Marking the ‘Rokeya Day’ today, popular recitation troupe Kanthoshilan will stage its new production titled ‘Mahisayi Rokeya’ based on Begum Rokeya’s life and works at the premises of Kanthoshilan, in the capital’s 222 New Elephant Road. Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, commonly known as Begum Rokeya, was a Bengali writer, thinker, educationist, social activist, and advocate of women’s rights. Born on December 9 in 1880 in  Mithapukur, Rangpur, Begum Rokeya died in 1932 on the same date December 9.
Every year to commemorate her works and legacy, Bangladesh observes December 9 as ‘Rokeya Day’. On that day, Bangladesh government also confers Begum Rokeya Padak on individual women for their exceptional achievement. In 2004, Begum Rokeya was placed at number 6 in the BBC’s poll of the greatest Bengali of all time.
The recital contains excerpts from a number of books on women’s empowerment penned by Begum Rokeya including Oborodhbashini, Motichur, Sultana’r Shopno, Chithi Patra, Paddaraag etc. Golam Sarwar, Kanthoshilon’s instructor has written and directed Mohiyoshi Rokeya.
The cast of the play includes Hasina Hasi, Ila Rahman, Khairun Nahar Snigdha, Raziya Sultana Mukta, Miftahul Jannat Nipun, Shirin Sultana Mithila and others.
Considered the pioneer feminist of Bengal she wrote novels, poems, short stories, science fiction, satires, treatises, and essays. Her major works include ‘Abarodhbasini’ a spirited attack on the extreme forms of purdah that endangered women’s lives and thoughts; ‘Sultana’s Dream’ a science fiction novella set in a place called Lady Land, a world ruled by women; ‘Padmarag’ (‘Essence of the Lotus’, 1924), another feminist utopian novel; ‘Motichur’, collection of essays in two volumes.