Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

A pioneer of women’s liberation

movement in undivided India.

-Mir Monaz Haque, Berlin

On 9th December people of Bangladesh would commemorate the Begum Rokeya day in memory of the
first Muslim Women Educationist who fought for the equal rights of man and woman in Bengal. Begum
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain was died on 9 December 1932, she was born in 1880 in a village called
Pairaband in the district Rangpur. Widely regarded as Bengal's earliest and boldest feminist writer, Rokeya
Sakhawat Hossain was a pioneering and creative educationist and social activist, and the school she
founded in Kolkata, the Sakhawat Memorial School for Girls, still thrives.She was also a social activist, who
organized middle-class women in undertaking slum development and training poor women in income-
generating activities.

Her style of writing was in a way to raise popular consciousness, she used humour, irony and satire to
focus attention on the injustices faced by Bengali Muslim women. She criticized oppressive social customs
forced upon women in the name of religion, asserting that the glory of God could be best displayed by
women fulfilling their potential as human beings.

She wrote several novels and essays, her best known publications are Sultana’s Dream (1905), Padmarag
(1924), Motichur (1903) and Abarodhbasini (1931). Sultana's Dream, written in English (to test her
proficiency in English), is a delightful ironical and satirical work set in Ladyland, where the men are in
curtain „purdah“ and the women go out and work.

An extraordinary novella with generous dashes of melodrama and romance, disasters and coincidences,
Padmarag, written in Bengali (1924) and translated here for the first time, describes a female-founded and
female-administered community set in contemporary Bengal, where women from diverse regions and
ethnicities, with unhappy histories of patriarchal oppression, better their lot by concrete social action. Both
Sultana' s Dream and Padmarag discuss in playful, fascinating, and intelligent ways the question of
women's education.

(A Western writer commented Rokey's feminist sentiments as follows)

"Feminism is indigenous in roots as opposed to foreign influence. Although male support of indigenous
feminist sentiments seems to be more common among the formally-educated (locally and abroad). Rokeya
herself says that if she had not had her brother and husband's support, she would not have been able to
write and contribute to the advancement of Muslim women in her country.

In the personal life of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, writing and activism were intertwined. The connection
between these has however increasingly become difficult in the world of academia."

Rokeya a pioneer of women’s liberation movement in undivided India. She did not reject veiling altogether
as she herself wore a veil. She advocated modesty and said that veiling should not be in a manner that
would hinder education for women. Her primary concern was formal education for women. For Rokeya,
women (veiled or unveiled) need to be self-sufficient. And in order to get support from men in her country,
she argued that women become better "home-managers" when educated. However, her ultimate goal was
that women, and particularly Muslim women in her country, would reach their fullest potentials as human
beings, would be able to pursue their own interests rather than relying on the men in their lives for their
well-being.
As it is often the case, feminist literature is used many times by male leaders not to advance women's
causes but to unite both sexes against colonial and imperialistic powers. Unfortunately for women, when
their country gains independence and the society reinstates its traditions, their interests once again get
relegated to the background. Subsequently, gender oppression, already present in customs, is reinforced.
No doubt, this sort of process was taking place during the partitioning of India in 1947, when Pakistan
gained its independent, and in 1971, when Bangladesh declared its liberty.

All through her life Rokeya wrote impassioned, highly intelligent polemics about the oppression,
discrimination, pain, and obstacles to development faced by women, both within her own community, and
by women belonging to all communities.

Recent publication in Germany:

December 2006: Bangladesh Study and Development Center in

Germany has published a book on Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain with the
title „Wie schamlos doch die maedchen geworden sind“ collection of
essays, articles and translations of contemporary writings of Rokeya.
Prof. Dr. Annette Kuhn of Bonn wrote an introductory article and Dr.
Golam Abu Zakaria edited the book in German. This is the second
initiative of Bangladesh Study and Development Center in Germany to
introduce such a widely regarded personality as Bengal’s earliest and
boldest feminist writer. (Previously they have published also a book on
Poet Nazrul Islam in German). This book on Begum Rokey sketch the
periods of life and thoughts of a brilliant Bengali Feminist writer, who
were far ahead in ideas and thoughts of her time. Bengali and German
authors wrote about her living and thinking and introduced a powerful
woman writer of the last century, still unknown in Europe.

Our Community Website: http://www.bangladeshonline.de/begum_rokeya.pdf