Feminist Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain lived a life of seclusion and oppression like many middle-class Muslim women in colonial India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this period, Rokeya used writing as a tool to fight against the oppression women faced from the patriarchal society and reimagined their gendered position in society. Rokeya wrote two novels, Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag, both set in feminist utopian societies. In these works, Rokeya expresses that the problem to the oppression of women can be traced to the purdah system or the seclusion of women, the solution is to grow educational opportunities for women, which could lead women to create the ideal feminist utopian society that prioritized greater equality for women. These works give a glimpse of women’s lives during this period and show writing allowed Rokeya to create a legacy as a feminist that envisioned an idealistic society for women.
","abstract_html":"<p>Feminist Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain lived a life of seclusion and oppression like many middle-class Muslim women in colonial India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this period, Rokeya used writing as a tool to fight against the oppression women faced from the patriarchal society and reimagined their gendered position in society. Rokeya wrote two novels, <em>Sultana’s Dream</em> and <em>Padmarag</em>, both set in feminist utopian societies. In these works, Rokeya expresses that the problem to the oppression of women can be traced to the <em>purdah </em>system or the seclusion of women, the solution is to grow educational opportunities for women, which could lead women to create the ideal feminist utopian society that prioritized greater equality for women. These works give a glimpse of women’s lives during this period and show writing allowed Rokeya to create a legacy as a feminist that envisioned an idealistic society for women.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Momin, Mashall"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Arts - History","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"History","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Dr. Aryendra Chakravartty","Dr. Court Carney","Dr. Robert Allen"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2021,"date_issued":"2021-12-10T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2021-12-10T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T04:30:37Z","subjects":["Asian History","History of Gender","Women's History"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/422","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Dr. Aryendra Chakravartty","Dr. Court Carney","Dr. Robert Allen"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Momin, Mashall"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2021-12-07T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Arts - History"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Asian History","History of Gender","Women's History"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/etds/422"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Feminist Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain lived a life of seclusion and oppression like many middle-class Muslim women in colonial India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this period, Rokeya used writing as a tool to fight against the oppression women faced from the patriarchal society and reimagined their gendered position in society. Rokeya wrote two novels, Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag, both set in feminist utopian societies. In these works, Rokeya expresses that the problem to the oppression of women can be traced to the purdah system or the seclusion of women, the solution is to grow educational opportunities for women, which could lead women to create the ideal feminist utopian society that prioritized greater equality for women. These works give a glimpse of women’s lives during this period and show writing allowed Rokeya to create a legacy as a feminist that envisioned an idealistic society for women.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["The Political Act of Writing Feminism- Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain and the Utopian Vision"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Dr. Aryendra Chakravartty","Dr. Court Carney","Dr. Robert Allen"],"dc:creator":["Momin, Mashall"],"dc:date.available":["2021-12-07T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Feminist Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain lived a life of seclusion and oppression like many middle-class Muslim women in colonial India during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. During this period, Rokeya used writing as a tool to fight against the oppression women faced from the patriarchal society and reimagined their gendered position in society. Rokeya wrote two novels, Sultana’s Dream and Padmarag, both set in feminist utopian societies. In these works, Rokeya expresses that the problem to the oppression of women can be traced to the purdah system or the seclusion of women, the solution is to grow educational opportunities for women, which could lead women to create the ideal feminist utopian society that prioritized greater equality for women. These works give a glimpse of women’s lives during this period and show writing allowed Rokeya to create a legacy as a feminist that envisioned an idealistic society for women.
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