A BIOGRAPHY OF BEGUM ROKEYA

Because Rokeya had a struggling life in her childhood, was deprived of many basic rights like education, she could later understand the value and essence of all these. That is why she worked hard to improvise the society that she grew up in. 

Before talking about the education system for women, let us know how strictly Rokeya and women had to live their lives in that era, even in their own house. Sometimes, being born as an elite class is like a curse. Rokeya was brought up in the strictest form of Purdah as practiced by other elite Muslims of that time. From the age of five, she was prohibited from interacting with men or even women outside her family circle. In her book Aborodhbasini, she explained about this tight life. Whenever an unknown woman came to visit them, she had to go into hiding in her own home. In today’s world, can we imagine such a situation where we need to live like a thief in our own comfort zone called ‘home’?! In the same book, Rokeya wrote: The Purdah practice can be compared more accurately with the deadly carbonic acid gas. Since it kills without any pain, people get no opportunity to take precautions against it. Likewise, women in Purdah are dying bit by bit in silence from this seclusion ‘gas,’ without experiencing pain.  

If women had to face such circumstances just for living, we can predict how difficult it was for them to gain outer knowledge. Rokeya had broken all the walls and with her dedication and passion, learnt different languages.

Rokeya’s father did not want her daughters to learn Bengali because as her ancestors came from Iran, they used to prefer speaking Arabic, Persian or Urdu at home. They considered Bengali to be “non-Islamic” and a language used by “low-class Muslims. Also, though one of Rokeya’s father’s  4 wives was European, still he did not want her daughters to learn English. He believed English is the language of “non-believers”. 

Later, with the course of time, Rokeya became one of the greatest Bengali writers of all time. How was that possible? Well, as already mentioned, it was all due to the contributions of her sister, brother, and husband. 

In her essay “The Hidden Jewel” (Lukano Ratan), Rokeya recalled that she learned Bengali from her sister Karimunnesa, who learnt it from their brother Ibrahim. She used to motivate Rokeya to learn Bengali. Karimunnesa herself used to draw marks on the ground in their courtyard and thus learnt to write Bengali alphabets. Karimunnesa became a Bengali poet and is considered as the first female Muslim poet in Bengali language. 

To acknowledge the contribution of her sister, Rokeya dedicated the second volume of her book, Motichur (Sweet Globules) (1922), to Karimunnesa. 

Now, as already mentioned that Ibrahim taught his sisters English, how did he do so? Since he was a male, he got the opportunity to go to the prestigious St. Xavier’s College in Calcutta and later to England for studies. He learnt the English language from these. Also, because he was exposed to the modern and liberal education system, he became supportive of female education. He then decided to teach her sister the English language. 

All these examples show if there is a will, there is a way. If someone is determined enough to achieve something, he will do anything to gain it. 

However, though Rokeya, after her marriage, could achieve almost everything as per her desire, she could not find fulfillment as a mother. For a married woman, her life is considered ‘complete’ after she becomes a mother. Rokeya had given birth to two baby daughters but still destiny was not in favor of her. Both the children died at an early age; one at the age of five months and the other at four months. 

But this incompleteness in her life did not stop her from working for the betterment of the women in the society. Though she did not get any awards while alive, she kept working voluntarily for the world. She was acknowledged for her works after her death.