Report

Prepared For:
Mr. Masood Imran
Lecturer, Department of History

North South University

Course Name: His 101
Section No: 21
Date of submission: 03/027/2020

Name: Jakaria Hossain Shajid

Id: 1621829030

Biography of Begum Rokeya Sakhawat

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, the legendary Bengali writer-activist whose management had
converted the lives of thousands of people in this vicinity and beyond, was born on this day in
1880. Incidentally, she died on the same day, fifty two years later. For these who may now not
know, Begum Rokeya used to be and suggest of women's rights in the Indian subcontinent in the
course of the British rule. Through her charismatic and resilient leadership, she defied all
obstacles put up by a society that barred female from pursuing their dreams. With a sound
understanding of the records of the region and the challenges facing the time and society in
which she lived, she was once a female a long way more superior and revolutionary than her
contemporaries. Through her writings, she raised her voice in opposition to the challenges and
had the imaginative and prescient for the emancipation of Bengali Muslim ladies at a time when
it used to be unthinkable for everyone to think so. She showed how a misinterpretation of Islam
and a deep-seated patriarchal mind-set in society mixed to preserve female behind doors, and
deprived of their rights. Begum Rokeya used to be born in a village called Pairaband in what is
now Rangpur. Her father was a well-educated landowner and had a keen activity in training but
maintained a strict rule of the Islamic code of pardah (veil) for the girls in the family. That is
why, whilst her brothers received the possibility of schooling, she was once disadvantaged of
education. Rokeya and her elder sister, Karimunnessa, were deeply fascinated in getting to know
Bengali and English. Their elder brother Ibrahim, who had a extremely good impact on their
lives, taught them the languages. They did that at night, whilst everybody else was asleep, so as
no longer to arouse anyone's suspicion. She acquired married at a very early age and had a huge
age difference with her husband, Khan Bahadur Sakhawat Hossain, then the deputy Justice of the
Peace of Bhagalpur. He, however, supported female education and helped his spouse enhance
her Bangla and English skills. Gradually, she mastered the two languages. Her husband
additionally stimulated her to write and Rokeya finally adopted Bangla as the principle language
of her writing. The position of these two guys in her lifestyles was crucial and wants to be
recognised, so that today's guys can recognize the importance of their very own position in the
transformation of the lives of girls in our society. Rokeya's writings mainly revolve round the
oppression of women. Prominent among her works are Sultanar Swapna (Sultana's Dream),
Padmarag, and Abarodhbasini. In 1905, she wrote Sultanar Swapna, one of the earliest
depictions of feminist utopia. In it, she depends on role reversal to show the society what ladies
are capable of if given the opportunity. In Abarodhbasini, she exhibits the absurdities of the
society, and in Padmarag, ladies are seen gathering the braveness to trade their lot by means of
turning into skilled and financially independent. Rokeya also wrote numerous different novels
and brief stories. She continually believed that ladies had been held again by using their lack of
knowledge of their very own rights and responsibilities. In 1909, she set up the Sakhawat
Memorial Girl's School without delay after her husband died, the first school for Muslim female
in the region, beginning with five students. She went from door to door, trying to persuade
Muslim families to allow their daughters to attend school. She ran a slum literary programmed in
Kolkata, forming work groups to visit female in the slums to teach them reading, writing, non-
public hygiene and toddler care. Begum Rokeya was a self-educated and self-reliant woman with
a revolutionary bent of mind. Her management accompanied the transformational feminist style
which is reflected in her works. Through her writings and activities, she dispatched a message to
the girls to put together themselves to declare their rights and privileges and to assist construct a
better, greater simply society. It is shocking that such a message would come from a younger
Muslim girl from the colonial Bengal. She was the first lady in her society to talk about gender
equality. She said, “We [women] represent one half of of the society, and if we are left behind,
how can the society progress?” She realized that lack of education and low stage of literacy make
access to possibilities limited, and often undermine the confidence wanted to enter public life, be
it in a village, or community, or at the country wide level. She raised her voice thru her writings
and labored difficult to uplift the lot of women, by means of instilling a feel of renaissance in
them and emboldening them to style freedom, swimming against the current of patriarchal social
views. Rokeya additionally recognized the importance of women's monetary independence. She
realized the significance of organized motion for trade and raising public awareness. In 1916, she
centered the Anjuman-e-Khawateen-e-Islam (Muslim Women's Society), an employer that was
at the forefront of the combat for women's education and employment. Its contributors
encouraged for women's criminal and political rights, subsidized women's attendance at school,
gave safe haven to orphans, and provided legal and monetary assistance to widows. It used to be
the cornerstone of the feminist motion in Bengal, and paved the way for the brilliant and
politically progressive feminist motion seen in present day Bangladesh.

Background and family

 Rokeya's childhood home in Pairaband, Rangpur.She was born in 1880 in Pairaband village.Her
father, Jahiruddin Muhammad Abu Ali Haidar Saber, used to be a zamindar. He married 4 times;
his marriage to Rahatunnessa resulted in the delivery of Rokeya, who had two sisters and three
brothers. Rokeya's eldest brother Ibrahim Saber, and her immediate elder sister Karimunnesa
Khanam Chaudhurani, both had a primary influence on her life. Karimunnesa wanted to learn
about Bengali, the language of the majority in Bengali people, against her family's wish who
preferred to use Arabic and Persian as the media of education. Ibrahim taught English and
Bengali to Rokeya and Karimunnesa.

Marriage
Sakhawat Hussain Rokeya married at the age of 18, in 1898 to 38-Year-old Khan Bahadur
Sakhawat Hussain. He was an Urdu-speaking Deputy magistrate of Bhagalpur. He earned his
bachelor of Agriculture diploma from England and was once a member of Royal Agricultural
Society of England. He married Rokeya after the demise of his first wife. As a liberal, he
inspired Rokeya to continue getting to know Bengali and English. He also encouraged her to
write, and on his advice, she adopted Bengali as the foremost language for her literary works.

Literary career

Rokeya launched her literary career in 1902 with a Bengali essay entitled Pipasa (Thirst). She
later published the books Matichur (1905) and Sultana's Dream (1908) before her husband died
in 1909. In Sultana's Dream, Rokeya wrote reversing the roles of guys and female in which girls
were the dominant sex and the guys have been subordinate. She additionally depicts an
alternative, feminist vision of science, in which inventions such as solar ovens, flying cars, and
cloud condensers are used to advantage the complete of society.It is considered as a incredible
and influential satire. She wrote typically for the Saogat, Mahammadi, Nabaprabha, Mahila,
Bharatmahila, Al-Eslam, Nawroz, Mahe Nao, Bangiya Musalman Sahitya Patrika, The
Mussalman, Indian Ladies Magazine and others.Five months after Rokeya's husband's death, she
set up a high school, naming it Sakhawat Memorial Girls' High School. It started out in
Bhagalpur, a historically Urdu-speaking area, with five students. A dispute with her husband's
family over property pressured her to move the college in 1911 to Calcutta, a Bengali-speaking
area.She ran the faculty for 24 years. Rokeya based the Anjuman-e-Khawateen-e-Islam (Islamic
Women's Association), which used to be active in retaining debates and conferences involving
the fame of girls and education. She endorsed reform, mainly for women, and believed that
parochialism and immoderate conservatism had been mainly accountable for the tremendously
slow improvement of Muslims in British India. Anjuman-e-Khawateen-e-Islam equipped
activities for social reforms primarily based on the original teachings of Islam that, in accordance
to her, were lost.

Literary style

Rokeya wrote a quantity of genres, quick stories, poems, essays, novels and satirical writings,
creating a one-of-a-kind literary style, characterized by way of creativity, logic and a wry sense
of humor. She began writing in the Nabanoor from about 1903, beneath the name of Mrs. R S
Hossain. However, there is an opinion that her first published writing Pipasa regarded in the
Nabaprabha in 1902. Her writings called upon girls to protest against injustices and break the
social boundaries that discriminated in opposition to them.

Death and legacy

Rokeya died of heart problems on 9 December 1932, on her 52nd birthday. 9 December is
celebrated as Rokeya Day in Bangladesh.