The enduring legacy of Begum Rokeya
The best way to
pay tribute to this great lady is to materialise her dreams
Begum Rokeya Day was observed all over the country yesterday marking the 138th birth and 86th death anniversaries of Begum Rokeya Shakhawat Hossain, the pioneer of womens rights in the subcontinent. Even 86 years after the death of the great lady, her legacy is as relevant as ever. In her writings, she advocated that both men and women should be treated equally as rational beings, and the lack of education is the main reason of womens lagging behind.
What makes Begum Rokeya unparalleled among all those who fought for womens rights is her indomitable, unswerving courage and sustained activism against the established system. For awakening the Muslim women from the slumber that the patriarchy imposed on them she walked from door-to-door and organised them under the banner of Anjuman-i-Khawatin-i-Islam (Islamic Sisters Group). Rokeya suggested that education of women is the foremost requisite of womens liberation; hence she established the first school named Sakhawat Memorial School for Girls aimed primarily at Bengali Muslim girls in Kolkata. Begum Rokeya was brought up in the strictest form of conservatism practiced by elite Muslims of the time. She was not only an intellectual force on behalf of rights of women but also an activist.
Negative attitude and hostility to female education on the basis of distorted interpretation of Islamic texts was overwhelming in the entire British India. She waged an all-out war against womens passivity, their confinement in the domestic enclosure, lack of access to educational opportunities, restrictions placed on their role in public life, and against the legal and social discriminations against them. The best way to pay tribute to this great lady is to materialise her dreams.
