Apart from the literary field, Ruqaiya also made direct, material contributions to the cause of women’s emancipation and education through the establishment of the Sakhwat Memorial Girls’ School. Formed shortly after her husband’s death, Ruqaiya used the institution to try to force Muslim families to school their girls. She went from house to house prosecuting the importance of female education for Muslims. This is particularly notable because many Muslim families of the time considered female education to be something humiliating due to misconceptions about the rules of behavior for Muslim girls. It was a rough start – there were only five students in her first class.
Ruqaiya also organized slum literary programs in Kolkata, teaching women living in these low-income areas to read and write. He also gave information about proper hygiene and child rearing. Later, she established an organization called Anjuman-e-Khatwatin-e-Islam, which solely worked for the education and empowerment of women. Till her last breath, Ruqaiya made sure that she lends a helping hand whenever there is an issue that curbs the rights of women.
However, while these facts of her life are known to many, we must ask – do we really respect Ruqaiya’s struggle to reshape a conservative society and the hard work involved? How many modern readers are actually sitting down to read his masterpieces?
Sadly, reciting Ruqaiya by someone appearing for grueling board exams actually triggers sweat-drenched flashbacks. Some of his writings were part of the syllabus, but instead of helping us understand the thought process and ideology of this pioneer of South Asian feminism, my fellow examinees were forced to memorize every word, mercilessly contradicting him . The way these lessons were taught to us crushed our enjoyment of reading. Once we managed to escape the burden of those exams, we were reluctant to resume Rokaiya’s work for fear of unpleasant memories.
But last month, when I read an article about how Penguin Classics is releasing new editions of Sultana’s Dreams and Padmarag, also available as an audiobook, I was inspired to re-evaluate how I read Rokeya. How did you see
