Question

“It is often assumed that social reform for women‟s rights was entirely fought for by male reformers and that ideas of women‟s equality are alien imports.” Is this true or false? Give reasons for your answer.

Answer 1

The above statement is false. The contribution of eminent women leaders such as Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain who wrote Sultana’s Dream and Tarabai Shinde who wrote Stree Purusha Tulana.

Stree Purush Tulana (or Comparison of Men and Women) was written by a Maharashtrian housewife, Tarabai Shinde, as a protest against the double standards of a male dominated society. A young Brahmin widow had been sentenced to death by the courts for killing her newborn baby because it was illegitimate, but no effort had been made to identify or punish the man who had fathered the baby. Stree Purush Tulana created quite a stir when it was published.

Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain was born in a well-to-do Bengali Muslim family, and was lucky to have a husband who was very liberal in outlook and encouraged her education first in Urdu and later in Bengali and English. She was already a successful author in Urdu and Bengali when she wrote Sultana’s Dream to test her abilities in English.

It shows that these women played in challenging the prevalent gender roles and the status that women occupied in society at that time.