DHAKA: Bangladeshis marked Rokeya Day on Tuesday, remembering a 19th-century pioneer of women’s liberation and education in the Indian subcontinent and author of one of the world’s first feminist science-fiction utopias.
Begum Rokeya, also known as Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, was a writer and social reformer born on Dec. 9, 1880 in colonial India, in the Rangpur district of present-day Bangladesh.
Widely regarded as one of the earliest voices for women’s rights in South Asia, she is best known for her work promoting education.
“She went door to door to convince the guardians to send their girls to school. Nowadays, it seems very easy, but in the early 20th century, it was something beyond imagination,” said Afsana Rahman, a 21-year-old student at BRAC University.
She started reading Rokeya’s works at the age of 12, when the school authorities honored her as the best student with a set of books that included “Sultana’s Dream” — one of the world’s earliest works of feminist science fiction.
