Begum Rokeya

Amrita Basu Roy Chowdhury

Dept. of Women’s Studies
Lady Brabourne College
Kolkata
(Minor 2/ Unit-4)
 Biographical Information
• Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (09 December 1880– 09 December 1932),
commonly known as Begum Rokeya,was a prominent Bengali feminist
thinker, writer, educator and political activist from British India. She is
widely regarded as a pioneer of women's liberation in Bangladesh and
India.
• Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain was born in present day Rangpur, Bangladesh.
Rokeya was a bright and lively child.
• Her father Zahiruddin Abu Ali Saber was a noble landowner. Begum
Rokeya’s mother was Rahatunnessa Saber Chaudhurani.
• The strictness of the social system prevalent in the society of that time
was fully present in her family, where female education was considered a
sin. Begum Rokeya didn’t get a formal education in that time’s
superstitious social and family environment.
 Biographical Information
• Although brought up in such a closed social environment, Begum
Rokeya could bring herself out of it because her thirst for knowledge
was infinite.
• She got immense support from elder brother Ibrahim Saber and sister
Karimunnessa in this regard. Ibrahim Saber taught Begum Rokeya with
great care and talked about various stories of the nation and abroad.
• In those days, child marriage was a common occurence, particularly for
girls between the ages of 12 to 18. The same was true for Rokeya and
her sister, who got married at the ages of 18 and 14 respectively.
• Unlike most women, however, Rokeya was fortunately blessed with a
supportive husband named Khan Bahadur Sakhawat Hossain, who was
the deputy magistrate of Bhagalpur.
 Biographical Information
• Despite Sakhawat and Rokeya's huge age gap of 20 years, he always made
sure to validate her feelings and took her desire for knowledge seriously.
• He encouraged Rokeya to learn Bangla and English, and she became an
erudite in the two languages. In addition, sensing potential in Rokeya,
Sakhawat also motivated her to start writing as a voice for women
empowerment and liberty. On his advice, she adopted Bengali as the
principal language for her literary works.
• Rokeya established a high school, naming it Sakhawat Memorial Girls' High
School in Bhagalpur, a traditionally Urdu-speaking area, with five students.
A dispute with her husband's family over property forced her to move the
school in 1911 to Calcutta, a Bengali-speaking area. She ran the school for
24 years.
• Rokeya founded the Anjuman-e-Khawateen-e-Islam (Islamic Women's
Association), which was active in holding debates and conferences
regarding the status of women and education.
 Contribution of Begum Rokeya as a Writer
• Rokeya's writing career mainly dissected by the issues women faced in
society and in their own household. Her prominent works include
Sultana's Dream (1908), set in a witty feminist utopia. It is a tale that
portrays a vision of role reversal, a vision of a strict dress code being
enforced upon men, while women dominate the economic and
commercial sectors of the Indian subcontinent. Another is Abarodh
Bashini (The Secluded Woman, 1931), which is a valiant censure on the
extreme levels of purdah that jeopardized women's lives and thoughts.
• Her major works include Matichur (A String of Sweet Pearls, 1904 and
1922), a collection of essays in two volumes expressing her feminist
thoughts.
• Padmarag written by Rokeya (Essence of the Lotus, 1924) depicts the
difficulties faced by Bengali wives during early 20th century.
 Begum Rokeya as a Social Reformer (Education)
• The idea of making female education a social norm was not so easy.
• As Rokeya's school for girls was the first one, she had to face an
abundance of people who wanted her to close down her school.
• However, unwavering from the beginning, Rokeya went from door to door
and tried persuading Muslim families to allow their daughters to go to
school.
• She also established a slum literary programme in Kolkata, where work
teams would visit women living in slums to teach them reading, writing,
personal hygiene and child care.
• Begum Rokeya in her significant work ‘Educational Ideals for
the Modern Indian’ mentioned, “Our girls should not only obtain
university degrees, but must be ideal daughters, wives and mothers, or I
may say obedient, loving sisters, dutiful wives and Instructive mothers.”
Begum Rokeya as a Social Reformer (Economy)
• Besides education, Begum Rokeya also understood the essence of
women's contribution to the economy.
• She realized that in order for Bengal to grow, it was necessary to
create assembled action for change with women involved.
• As a result, she established an organization called Anjuman-e-
Khawateen-e-Islam (Muslim Women's Society) in 1916, whose aim
was to advocate for women's political and legal rights, give shelter to
orphans, sponsor girls' attendance in schools, offer financial and legal
assistance to widows, etc.
• It was a linchpin to the feminist movement in Bengal, and paved the
path for the feminist movements that can be seen in Bangladesh
today.
 Begum Rokeya as a Social Reformer (Gender Equality)
• Begum Rokeya was the first woman in her society to highlight the issue of
gender inequality, and through her writing and social work, she passed a
message to the Bengali women to embark upon a journey of claiming their
rights and privileges.
• She realized that the low levels of female literacy would act as a barrier to
several life opportunities, and also erode the confidence needed to step into
public life. She toiled day and night to elevate the conditions of women, and
under her sprightly leadership, she was successful in implanting a feeling of
renaissance in women.
• Begum Rokeya often compared gender equality to the wheels of a cow cart.
She mentioned that a cow cart has two wheels, and in order for the cart to
move, both the wheels have to be equal in size and shape. Similarly, men and
women could just be like those wheels. If women are lagging behind men in
several aspects of life, then the society would never be able to make
progressive change.