your mother, sister or wife to roam freely on the streets without fear, you have to join us in the demand for justice," she said.