LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 20:8 August 2020
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

Celebrate India!
Unity in Diversity!!

HOME PAGE

Click Here for Back Issues of Language in India - From 2001

BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD FREE!

REFERENCE MATERIALS

BACK ISSUES

  • E-mail your articles and book-length reports in Microsoft Word to languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.

  • PLEASE READ THE GUIDELINES GIVEN IN HOME PAGE IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE LIST OF CONTENTS.

  • Your articles and book-length reports should be written following the APA, MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.

  • The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.

Copyright © 2020
M. S. Thirumalai

Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
11249 Oregon Circle
Bloomington, MN 55438
USA
Custom Search

Feminist Thoughts of Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and
Sufia Kamal: A Comparative Study

Rashed Mahmud

Abstract

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and Sufia Kamal are two pioneering and revolutionary writers in the history of women’s rights movement of Bangladesh. They wrote and fought for women’s rights at such a time and social setting when women had no rights and opinions of their own, when they were not granted many basic human and civil rights with regard to men, when they had subjugated social status and for that reason the society was not willing to give them proper respect. Both of Rokeya and Sufia believed that through education, women would utilize their entire potentialities as human beings and reach their success without relying on men. However, even though Rokeya and Sufia advocated women’s education, they had no institutional education. Never having the scope for going to school, their self-education kindled their characters, from their childhood days, a spark of independence. The way Rokeya and Sufia dealt with the problems of women of their respective times and the diagnoses they made imply that they have many common areas enough to form a connection between their feminist thoughts. For this reason, in spite of having a clear gap in the times to which they belonged, the similarity of their thoughts and writings provides sufficient rationale to bring them under a study of comparison and contrast. The article attempts to make a comparative study on Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and Sufia Kamal with special emphasis on their thoughts on society and female education, contributions on the emancipation and empowerment of women, voice against communalism, role on the abolition of religious orthodoxy, and above all, their influence on the women’s rights movement of Bangladesh.

Keywords: Awareness, Female Education, Emancipation, Empowerment, Women’s Rights Movement

Introduction

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and Sufia Kamal are much discussed and highly esteemed names in Bangladesh nowadays. The more the question of women’s liberation is coming to the limelight, overcoming obstacles the more women are advancing to attain their rights, the more their names are being uttered. They were far advanced in their progressive ideas among the contemporaries of their society and played a significant role to free women from the age-old social bonds. As close observers of the society, they witnessed the untold sufferings of women and took pen to right the wrongs of the society.

Rokeya was born in 1880 in a village called Pairabondh, Rangpur. From the first decade of the twentieth century till her death, she worked for the society without any break. To free women from ignorance, illiteracy, suffering, disgrace, prejudices, narrow-mindedness, and seclusion, she appeared with courageous and progressive measures and with the messages of renaissance and regeneration. But in her short life, she could not complete her long cherished goal of women’s liberation. Yet the progress of women did not stop. After her death, being inspired with her ideals, many of her followers became able to play great roles in the emancipation movement. Among them, Sufia Kamal was the most distinguished one to take an active part to carry out Rokeya’s unfinished works. Some have called her “the successor of Begum Rokeya” (Begum 87). Sufia was born in 1911 at Shayestabad, Barisal.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Rashed Mahmud
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Pabna University of Science and Technology
Pabna - 6600, Bangladesh
rashed.sust07@gmail.com
Custom Search
  • Click Here to Go to Creative Writing Section

  • Send your articles
    as an attachment
    to your e-mail to
    languageinindiaUSA@gmail.com.
  • Please ensure that your name, academic degrees, institutional affiliation and institutional address, and your e-mail address are all given in the first page of your article. Also include a declaration that your article or work submitted for publication in LANGUAGE IN INDIA is an original work by you and that you have duly acknowledged the work or works of others you used in writing your articles, etc. Remember that by maintaining academic integrity we not only do the right thing but also help the growth, development and recognition of Indian/South Asian scholarship.