Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe

Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880 – 1932) is the most prominent Muslim feminist writer from what is now Bangladesh and has huge posthumous public influence in the entire Muslim Bengal. During the time of her active creative career, British colonialism was at its height in India. British India was a conf...

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Main Author:	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
Format:	Conference or Workshop Item
Language:	English English
Published:	2012
Subjects:	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism PN0441 Literary History
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/2/mahmud_cert.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/4/rokeya__representation_of_europe_2nd_draft_4_sep_2012.pdf

id	iium-29780
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-297802017-10-13T07:34:13Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/ Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe Hasan, Md. Mahmudul PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism PN0441 Literary History Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880 – 1932) is the most prominent Muslim feminist writer from what is now Bangladesh and has huge posthumous public influence in the entire Muslim Bengal. During the time of her active creative career, British colonialism was at its height in India. British India was a confluence of Indian and European people and both the groups interacted with each other, albeit maintaining some distance given the prevailing colonial relations between them. As Muslims felt doubly dispossessed and subordinated by the colonial powers, compared to other religious communities, their engagement and interaction with the Europeans living in India at that time was minimum. However, although she experienced the obtrusive presence of colonial administrators and intellectuals in her country, she had the privilege of interacting with English people who were her civil servant husband’s colleagues in the bureaucracy even though the scope of the communication was restricted by the Indian notion of purdah and by the colonizer’s culture of maintaining distance from the colonized. Nevertheless, both the availability of English literary works and her familiarity with the British expatriates brought her in contact with European culture. From passing comments on European – especially British – society in her oeuvre, she moved on to interpretatively translate Marie Corelli’s The Murder of Delicia (1896) and creatively transformed its message to locate commonalities in women’s plight in England and in Muslim Bengal. Although Rokeya’s husband Sakhawat Hossain studied in England and many of her male, Hindu contemporary writers traveled to the metropolis, Rokeya never visited Europe. So her representation of Europe was mainly imaginary. In this study, I will discuss Rokeya’s imagined Europe and how she establishes a commonality between women of Muslim Bengal and those from England in order to dispel the widely-held perception that, unlike Muslim women, European women are fully empowered. Rokeya argues that women in both societies are subjugated by patriarchal power and thus she demystifies the presumed superiority of European women over their Muslim sisters in Bengal. 2012 Conference or Workshop Item NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/2/mahmud_cert.pdf application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/4/rokeya__representation_of_europe_2nd_draft_4_sep_2012.pdf Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (2012) Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe. In: Imaginary Europes, 13 September 2012, University of Portsmouth . (Unpublished)
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English English
topic	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism PN0441 Literary History
spellingShingle	PE English PI Oriental languages and literatures PN0080 Criticism PN0441 Literary History Hasan, Md. Mahmudul Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe
description	Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880 – 1932) is the most prominent Muslim feminist writer from what is now Bangladesh and has huge posthumous public influence in the entire Muslim Bengal. During the time of her active creative career, British colonialism was at its height in India. British India was a confluence of Indian and European people and both the groups interacted with each other, albeit maintaining some distance given the prevailing colonial relations between them. As Muslims felt doubly dispossessed and subordinated by the colonial powers, compared to other religious communities, their engagement and interaction with the Europeans living in India at that time was minimum. However, although she experienced the obtrusive presence of colonial administrators and intellectuals in her country, she had the privilege of interacting with English people who were her civil servant husband’s colleagues in the bureaucracy even though the scope of the communication was restricted by the Indian notion of purdah and by the colonizer’s culture of maintaining distance from the colonized. Nevertheless, both the availability of English literary works and her familiarity with the British expatriates brought her in contact with European culture. From passing comments on European – especially British – society in her oeuvre, she moved on to interpretatively translate Marie Corelli’s The Murder of Delicia (1896) and creatively transformed its message to locate commonalities in women’s plight in England and in Muslim Bengal. Although Rokeya’s husband Sakhawat Hossain studied in England and many of her male, Hindu contemporary writers traveled to the metropolis, Rokeya never visited Europe. So her representation of Europe was mainly imaginary. In this study, I will discuss Rokeya’s imagined Europe and how she establishes a commonality between women of Muslim Bengal and those from England in order to dispel the widely-held perception that, unlike Muslim women, European women are fully empowered. Rokeya argues that women in both societies are subjugated by patriarchal power and thus she demystifies the presumed superiority of European women over their Muslim sisters in Bengal.
format	Conference or Workshop Item
author	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_facet	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_sort	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
title	Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe
title_short	Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe
title_full	Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe
title_fullStr	Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe
title_full_unstemmed	Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe
title_sort	muslim bengal writes back: a study of rokeya’s representation of europe
publishDate	2012
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/2/mahmud_cert.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/29780/4/rokeya__representation_of_europe_2nd_draft_4_sep_2012.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:43:45Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:43:45Z
_version_	1777409537844707328

Muslim Bengal writes back: A study of Rokeya’s representation of Europe

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