Sultana's Dream Feminist Criticism

Sultana’s Dream

By Rokeya Shekawat Hossein (1880-1932)

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain is a Bengali writer who was born in 1880. At as early as sixteen years old, she tied the knot with an older Deputy Magistrate of Bhagalpur. She exempted from going to school due to her background as a Bengali Muslim woman and lived a strict life where she secludes herself from non-kin men due to the religious and social practice custom. During late 19^th and early 20^th century, she is also known as a social activist in the British Bengal and also famous with her dissatisfaction with the continuous unjust authority, suppression and deprivation towards Muslim women specifically. She feels discontent with the unequal rights and privileges that are given to the women compared to the male due to the lame reason of religion. She found that this root cause of this misery is because of their social backwardness that cling to patriarchal tradition and  their misunderstanding of Islam. She has seen how women were falling due to the lack of exposure to modern education. Thus, this makes she felt the urge to lift women out of the darkness and ignorance. She expressed her dream for women through a short story called “Sultana’s Dream”.

Sultana’s dream was published in The Indian Ladies’ Magazine (a publication for modern Indian women), Madras, 1905 in English language. This story is one of the earliest examples of Feminist science fiction, tells a dream of a sultana, a female version of the sultan. One night, she falls asleep and woke up in a strange land. This land is called as ‘Lady Land’, a land where everything has changed as the gender structures are reversed. She sees females ruler and scientists while men live in purdahs and confined to Mardana. Despite being powerful, women still do their work while managing the country and do not go crazy. Instead of keeping on building military machines, the lady scientists focus on ways to harness rain from the sky and share energy from the sun. To sum up, this Lady Land has an amazing queen, who leads with the scientifically cultured mind.

Rokeya Hosain started to write Sultana’s Dream soon after she learned the English language. Even though girls during their time are not allowed to learn how to read, Rokeya and her sister, both showed a notable tendency at such an early age for education especially books and ideas. Her sister was even forced to drop the habit as it is considered as bringing shame to the family members. Rokeya’s marriage was decided by ‘love match’ and tied the knot with a progressive Bengali Muslim at the age of sixteen. Fortunately, her husband also supported the act of giving education to women and taught her English. Sultana’s Dream was written to impress her husband with her English’s skill when he was on a business trip. And she has succeeded. Her husband gave his thought on his wife’s writing as “A splendid revenge!”. Later, the story gets to be published in a Madras journal.