SULTANA'S DREAM by ROKHEYA SHEKHAWAT HOSSAIN

Rokeya Shekhawat Hossain, a Muslim feminist writer was born in 1880 in Bangladesh during the time of British colonial rule. She has to wear purdah, the strict rule practiced by the women those days believed that women need to be secluded from society. Other than known as a writer, she is also a social reformer, dedicated her life to education and the empowerment of women. Thus, she did not believe in the idea of seclusion of women in society. Going against the norm in society, lots of criticism that she had to go through but the support from her brothers and husband gave her strength to stay in her path and that inspire her to write more.

            Sultana’s dream is one of her famous work of feminism, was originally published in The Indian Ladies’ Magazine, Madras, in 1905, in English. The short story is about a feminist utopia, where women are the supreme and men are banished. The story is set in a ‘man-less’ world, the world that she created as opposed to the real world. In the story, man is consider shy and timid, “they mean that you are shy and timid like men.” Sultana, the main character of the story that had a dream entering the man-less world known as Ladyland, place that is free from sin and harm. She learned about the empowerment of women, that women can overpower men.

            The ‘man-less’ world in the story does not mean that the world that they are living is absence of men. There are still men there but got overpower by women, bring the idea of world can be ruled by women and that women do not need to be secluded from society because their capabilities are as men. “While women were engaged in scientific research, the men of this country were busy increasing their military power.” This line prove that men are still stronger than women physically, and that women can never empower them by force and strength, but brain, as there is saying in the story, “an elephant also has got a bigger and heavier brain than a man has. Yet man can enchain elephants and employ them, according to their own wishes.”

The objective of the story is to uplift the standard of women in society. One of the characters in the short story, Sara says, “Our good Queen liked Science very much. She circulated an order that all women in her country should be educated. Accordingly, a number of girls’ schools were founded and supported by the government. Education was spread far and wide among women. And early marriage also was stopped. No woman was to be allowed to marry before she was twenty-one. I must tell you that, before this change we had been kept in strict purdah.” From the excerpt, it is understood that the main purpose is to tell that women are capable to be successful in education and can contribute good values to the world if they are given the chance. She also critics the culture of early and arranged marriage that had been practiced for so many years by her people in the short story, saying that in Ladyland, that has been abandoned long time ago.

In conclusion, I personally believe in the idea of Sultana’s dream where women as illustrate by Rokheya Shekawat Hossain should be free in the city physically and mentally. In other words, they should have right to do and wear what they like and voice out their opinion on issues. Women were secluded in her time. It was a bit sad that the fact that being a Muslim cannot save the condition of women during that time. It should not have happened if justice that ben taught in Islam was to be implemented in the society.